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NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY (RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

First Reading:

From: Genesis 3:9-15, 20

Temptation and the First Sin (Continuation)
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[9] But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" [10] And he said, "I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." [11] He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat?" [12] The man said, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." [13] Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I ate." [14] The Lord said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. [15] I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

[20] The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

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Commentary:

3:7-13. This passage begins the description of the effects of the original sin. Man and woman have come to know evil, and it shows, initially, in a most direct way--in their own bodies. The inner harmony described in Genesis 2:25 is broken, and concupiscence rears its head. Their friendship with God is also broken, and they flee from his presence, to avoid their nakedness being seen. As if his Creator could not see them! The harmony between man and woman is also fractured: he puts the blame on her, and she puts it on the serpent. But all three share in the responsibility, and therefore all three are going to pay the penalty.

"The harmony in which they found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered: the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions (cf. Gen 3:7-16), their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man (cf. Gen 3:17, 19). Because of man, creation is now subject 'to its bondage to decay' (Rom 8:21). Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will 'return to the ground' (Gen 3:19), for out of it he was taken. 'Death makes its entrance into human history' (cf. Roman 5:12)" ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 400).

3:14-15. The punishment God imposes on the serpent includes confrontation between woman and the serpent, between mankind and evil, with the promise that man will come out on top. That is why this passage is called the "Proto-gospel": it is the first announcement to mankind of the good news of the Redeemer-Messiah. Clearly, a bruise to the head is deadly, whereas a bruise to the heel is curable.

As the Second Vatican Council teaches, "God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word, (cf. In 1:3), provides men with constant evidence of himself in created realities (cf. Rom 1:19-20). And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation, by promising redemption (cf. Gen 3:15); and he has never ceased to take care of the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing (cf. Rom 2:6-7)" ("Dei Verbum", 3).

Victory over the devil will be brought about by a descendant of the woman, the Messiah. The Church has always read these verses as being messianic, referring to Jesus Christ; and it was seen in the woman the mother of the promised Savior; the Virgin Mary is the new Eve. "The earliest documents, as they are read in the Church and are understood in the light of a further and full revelation, bring the figure of a woman, Mother of the Redeemer, into a gradually clearer light. Considered in this light, she is already prophetically foreshadowed in the promise of victory over the serpent which was given to our first parents after their fall into sin (cf. Gen 3:15) [...]. Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert with Irenaeus in their preaching: 'the knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith' (St Irenaeus, "Adv. haer." 3, 22, 4) Comparing Mary with Eve, they call her 'Mother of the living' (St Epiphanius, "Adv. haer. Panarium" 78, 18) and frequently claim: 'death through Eve, life through Mary' (St Jerome, "Epistula" 22, 21; etc.)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 55-56).

So, woman is going to have a key role in that victory over the devil. In his Latin translation of the Bible, the "Vulgate", St Jerome in fact reads the relevant passage as "she [the woman] shall bruise your head". That woman is the Blessed Virgin, the new Eve and the mother of the Redeemer, who shares (by anticipation and pre-eminently) in the victory of her Son. Sin never left its mark on her, and the Church proclaims her as the Immaculate Conception.

St Thomas explains that the reason why God did not prevent the first man from sinning was because 'God allows evils to be done in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St Paul says, 'Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more' (Rom 5:20); and the "Exultet" sings, '0 happy fault,...which gained for us so great a Redeemer'" ("Summa Theologiae", 3, 1, 3 and 3; cf. "Catechism of the Catholic Church", 412).

3:21-24. Even after the fall, God still takes care of man. Man will continue to populate the earth, in spite of death, thanks to woman's role as mother. God comes to the rescue of man's nakedness, which made him feel so afraid and ashamed. Man's place in history emerges with his expulsion from paradise. He now knows good and evil; he is deprived of the happiness for which he was created and, with death as his fate, he yearns for the immortality which in fact belongs to God alone. This is the human condition; it affects everyone and its cause lies in sin. Thus, "we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected "the human nature" that they would then transmit "in a fallen state" (cf. Council of Trent, "De Peccato Originali"). It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called 'sin' only in an analogical sense: it is a sin 'contracted' and not 'committed'—a state and not an act" ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 404).

Or:

From: Acts 1:12-14

The Apostolic College
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[12] Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away; [13] and when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. [14] All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

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Commentary:

13-14. St Luke mentions the twelve Apostles by name, with the exception of Judas Iscariot.

This is the first passage which tells of the spiritual life and devout practices of the disciples. Significantly it places the emphasis on prayer, in keeping with our Lord's own practice and with his constant recommendation to his followers (cf. Mt 6:5, 14:23; ctc).

"Prayer is the foundation of the spiritual edifice. Prayer is all-powerful" (St J. Escriva, "The Way", 83). It can truly be said that prayer is the bedrock of the Church, which will be made manifest with the coming of the Holy Spirit. The prayer of the disciples, including the women, in the company of Mary would have been a supplication of entreaty and praise and thanksgiving to God. This union of hearts and feelings produced by prayer is a kind of anticipation of the gifts the Holy Spirit will bring.

"We are told this time and again in the passage narrating the lives of the first followers of Christ. 'All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer (Acts 1:14). [...] Prayer was then, as it is today, the only weapon, the most powerful means, for winning the battles of our interior struggle" (St J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 242).

Here we see Mary as the spiritual center round which Jesus' intimate friends gather: tradition has meditated on this "tableau", and found it to depict our Lady's motherhood over the whole Church, both at its beginning and over the course of the centuries.

On 21 November 1964, at the closing of the third session of Vatican II, Paul VI solemnly proclaimed Mary Mother of the Church: "Our vision of the Church must include loving contemplation of the marvels which God worked in his holy Mother. And knowledge of the true Catholic doctrine about Mary will always be the key to correct understanding of the mystery of Christ and of the Church.

Reflection on the close ties linking Mary and the Church, so clearly indicated by the present constitution ["Lumen Gentium"], allows us to think this is the most appropriate moment to satisfy a desire which, as we pointed out at the end of the last session, many council Fathers have made their own, calling insistently for an explicit declaration during this council of the maternal role which the Blessed Virgin exercises towards the Christian people. To this end we have considered it opportune to dedicate a title in honor of the Virgin which has been proposed in different parts of the Catholic world and which we find particularly touching, for it sums up in a wonderfully succinct way the privileged position which this council has recognized the Blessed Virgin to have in the Church.

"And so, for the glory of the Virgin and for our consolation, we proclaim Mary Most Holy to be the Mother of the Church, that is, Mother of the entire people of God, faithful as well as pastors, who call her loving Mother, and we desire that from now on she be honored and invoked by the entire people of God under this most pleasing title."

The text makes reference to Jesus' "brethren", an expression which also appears in the Gospels. Given that the Christian faith teaches us that the Virgin Mary had no children other than Jesus, whom she conceived by the action of the Holy Spirit and without intervention of man, this expression cannot mean that Jesus had blood brothers or sisters.

The explanation lies in the peculiarities of Semitic languages. The word used in the New Testament translates a Hebrew term which applied to all the members of a family group and was used for even distant cousins (cf. Lev 10:4) and for nephews (Gen 13:8). See note on Mt 12:46-47. In the New Testament then; the word "brethren" has a very wide meaning--as happens, also, for example, with the word "apostle."

At one point Jesus describes those who hear and keep his word as his "brethren" (Lk 8:21), which seems to imply that, in addition to meaning belonging to the same family group, the word "brother" in the New Testament may be a designation for certain disciples who were particularly loyal to our Lord.

St Paul, for his part, uses this term for all Christians (cf., for example, 1 Cor 1:10; etc), as does St Peter, according to Acts 12:17.