bstricklin:
My question is how can this woman be Mary when the Early Church Fathers wrote that Mary suffered no labor pains in giving birth to Jesus…?
You are correct in stating that several Fathers, like Ambrose, believed that Mary did not have labor pains when Jesus was born. It should be noted that some of these Fathers did believe that the pains Mary escaped at birth she had at the Cross while she witnessed the Sacrifice (Ambrose, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Chapter XIV; Gregory of Nyssa, On the Song of Songs, 13; among others). For it was at the Sacrifice on the Cross that all men where drawn to Christ; men became sons of God. It was also when Christ gave Mary as our Mother (John 19:26, 27). Thus, this image of Mary in Revelation may be representing various aspects: the New Eve, the spiritual Motherhood, the Assumption, etc. At the Cross, Mary gave birth to the rest of the Body of Christ (the Church) in pain.
This passage of Revelation uses Greek terms that are not used elsewhere in the New Testament to describe labor pains. These pains reveal an intensity of suffering. The New Testament uses the metaphor of labor pains as an imagery for spiritual suffering (Matthew 24:3-14; Mark 13:5-13; Galatians 4:19; Romans 8:22; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-10). Thus some theologians have rightfully seen Mary in her aspect of Co-Redemptrix (New Eve) in this verse. Revelation 12 portrays Mary as the New Eve by reflecting back on Genesis 3. [Revelation 12 recalls the woman, the man, and the serpent which were all part of the first conflict. Instead of the human fall, Revelation 12 speaks of the angelic fall.] As it was the mission of the Son to suffer for the sins of mankind and offer Himself as a Sacrifice to appease His Father, so the New Eve’s function was to facilitate and aid the New Adam in His mission. This is further emphasized by the fact that the Son is described as an immolated lamb throughout the book of Revelation (Revelation 1:7; 5:6, 12; 13:8) which refers to His sacrificial act. Furthermore, this recalls to mind the prophecy of Simeon, in the book of Luke (2:35), which records that Mary would ‘also’ suffer with the Son.
The Fathers that believed Mary had no labor pains usually cited Isaiah 66:7, 8: "Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things?” The passage would seem to suggest that pain could have come anytime after the birth (“before her pain came”) but not before the birth.
Although the Church has never pronounced the belief as dogma, some Popes have held it privately: Pope Alexander III in AD 1169 wrote “Mary conceived without shame, gave birth without pain, and has departed from earth without undergoing the corruption of the tomb, thus proving - according to the word of the angel - that she was full of grace and nothing less” (Denzinger 748).
