Third Sunday of Advent

Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk 
17th December 2017

 Eve - Her Creation and Fall by St. Ambrose

Not without significance, is the fact that woman was made out of the rib of Adam. She was not made of the same earth with which he was formed, in order that we might realise that the physical nature of both man and woman is identical and that there was one source for the propagation of the human race. For that reason, neither was man created together with a woman, nor were two men and two women created at the beginning, but first a man and after that a woman. God willed it that human nature be established as one. Thus, from the very inception of the human stock He eliminated the possibility that many disparate natures should arise. He said: "Let us make him a helper like himself". We understand that to mean a helper in the generation of the human family - a really good helper. If we take the word "helper" in a good sense, then the woman's co-operation turns out to be something of major import in the process of generation, just as the earth by receiving, confining, and fostering the seed causes it to grow and produce fruit in time. In that respect, therefore, woman is a good helper even through in an inferior position.

The serpent said to the woman: "Did God say, you shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" In the statement the serpent was more cunning, you understand to whom reference is made. He contrived not to attack Adam first. Rather, he aimed to circumvent Adam by means of the woman. He did not accost the man who had in his presence received the heavenly command. He accosted her who had learned of it from her husband and who had not received from God the command which was to be observed. There is no statement that God spoke to the woman. We know that he spoke to Adam. Hence, we must conclude that the command was communicated through Adam to the woman.

And the serpent said to the woman: "Did God say, you shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" The woman answered the serpent: "Of the fruit of any tree in the garden we shall eat, but of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die". Although you are aware that the serpent is wiser than all creatures, his cunning is especially noticeable here. As he sets his snares, he pretends to give utterance to the words of God, for God had already said: "From every tree of the garden you may eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you must not eat, for the day you eat of it you must die". The serpent inserted a falsehood in questioning the woman thus: "Did God say, you shall not eat of any tree?" Whereas God had actually said: "From every tree of the garden you may eat, but from one tree you must not eat", meaning, by that, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which was not to be tasted. We need not wonder at the manner of deception. Deceit accompanies any effort at ensnaring an individual.