What Eve Teaches Us about the Feminine Genius

Lessons from Eve (and the New Eve) about Womanhood

To be honest, when I first thought about what I was going to write for this article, I wasn’t quite sure what to say. How does our first mother, the woman who helped bring original sin into this world, reflect what Pope John Paul II calls ‘the feminine genius’? How does she represent the best in women while at the same time being famous for the Fall? However, this became clear to me when I looked at Pope John Paul II’s Letter to Women and how he talks about the concept of the feminine genius.

First, however, let’s look at the creation accounts in Genesis. There are two creation stories spanning the first two chapters of Genesis. Woman plays a role in both stories, but she has a more prominent place in the second creation account. The second story places the creation of man as one of God’s first creative actions, and he makes the Garden of Eden for man to till. However, it is clear that creation is still incomplete; God Himself says, “‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him”’ (Genesis 2:18). God then places other creatures like birds and cattle in the garden, but they were not enough to fulfill him. Even from the beginning of time, we were made for human relationship. However, for this relationship to be authentic, it must be selfless.

We see this gift of self-sacrifice and love played out in the following verses; God places Adam in a ‘deep sleep’ so he can create woman. A few years ago I went to a talk about Christian anthropology, and the speaker said something about this topic that has always stuck with me. He said that the ‘deep sleep’ of Adam that makes the creation of women possible can be compared to death. Through Adam’s entering into the deep sleep akin to death, Adam entrusts his body to God, showing his willingness to give up himself for God’s plan. Embedded into the order of creation is the self-sacrifice of man on behalf of woman, and out of this self-sacrifice comes the beauty of companionship and the potential for new life.¹

This beautiful analogy is even more impactful when you consider that Eve was made from Adam’s rib. In the Ignatius Study Bible, the footnote on the verse where this happens notes that the creation of woman out of Adam’s rib is significant because it reflects the equality of man and woman. Eve was not made out of Adam’s head or feet. Instead, by the creation of woman out of man’s rib, she stands side-by-side with him in dignity (Catechism of the Catholic Church 369, 371).

When Adam wakes from his sleep, the first thing he does when he sees Eve is rejoice at the sight of her. He exclaims, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh’. Adam recognizes that he, as well as the rest of creation, are now complete. It is important to note that Eve’s position of last in creation does not mean that she is an afterthought or lower than man. Rather, she is the ‘crown of creation’, the missing piece of the puzzle that makes sense out of man’s life and the whole order of creation. Without Eve, creation is inarguably lacking; the possibility of new life does not exist without women according to God’s design.

Eve’s role in creation is equally self-sacrificial as Adam’s, and this is where the beauty of the feminine genius comes into play. Pope John Paul II writes that the feminine genius is that of women’s service to others. In a particularly beautiful passage of his Letter to Women, he says, ‘For in giving themselves to others each day women fulfil their deepest vocation. Perhaps more than men, women acknowledge the person, because they see persons with their hearts…they try to go out to them and help them’ (Letter to Women, paragraph 12). Eve was created to be a helper for Adam, to be his support in everything he did. This does not mean that women are inferior to men or that our vocation isn’t equally important. Rather, the unceasing service of women to their husbands, children, communities, and beyond is necessary for the flourishing of men, just as men are necessary for women’s flourishing.

Eve is the model of this idea before the Fall. Before sin entered the picture, she found her fulfillment and purpose in helping Adam with tilling and keeping the garden. But how do we think of Eve and her role once she and Adam sin against God? It is the same, but imperfect and marked by suffering. The bearing of children, the greatest sign of self-sacrifice and service, is now difficult and painful. Moreover, the perfect relationship she once shared with Adam now has the potential for misuse, abuse, and suffering because of sin. Suddenly Eve’s vocation is both her purpose and her greatest trial.

However, the coming of Christ through the Blessed Virgin Mary shows us how the struggles that Eve introduced become our redemption. Through Mary’s yes to God’s plan, she models for us a heroic act of self-sacrifice; she opens herself up to ridicule and mistreatment as an unmarried woman in order to bring Jesus into the world. As the New Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary models for us what it truly means to live for others as a woman.

As Pope John Paul II writes,

She who was, in all her being, a gift for her Son, has also become a gift for the sons and daughters of the whole human race, awakening profound trust in those who seek her guidance along the difficult paths of life on the way to their definitive and transcendent destiny. (Letter to Women, paragraph 10)

Mary the New Eve, pray for us!

1. Interestingly, early Church Fathers such as St Ambrose of Milan and Tertullian compare Adam’s deep sleep for the creation of Eve to Christ’s death on the Cross in order to bring the Church into being.