Early Christian writers were quick to make a connection between Eve and Mary. St. Paul teaches us that Jesus is the new Adam, healing and perfecting everything lost in the fall of the first Adam.
But just as the fall began with a woman’s disobedience to God, the liberation of humanity begins with a woman’s obedience to God. Mary was not forced to carry the Christ Child. She freely accepted this calling: “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it happen to me as you have said.” Thus, Mary is the new Eve, the mother of the “new man”—humanity restored to glory and eternal life by Jesus her son.
There is a wonderful symmetry to this. The fall of humanity required the participation of both genders, male and female. It was not complete until both Adam as well as Eve took part in the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Likewise, both genders take part of the world’s salvation.
The tears of Eve are wiped away by the steadfast love of Mary who crushes the power of the evil one by giving birth to God incarnate.