At the Wedding at Cana, Jesus says to Mary: “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4)????????
And from the Cross, in His final moments: “Woman, behold your son!” (John 19:26)
Why “Woman” and not “Mother”?
Because Jesus was intentionally pointing back to the very beginning, to Eve, the first woman.
In the Garden of Eden, Eve (the woman) listened to the serpent and brought sin and death into the world through disobedience.
But Mary, the New Eve, listened to the angel and said, “Let it be done to me according to your word” bringing the Savior into the world through perfect obedience.
When Jesus calls Mary “Woman,” He is declaring:
“Here is the New Eve. Through you, the woman, redemption begins.”
Just as Eve was the mother of all the living in the old creation, Mary becomes the spiritual mother of all the living in the new creation. At the Cross, Jesus gives her to us as our Mother when He says to the beloved disciple (and to all of us): “Behold your mother.”
This is why the Church has always honored Mary, not instead of Jesus, but because of Jesus. She is the perfect model of faith, the woman who crushed the serpent’s head by her “yes” to God.
