Then
the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you shall be
banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; on your belly
shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will
strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.”
To
the woman he said: “I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain
shall you bring forth children, yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he
shall be your master.” (Genesis
3:14-16)
There is a fascinating connection
between the consequences God announced to the serpent and those he proclaimed
to the woman. We will spend two parts of this series reflecting upon them.
To the serpent God declares that from
this point on there will be enmity between the serpent and the woman, and more
significantly, between their offspring. There are certain consequences mere
creatures are powerless to reverse, and incurring debt to God for spoiling his
creation is one. This is a debt that will be inherited by future generations,
for creatures simply cannot repay it.
So yes, there will always be trouble
between the two--but there is more.
The offspring of the serpent will strike
at the heel of the woman’s offspring, which can cause problems but no permanent
damage. An offspring of the woman, however, will strike at the head of the
serpent, killing it. In this beautiful verse, in response to humanity’s sin,
God promises a savior who will ultimately conquer evil and pay the debt
humanity cannot pay. Yes, there are consequences to sin, and grave consequences
for those who will not repent. But God loves humanity, the ones he created in
his image, too much to leave us completely to our own devices.
In other words, while humans would now
experience sexuality--created to be an icon of the inner life of the Holy
Trinity--with a clouded vision not always able to see its true meaning
(signified by the covering of their nakedness), sexuality would be redeemed by
the promised savior, who would restore it to its rightful beauty.
The serpent striking at the heel is an
image suggestive of the crucifixion. (There is evidence to suggest that in
crucifixion nails were driven through the heel bones rather than the center of
the feet.) The pains of childbirth are a powerful image of the same. Think
about it: when a woman gives birth she suffers often excruciating pain so that
another may have life. Life-sustaining fluids issue forth from her body, as did
from Jesus’ body on the cross. The placenta--what nourished the child while in
the womb--is discarded, a sign that the child is emerging from one kind of life
to a totally different one, a life that calls for a different kind of food.
(See Part Eight of this series for a reflection on the connection between
earthly food and the Eucharist.)
And it all comes about through a woman
suffering not so she may gain anything for herself, but in complete sacrifice
for another.
So why does her husband become her
master? We’ll reflect upon that in Part Eleven.
