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From: Genesis 2:18-25

The Creation of Eve

[18] Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will
make him a helper fit for him.” [19] So out of the ground the Lord God formed
every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to
see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature,
that was its name. [20] The man gave names to all, cattle, and to the birds of
the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a hel-
per fit for him. [21] So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man,
and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; [22]
and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman
and brought her to the man. [23] Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was ta-
ken out of Man.” [24] Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and
cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. [25] And the man and his wife
were both naked, and were not ashamed.

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Commentary:

2:18-25. God continues to take care of man, his creature. The sacred writer con-
veys this by means of a human metaphor, depicting God as a potter who realizes
his creation is not yet perfect. The creation of the human being is not yet over:
he needs to be able to live in a full and deep union with another of his kind. The
animals were also created by God, but they cannot provide complete companion-
ship. So God creates woman, giving her the same body as man. From now on it
is possible for the human being to communicate. The creation of woman, there-
fore, marks the climax of God’s love for the human being he created.

This passage also shows us man’s interiority: he is aware of his own aloneness.
Although here loneliness is more a possibility and a fear rather than a real situ-
son, we are being told that it is through awareness of being alone that man can
appreciate the benefit of communion with others.

2:19-20. Like man, animals are created out of matter, but they are not said to
have received from God the breath of life. Only man is given the breath of life,
and this is what makes him essentially different from animals: man has a form
of life given him directly by God; that is to say, he is animated by a spiritual prin-
ciple which enables him to converse with God and to have real communion with
other human beings. We call this “soul” or “spirit”. It makes man more akin to
God than to animals, even though the human body is made from the earth and
belongs to the earth just as an animal’s body does (cf. the notes on 1:26 and
2:7).

“The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to
be the ‘form’ of the body (cf. Council of Vienne, “Fidei Catholicae”): that is, it is
because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, hu-
man body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their
union forms a single nature” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 365).

2:21-22. This sleep is a kind of death; it is as if God suspended the life he gave
man, in order to re-shape him so that he can begin to live again in another way—
by being two, man and woman, and no longer alone. By describing the creation
of woman as coming from one of Adam’s ribs, the sacred writer is saying that,
contrary to people’s thinking at the time, man and woman have the same nature
and the same dignity, for both have come from the same piece of clay that God
shaped and made into a living being. The Bible is also explaining the mutual
attraction man and woman have for one another.

2:23 When man—now in the sense of the male human being—recognizes woman
as a person who is his equal, someone who has the same nature as himself, he
discovers in her the fit “helper” God wanted him to have. Now indeed the creation
of the human being is complete, having become “man becomes the image of God
not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion” (John
Paul II, General Audience, 4 November 1979).

The first man’s acclaim for the first woman shows the capacity both have to asso-
ciate intimately in marriage. Man’s attitude to woman as it comes across here is
that of husband to wife. “In his wife he sees the fulfillment of God’s intention: ‘It is
not good that the man should he alone; I will make him a helper fit for him,’ and
he makes his own the cry of Adam, the first husband: ‘This at last is bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh.’ Authentic conjugal love presupposes and requires
that a man have a profound respect for the equal dignity of his wife: ‘You are not
her master,’ writes St Ambrose (”Hexaemeron”, 5, 7, 19) ‘but her husband; she
was not given to you to be your slave, but your wife [...]. Reciprocate her atten-
tiveness to you and be grateful to her for her love”’ (John Paul II, “Familiaris Con-
sortio”, 25).

2:24. These words are a comment by the sacred writer in which, having told the
story of the creation of woman, he depicts the institution of marriage as some-
thing established by God at the time when human life began. As John Paul II ex-
plains, “this conjugal communion sinks its roots in the natural complementarity
that exists between man and woman, and is nurtured through the personal wil-
lingness of the spouses to share their entire life-project, what they have and what
they are: for this reason such communion is the fruit and the sign of a profoundly
human need” (”Farniliaris Consortio”, 19).

By joining in marriage, man and woman form a family. Even the earliest transla-
tions of the Bible (Greek and Aramaic), interpreted this passage as meaning “the
two will become one flesh”, thereby indicating that marriage as willed by God
was monogamous. Jesus also referred to this passage about the origin of man to
teach the indissolubility of marriage, drawing the conclusion that “what God has
joined together, let no man put asunder” (Mt 19:5 and par.) The Church teaches
the same: “The intimate partnership of life and the love which constitutes the mar-
ried state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own
proper laws: it is rooted in the contract of its partners, that is, in their irrevocable
personal consent. It is an institution confirmed by the divine law and receiving its
stability, even in the eyes of society, from the human act by which the partners
mutually surrender themselves to each other; for the good of the partners, of the
children, and of society this sacred bond no longer depends on human decision
alone. For God himself is the author of marriage and has endowed it with various
benefits and with various ends in view” (Vatican II, “Gaudium Et Spes”, 48,).

2:25. Here we can see how man and his body were totally in harmony, as were
man and woman; this harmony will be broken due to the sin the narrative goes
on to report.

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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 7:24-30

The Curing of the Syrophoenician Woman

[24] And from there he (Jesus) arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Si-
don. And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could
not be hid. [25] But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed
by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet. [26] Now
the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast
the demon out of her daughter. [27] And he said to her, “Let the children first be
fed, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” [28]
But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the
children’s crumbs.” [29] And he said to her, “For this saying you may go your
way; the demon has left your daughter.” [30] And she went home, and found the
child lying in bed, and the demon gone.

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Commentary:

24. The region of Tyre and Sidon is nowadays the southern part of Lebanon —
Phoenicia in ancient times. The distance from the lake of Gennesaret to the
frontier of Tyre and Sidon is not more than 50 kms (30 miles). Jesus withdrew
from Palestine to avoid persecution by the Jewish authorities and to give the
Apostles more intensive training.

27. Our Lord actually uses the diminutive—”little dogs” to refer to the Gentiles
— thereby softening a scornful expression which Jews used. On the episode
of the Canaanite woman cf. notes on parallel passages, Mt 15:21-28.

[The notes on Mt 15:21-28 states:

21-22. Tyre and Sidon were Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast, in
present-day Lebanon. They were never part of Galilee but they were near its
north-eastern border. In Jesus’ time they were outside the territory of Herod An-
tipas. Jesus withdrew to this area to escape persecution from Herod and from
the Jewish authorities and to concentrate on training His Apostles.

Most of the inhabitants of the district of Tyre and Sidon were pagans. St. Mat-
thew calls this woman a “Canaanite”; according to Genesis (10:15), this district
was one of the first to be settled by the Canaanites; St. Mark describes the wo-
man as a “Syrophoenician” (Mark 7:26). Both Gospels point out that she is a
pagan, which means that her faith in our Lord is more remarkable; the same
applies in the case of the centurion (Matthew 8:5-13).

The Canaanite woman’s prayer is quite perfect: she recognizes Jesus as the
Messiah (the Son of David)—which contrasts with the unbelief of the Jews; she
expresses her need in clear, simple words; she persists, undismayed by obsta-
cles; and she expresses her request in all humility: “Have mercy on me.” Our
prayer should have the same qualities of faith, trust, perseverance and humility.

24. What Jesus says here does not take from the universal reference of His tea-
ching (cf. Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16). Our Lord came to bring His Gospel
to the whole world, but He Himself addressed only the Jews; later on He will
charge His Apostles to preach the Gospel to pagans. St. Paul, in his missionary
journeys, also adopted the policy of preaching in the first instance to the Jews
(Acts 13:46).

25-28. This dialogue between Jesus and the woman is especially beautiful. By
appearing to be harsh He so strengthens the woman’s faith that she deserves
exceptional praise: “Great is your faith!” Our own conversation with Christ should
be like that: “Persevere in prayer. Persevere, even when your efforts seem barren.
Prayer is always fruitful” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 101).]

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