Eastertide #26: Sunday 5 of 7, a Mother’s Day riddle.

Through Christ’s death he destroyed

the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.

(Hebrews 2:14)

On the Cross, Satan meets his end. It’s a riddle of two mothers: Eve “the mother of all living” (Gn 3:20), and Mary “the mother of our Lord” (Lk 1:43). It has to do with that mysterious curse that God put on Satan which ends with a promise that what he did with Eve will recoil back on him through another Woman whose son, though wounded, will end up crushing Satan’s head (Gn 3:15). I suppose those who knew the riddle, looked on every woman and every birth with wonder—could this be the Woman? Could this be the Birth? That’s how we get to Christmas.

From this riddle, the church imagined that Satan has a claim on us. On the Cross, the ransom is paid to Satan for our liberation. However, because of the riddle, the ransom story does not end there. Satan didn’t know about Easter Morning. Christ’s resurrection fulfills the promise by crushing Satan’s head thus destroying death, sin, and the devil.

Maybe the Cross works something like that. We are not told how it works; only, that it works to free us from sin and the Law, from death and the devil; and, liberate us for eternity.