Today is Feb 13, Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time.
We read in Scripture at today’s Mass, “So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh” (Gen 2:21).
When we think of the creation of Eve, we are likely to focus on the complementarity of Adam and Eve. It is not good for Adam to be alone, Scripture says. Adam needs Eve. In fact, without Eve, it’s not clear how exactly God was planning to continue the human race. Eve, after all, is the mother of all the living!
But there’s a deeper meaning here.
We Catholics believe that the Church was born from the side of Christ. At his death, the Roman centurion took a lance and pierced the side of Our Lord. Blood and water spilled forth. As the Second Vatican Council puts it, “The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus.”
The formation of the Church
But it is not merely the sacraments that spring from the side of Christ; it is the Church herself! As Vatican II says, “For it was from the side of Christ as He slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth ‘the wondrous sacrament of the whole Church.'” She, the Church, is born from the side of the Savior.
Which brings us to the formation of Eve, taken from the side of Adam. One beautiful way to interpret this passage in Genesis is to see in the formation of Eve a foreshadowing of the formation of the Church from the side of Christ. As the Catechism puts it, “As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam’s side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross.”
Let us pray,
Keep your family safe, O Lord, with unfailing care, that, relying solely on the hope of heavenly grace, they may be defended always by your protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
