St. Thomas Aquinas: Prayer before Study Creator of all things, true Source of light and wisdom, lofty origin of all being,

graciously let a ray of Your brilliance penetrate into the darkness of my understanding and take from me the double darkness in which I have been born,

an obscurity of both sin and ignorance. Give me a sharp sense of understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally.

Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations, and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm.

Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in completion; through Christ our Lord.

Amen. St. Thomas Aquinas

Lord, inspire us to read your Sacred Scriptures and to meditate upon them day and night. We beg you give us real understanding

of what we need, that we in turn may put its precepts into practice. Yet we know that understanding and good intentions are worthless, unless rooted in your graceful love. So we ask

that the words of Scripture may also be not just signs on a page, but channels of grace into our hearts. We ask this through Our

Lord Jesus christ your son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy spiritk, One God forever and ever. Amen

Follow up

Ron asked If man was created perfectly how could Adam have failed in his work to till and keep (guard) the garden? Obedience is the test of perfection that adds human free will to the equation, and choses love. For example, Jesus the new Adam was made perfect. But scripture tells us in Hebrews 5:7-11 “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchiz’edek.” Jesus was already perfect—but his choice of obedient love is a “testing” (a testing that is not possible without freewill). So he made a perfect freewill choice. Adam made a imperfect freewill choice-the cause of his perfection being corrupted.

Follow up from last week.

Stephanie asked Unnatural or supernatural to be dead regarding the soul? Both. It is unnatural for human persons who are a composite of physical body and immaterial soul to exist only as a soul. This unnatural existence is sustained supernaturally until our souls are united with our resurrected bodies at the resurrection.

Not sure who asked? Is our soul the same substance of the angels? No, both are immaterial but it is a different substance. Ex. I have a “material” body and so does a mouse, but we are different. And I have a “immaterial” soul and so does an angel, but we are different. One distinction is that my immaterial soul is incomplete without the physical body whereas and angel is very much complete as an immaterial being.

Follow up cont…

Miss Lindy asked if Adam and Eve, being One flesh means they had intercourse? Being one flesh can mean the same “kind” of flesh—both being human. So “one flesh” does not always mean that. However, there is debate over this. We deduce that Yes Adam and Eve had intercourse prior to the fall—but it was different. It was a union without corruption and scholars debate this…some say it’s a mystery but procreation would have maintained virginity. But its a big debate.

Dale asked what is the significance of making sure the ages of the patriarchs are listed. Most scholars believe it is symbolic and not literal and since the fall of mankind meant death—the longer one lived, the more they were blessed. So the numbers are symbolic of a person’s life and blessedness from God. Other scholars think it is literal, JRR Tolkien wrote in the Lord of the Rings. And that the reduction in life-span is due to the ebbing of the life force for human beings as they pass through history—further and further from the original creation.

Covenant

What is a covenant? A covenant establishes kinship, family relationship between 2 parties that are not naturally related. It is a bond and is established by an oath or its equivalent. Adoptive sonship is synonymous with establishing a covenant. Adam & Eve are not “natural” children of God, but they possess the filial relationship of being God’s children because of adoption.

The Adamic CovenantThere are terms and conditions of the Adamic Covenant, from Gen 2:15-17, 1. Till and keep the garden, 2. eat of every tree “but of the tree of the knowledge of good an evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” The blessing of the covenant is already given, living in communion with God, the dignity of work, perfect harmony with each other and the world, and immortality. The Curse is death.

The Two Trees

Terms of the Covenant include a prohibition from eating of the fruit of the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Notice—there is no prohibition to the fruit of The Tree of Life.

The Covenant is Broken,The Fall of Man

Eve entered into conversation with the devil, a fatal mistake. He tempted her with pride that she will be “like God.” But she and her husband Adam were already like God, made in His image and likeness. The sad irony is that they were tricked into thinking that God was holding out on them, that He couldn’t be trusted. “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in the Creator die in his heart” (CCC 397).

Where was Adam? The Sacred author writes, “she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Gn 3:6). The first man failed to guard the garden and protect his bride. Apparently, he stood there silently while the devil went after his beloved. He did not put his trust in God and the results were devastating, “death made its entrance into human history.”

Proto-evangelium

The Protoevangelium is a compound Greek word meaning “first gospel” Genesis 3:15 is the first mention of the “good news” of salvation.

“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.”

“On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples.

When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “O woman, what have you to do with me? * My hour has

not yet come.” 5His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:2-5).

“When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 2Then he said

to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (John 19:26-27).

“And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her

head a crown of twelve stars;” Rev 12:1

In all three instances John the Apostle is calling attention to Mary as the “woman” of Genesis. Mary is the new Eve while Jesus is the

new Adamin the new creation.

Under Adam’s failed leadership, humanity was banned from the Garden of Eden. That move may seem severe on God’s part, but in truth it was an act of mercy. Our first parents had not yet eaten from the Tree of Life. Because of original sin, everything in creation was now perverted and disordered; death a reality. If our first parents had eaten the fruit of the Tree of Life, humanity would have been cursed forever in that fallen state.

God’s Rescue Plan

“…The Son of God came into the world to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8).

“For a monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the whole history of man. The battle was joined from the very origins of the world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord has attested.” Pope Paul VI, Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

We live in a fallen world. What is up for grabs? Nothing less than our eternal souls. Jesus won the battle for us, but still we must choose.

John 19:38-41 After this Joseph of Arimathe'a, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds’ weight. They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid.  

There is no mistake that Jesus, the New Adam is in a garden for His burial and Resurrection.

John 20:1, 11-16. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Mag'dalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb…11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

14Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rab-bo'ni!” (which means Teacher).

Rembrandt christ and mary magdalene

“In the book of Genesis, God, the gardener of Eden, walked with his creatures in easy friendship. Sin, the

sundering of the loop of grace, put an end to those intimate associations.

Throughout the history of salvation, God had been trying to reestablish friendship. Through the death of

Jesus, through that tomb placed right in the garden, he accomplished his goal. So now, in Christ, he appears again as a gardener. “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She

turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni.’”

Bishop Robert Barron’s daily reading commentary

April 14, 2020

WHAT IF?

If our first parents would have eaten the fruit of the Tree of Life in the garden of Eden, they would have been immortally imprisoned in their fallen state. It was a great act of love to banish our first parents from the garden of Eden:

Gen 3:22-24. 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”—therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 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.

Jesus as the New Adam, as the High Priest and the sacrifice, offers us the fruit of The Tree of Life. “I am the living bread * which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” John 6:51

Where are we invited to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life and live forever and be in communion with God? For our first parents it was in the garden

of Eden before they fell into sin. For us it is at the Mass