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From: Genesis 3:9-24

Temptation and the First Sin (Continuation)

[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 of 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 God 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."

[16] To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you. [17] And to Adam he said, "Because you have
listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I
commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of
you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; [18] thorns and thistles
it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. [19] "In the
sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of
it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

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

Adam and Eve are Expelled from Paradise

[21] And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins,
and clothed them.

[22] Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us,
knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of
the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"--[23] therefore the Lord God
sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was
taken. [24] He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he
placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard
the way to the tree of life.

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. Rom 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. Jn 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).

3:16. Turning to the woman, God tells her what effects sin is going to have
on her, as a mother and a wife. The pain of childbirth also points to the
presence of physical pain in mankind, as a consequence of sin. Sin is also
the cause of disorder in family life, especially between husband and wife:
the text expressly instances a husband's despotic behavior towards his wife.
Discrimination against women is here seen as the outcome of sin; it is
something, therefore, that the Bible regards as evil. Sin is also the reason
why people fail to appreciate the dignity of marriage and the family--a
widespread failing denounced by the Second Vatican Council: "the dignity
of these partnerships is not reflected everywhere, but is overshadowed by
polygamy, the plague of divorce, so-called free love, and similar blemishes:
furthermore, married love is too often dishonored by selfishness, hedonism,
and unlawful contraceptive practices. Besides, the economic, social,
psychological, and civil climate of today has a severely disturbing effect
on family life" ("Gaudium Et Spes", 47).

3:17-19 The effects of sin that man is warned about are closely connected
with his God-given mission--to till and keep the garden, or, to put it another
way, to master the earth by means of his activity, work. The harmony
between man and nature has been shattered through sin: from now on man
is going to find work burdensome and it will cause him much distress. Thus,
the effects of sin are all the various kinds of injustice which are to he found
in the world of work and in man's control over the goods of the earth. God
meant the earth and all that it contains benefit all mankind, but what in fact
happens is that "in the midst of huge numbers deprived of the absolute
necessities of life there are some who live in riches and squander their wealth;
and this happens in less developed areas as well. Luxury and misery exist
side by side. While a few individuals enjoy an almost unlimited opportunity
to choose for themselves, the vast majority have no chance whatever of
exercising personal initiative and responsibility, and quite often have to live
and work in conditions unworthy of human beings" (Vatican II, "Gaudium Et
Spes", 63)

The consequences of sin will stay with man until he returns to the earth,
that is, until he dies. However, God does not immediately put into effect
what he threatened in Genesis 2:17; man continues to live on earth, but he
is destined to die. It is in this sense that St Paul explains human existence,
in the light of the work of Christ whom he sees as being the second Adam:
'Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through
sin, [...] so death spread to all men because all men sinned. [..] If, because
of one man's trespass death reigned through that one man, much more will
those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness
reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:12, 17).

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).

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Mark 8:1-10

Second Miracle of the Loaves

[1] In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had
nothing to eat, He (Jesus) called His disciples to Him, and said to them,[2]
"I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with Me now
three days, and have nothing to eat; [3] and if I send them away hungry to
their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come a long
way." [4] And His disciples answered Him, "How can one feed these men
with bread here in the desert?" [5] And He asked them, "How many loaves
have you?" They said, "Seven." [6] And He commanded the crowd to sit
down on the ground; and He took the seven loaves, and having given thanks
He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people; and
they set them before the crowd. [7] And they had a few small fish; and
having blessed them, He commanded that these also should be set before
them. [8] And they ate, and were satisfied; and took up the broken pieces
left over, seven baskets full. [9] And there were about four thousand people.
[10] And He sent them away; and immediately He got into the boat with His
disciples, and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

Commentary:

1-9. Jesus repeats the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish:
the first time (Mark 6:33-44) He acted because He saw a huge crowd like
"sheep without a shepherd"; now He takes pity on them because they have
been with Him for three days and have nothing to eat.

This miracle shows how Christ rewards people who persevere in following Him:
the crowd had been hanging on His words, forgetful of everything else. We
should be like them, attentive and ready to do what He commands, without any
vain concern about the future, for that would amount to distrusting Divine Provi-
dence.

10. "Dalmanutha": this must have been somewhere near the Lake of Gennesaret,
but it is difficult to localize it more exactly. This is the only time it is mentioned
in Sacred Scripture. In the parallel passage in St. Matthew (15:39) Magadan
(sometime Magdala) is mentioned.