English:
11. In the salvific design of the
Most Holy Trinity, the mystery of the Incarnation constitutes the superabundant
fulfillment of the promise made by God to man after original sin, after that
first sin whose effects oppress the whole earthly history of man (cf. Gen.
3:15). And so, there comes into the world a Son, “the seed of the woman” who
will crush the evil of sin in its very origins: “he will crush the head of the
serpent.” As we see from the words of the Protogospel, the victory of the
woman’s Son will not take place without a hard struggle, a struggle that is to
extend through the whole of human history. The “enmity,” foretold at the
beginning, is confirmed in the Apocalypse (the book of the final events of the
Church and the world), in which there recurs the sign of the “woman,” this time
“clothed with the sun” (Rev. 12:1).
. . .
24. Thus we find ourselves at the
very center of the fulfillment of the promise contained in the Proto-gospel:
the “seed of the woman … will crush the head of the serpent” (cf. Gen. 3:15).
By his redemptive death Jesus Christ conquers the evil of sin and death at its
very roots. It is significant that, as he speaks to his mother from the Cross,
he calls her “woman” and says to her: “Woman, behold your son!” Moreover, he
had addressed her by the same term at Cana too (cf. Jn. 2:4). How can one doubt
that especially now, on Golgotha, this expression goes to the very heart of the
mystery of Mary, and indicates the unique place which she occupies in the whole
economy of salvation? As the Council teaches, in Mary “the exalted Daughter of
Sion, and after a long expectation of the promise, the times were at length
fulfilled and the new dispensation established. All this occurred when the Son
of God took a human nature from her, that he might in the mysteries of his
flesh free man from sin.”
Latin:
11. In salvifico Sanctissimae Trinitatis consilio mysterium
Incarnationis est impletio
superabundans promissionis, quam Deus fecit hominibus, post peccatum originale, post illud primum peccatum, cuius effectus
totam gravant hominis historiam super terram (cfr. Gn 3:15). Ecce, Filius venit in mundum, « germen mulieris », quod
peccati malum radicitus « profiigavit »: « Conteret caput serpentis ». Ut patet
ex verbis Protoévangelii, Filii mulieris victoria non fiet sine aspero
certamine, quod totam hominis historiam super terram pervadit. « Inimicitia »,
initio praenuntiata (cfr. Gn 3:15), inApocalypsi confirmatur, quae est
quodammodo « liber novissimarum rerum » Ecclesiae et mundi, ubi denuo apparet
signum « mulieris », nunc « amictae sole » (Apc
12:1).
. . .
24. In media ideo versamur impletione promissionis, quam
protoévangelium complectitur: « semen illius » « conteret caput » serpentis
(cfr. Gn 3:15). Sua enim redemptrici
morte Christus vicit malum peccati mortisque in ipsis eius radicibus. Magnum quiddam est quod, e Crucis elatiore
loco ad matrem conversus, eam « mulierem » appellat et dicit: « Mulier, ecce
filius tuus ». Eodem nomine est ceterum eam etiam in Cana Galilaeae allocutus
(cfr. Io 2:4). Quis igitur dubitare
potest nunc praesertim in Golgotha hanc locutionem permeare in altissimum
Mariae mysterium eiusque ad unicum locum pertingere, quem obtinet in universa salutis ̊economia? Quemadmodum docet
Concilium, cum Maria « praecelsa Filia Sion, post diuturnam exspectationem
promissionis, complentur tempora et nova instauratur Oeconomia, quando Filius
Dei humanam naturam ex ea assumpsit, ut mysteriis carnis suae hominem a peccato
liberaret »
