Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Gen 4, 1-2 I have produced a man with the help of the LORD

Genesis 4

(Gen 4, 1-2) I have produced a man with the help of the LORD

[1] The man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have produced a man with the help of the LORD." [2] Next she bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of flocks, and Cain a tiller of the soil.

(CCC 2335) Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way. The union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator's generosity and fecundity: "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh" (Gen 2:24). All human generations proceed from this union (Cf. Gen 4:1-2, 25-26; 5:1). (CCC 2336) Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins. In the Sermon on the Mount, he interprets God's plan strictly: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt 5:27-28). What God has joined together, let not man put asunder (Cf. Mt 19:6). The tradition of the Church has understood the sixth commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality.

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