A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture/Part 1/Chapter 4-2
Chapter IV.
PART II.
GOD’S PUNISHMENT AND CURSE.— PROMISE OF A REDEEMER.
[Gen. 3, 14—24.]
THEN God said to the serpent[1]: Because thou hast done this thing[2], thou art cursed [3] among all the beasts of the earth. Upon thy breast shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put enmities[4] between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt He in wait for her heel.”
To Eve[5] He said: “In sorrow and pain shalt thou bring forth thy children. Thou shalt be subject[6] to thy husband, and he shall have dominion[7] over thee.” And to Adam[8] He said: “Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth[9] in thy work, with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. In the sweat[10] of thy face thou shalt eat bread, till thou shalt return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken; for dust [11] thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.”
Then “the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them. . . . And He cast Adam out of the paradise of pleasure and placed before it Cherubim[12] and a flaming sword, turning every way to keep the way of the tree of life”.
COMMENTARY.
God is the very Truth. He had threatened Adam and Eve with death if they ate of the forbidden fruit, and what He threatened was brought to pass. Of His mercy, Almighty God did not make our first parents die immediately, for they were not hardened in sin, and were capable of amendment; but, all the same, from that moment their bodies lost the supernatural gift of immortality, and their souls lost that grace which was their life.
The Justice of God. The punishment of Adam and Eve reveals to us the infinite justice of God. Their sin is the sin of the whole human race; therefore, the evil consequences of their sin have passed down to all mankind. We are by birth “children of wrath” (Eph. 2, 3). The image of God is defaced in each one of us. Our reason is obscured, our will is weakened, and the lusts of the flesh refuse to obey the spirit. We are all subject to suffering and death, and no one could attain to heaven, if our divine Redeemer had not died for us. — Think of the many passions which hold sway over man! Think of the countless diseases to which he is prone; the countless tears which are shed by him! Think of the bitter pangs of the dying; and of the terrible disasters by fire, water and earthquake! All this is the consequence of sin. How terrible , then , is the justice of Almighty God!
Sin is the greatest of all evils, for all other evils came into the world by sin.
Pride comes before the fall. Adam and Eve having sinned through pride, were humbled by the degrading sentence: “Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.”
The first promise of the Messias. Before Almighty God drove our first parents out of paradise into the misery of the outside world, He gave them the promise of a Redeemer. The thought that by their sin they had condemned themselves to misery in this world and eternal ruin in the next, would have driven them to despair, had not God awakened in their hearts the hope of a coming Saviour. The curse pronounced on the infernal serpent contained a consolation for fallen man. The words: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman &c.”, told Adam and Eve that sin and the devil would be overcome some day, and that the gates of the heavenly paradise would be thrown open to them. We can see by this how merciful God was even to fallen man. “The Lord is gracious and merciful, patient and plenteous in mercy” (Ps. 144, 8). God punishes man in mercy, and imposes temporal punishments on him, so as to save his soul and make him eternally happy.
The penalties of sin are also its remedies. Work, whether mental or physical, keeps evil desires and passions at bay. If men were not obliged to work, they would live more in accordance with their bad passions, and evil would be rampant. “Idleness hath taught much evil” (Ecclus. 33, 29). Furthermore, if there were no pain or death, men would sink into mere sensuality, would not trouble themselves about eternity, and would quite forget their higher destiny. Sickness and death are always preaching thus to us: “All earthly things pass away; take heed for the affairs of your soul!” On Ash-Wednesday the Church reminds us in an especial manner that we are but dust and ashes, and that we shall surely die.
Adam, a type of Jesus Christ (Rom. 5, 14). Adam is the father of all men according to the flesh; Jesus Christ is the spiritual Father of the faithful, for through Him alone do they receive life. Through Adam sin and death came to all men; through Jesus Christ we have received grace and eternal life. Sin and misery came into the world by Adam’s disobedience; but our redemption has been wrought by Jesus Christ, who became obedient even unto the death of the Cross.
Eve, a type of our Lady. Eve consented to sin; Mary consented to redemption, by consenting to become the mother of the Redeemer. Eve, by her sin, brought misery on mankind; Mary, through her Son, has brought salvation. Eve was, in a natural sense, the mother of the living; Mary is so in a supernatural sense.
The Immaculate Conception. Mary trampled under foot the infernal serpent, not only by giving birth to the divine Saviour, but also by this, that she was always free from the stain of sin, even of original sin. Had she, like the rest of mankind, come into the world with the stain of original sin on her, she would have been, for a time, under the dominion of Satan, and her victory over him would not have been complete. Therefore God, by a special grace, and in view of the merits of her divine Son, preserved her whom He had chosen to be that Son’s mother from the taint of original sin.
Why did not God cast Adam and Eve straight into hell, as he did the fallen angels? Because, firstly, their sin, grievous as it was, was not so great as that of the rebellious angels, the angels being richer in grace and knowledge than were Adam and Eve; and moreover, the fact of the fall of these last having been caused by the deception of Satan, was in some measure an excuse for them. Secondly, our first parents were not hardened in sin, but confessed their guilt and repented of it.
Adam and Eve not eternally lost. They received pardon on account of their belief in the future Saviour; and, on account of their repentance and long life of expiation, were delivered from Limbo by our Lord, and taken by Him to heaven. In the Book of Wisdom (io, 2) it is expressly said that the divine wisdom “drew him (Adam) out of sin”.
The curse which, as a consequence of sin, rests on irrational creatures, is removed by the blessing which the Church, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, bestows on natural objects.
Unworthy Communion. Adam and Eve, being in a state of sin, did not dare to eat of the fruit of the tree of life; for, had they done so, they would have been eternally damned. He who receives the Blessed Sacrament (which is prefigured by the tree of life) in a state of sin, draws damnation on himself.
Application. Sin is the greatest of all evils, and the source of all other evils. You are afraid of lesser evils, such as sickness, danger, or death; why are you so little afraid of the greatest of all evils? Guard against sin, for it leads to sorrow and misery. If you do right, you will have a joyful spirit, a good conscience, and peace and happiness in your innocent heart. But if you do wrong, your heart will be unhappy and uneasy, and the pains of remorse and fear will pursue you, as they pursued Adam and Eve after the fall. Therefore, set enmity between yourself and sin; detest it and flee from it. And often pray devoutly thus: ‘‘Deliver us from evil, from the greatest of all evils, sin!”
- ↑ To the serpent. Adam had laid the blame on Eve; and she had excused herself by pleading the deception of the serpent. As a matter of fact, all three were guilty, and on that account God pronounced sentence on each of them. He 'began, it is true, by the serpent who had beguiled the woman; He then proceeded to the woman who had led Adam into sin; and finished with Adam himself. The devil had received his supreme punishment when he was cast down into hell with the other fallen angels; but, because he had deceived man and cheated him out of his happiness, God cursed him anew and with him cursed the serpent which had been his instrument.
- ↑ This thing, i. e. because you seduced Eve by your lies and deceit.
- ↑ Cursed. The language of the divine sentence applies immediately to the actual serpent which was the devil’s tool. Being cursed by God, it is hated by man on account of its creeping, cunning, and poisonous ways. But in reality the words apply principally to the devil, and signify that he and his followers would be degraded below all other creatures, and would crawl in the filth of sin and base passions, these being, as it were, the very breath of their life.
- ↑ Put enmities. These clauses are directed only against the invisible and infernal serpent, the devil. Satan had hoped that once he had succeeded in separating man from God, man would make friends with him, serve him, and remain in his
power. But, instead of this, God announced that his very punishment would lie
in being overcome by the woman. The seed of the devil are all those who are
born in sin and give themselves over to sin. The seed of the woman is the
divine Saviour who as Man was descended from her. She, therefore, would tread
on the head of Satan, would trample him under foot and overcome him, taking
away from him his power over man. But the serpent, i. e. the devil, would
resist, and seek to injure the woman. He would not, however, materially injure
her , but would lie in wait for her heel; in other words , he would prepare
sufferings for her, but would not overcome her. — Mary has overcome the devil
through her Son , our divine Redeemer , who has saved first of all her from
original sin [Immaculate Conception], and next the whole world from original and
actual sins and from the power of Satan. But how, then, has the infernal serpent
wounded her heel? The devil caused our Lord much suffering. He it was who
prompted Judas to betray his Master. He it was who incited the Jewish priests
and Pharisees to cry out: Crucify Him, crucify Him! The devil did this, and
yet it is by our Lord’s very death on the Cross that the devil has been overcome
and the world redeemed!
- ↑ To Eve. The sentence of punishment which Almighty God pronounced on Eve did not apply only to her, but to all women after her.
- ↑ Subject. Eve was subject to Adam before the fall, as a wife must always be to her husband. But this subjection only implied good order, not any hardship or any abuse on the part of man. It was different after the fall. Subjection became servitude and liable to all sorts of abuses.
- ↑ Dominion. Among pagans women were and still are very degraded, and cruelly treated. It is only since the Incarnation and the rise of Christianity that the treatment of women has improved.
- ↑ To Adam. The sentence that now follows was pronounced on Adam and all men after him.
- ↑ Cursed is the earth. Adam, the lord of the earth, having sinned, the curse upon him extended to all nature. As a consequence of the curse, the beasts which, before the fall, were attached to man, have become either shy and intractable, or positively ferocious towards him. Even the elements and forces of nature are very often hostile to him, and destroy the work of his hands. Moreover, the devil has obtained a certain dominion over them , and can injure man through them.
- ↑ In the sweat, i. e. it will be only by the most severe toil that you will be able to obtain bread, or, in other words, what is necessary for the life of yourself and your family. Thoms, thistles, and all kinds of weeds grow naturally from the earth, but com, which is the chief staple of man’s food, can only be made to grow by means of the cultivation bestowed by man on the ground; and this cultivation requires very severe toil.
- ↑ Dust. Man’s body is made of the earth. The name Adam means “made of earth”. He lost the gift of the immortality of the body when he lost sanctifying grace. From henceforth his body was to be subject to death and to the diseases which are the precursors of death. When he dies, his body turns to dust, mingling itself with the earth.
- ↑ Cherubim. Angels of one of the higher degrees, who were to prevent Adam and Eve from attempting to return to fetch of the fruit of the tree of life. If they had partaken of this means of immortality in a state of sin, it could only have brought them damnation.