PRIMA VISIO, cap. XV
God's Loving Pursuit of Adam
God's call to Adam presignified His enduring desire to restore the divine image and draw humanity back to Himself.
But when God then said, 'Adam, where are you?', by this he presignified that he would remember having made him in his own image and likeness, and that he wanted to draw him back to himself.
Exile and the Exchange of Garments
Adam's exile and covering with sheepskin signify the loss of paradise and the exchange of divine glory for mortal servitude.
He also covered his nakedness with regard to his servile ministry, and sent him into exile, so that in place of a bright garment he would receive a sheep's skin, just as he exchanged paradise for this exile.
The Sacred Bond of Faithful Union
God joined man and woman in an unbreakable oath of faithfulness, mirroring the unity of body and soul.
For God joined the woman to the man with an oath of faithfulness, so that this faith between them would never be destroyed, but that they would agree as one, like body and soul, which God joined together into one.
The Curse Upon Those Who Break Faith
Whoever destroys marital faith unrepentantly will be turned into the land of confusion and barrenness, with divine vengeance extending through all their lineage.
For this reason, whoever destroys this faith and persists unrepentant without correction will be turned into the land of Babylon — that is, into the land of confusion and barrenness — which will remain without the beautiful greenness of the field, that is, of God's blessing, and God's vengeance will fall upon him, even to the last line of kinship that came from his burning blood, because this sin touches that person.
The Abrahamic Promise Fulfilled in Christ
Through the preaching of the incarnate Son of God, the promise to Abraham of offspring as numerous as the stars is fulfilled in the rising of the spiritual people.
In the preaching of the incarnate Son of God, as the spiritual people rises up, the promise God made to Abraham is fulfilled — that his offspring would be multiplied as the number of the stars in the sky.✦✦
Read the original Latin
Sed quod Deus deinde dixit: Adam ubi es, per hoc praesignavit quod memor esset quia ipsum ad imaginem et similitudinem suam fecerat, et quod eum ad se retrahere vellet. Nuditatem quoque ipsius de servili ministerio suo operuit, eumque in exsilium misit, ita ut pro lucida veste ovinam pellem acciperet, quemadmodum paradisum exsilio isto permutavit. Deus etenim mulierem viro cum juramento fidei adjunxit, ita ut fides haec in ipsis nunquam destruatur, sed ut in unum consentiant, sicut corpus et anima, quae Deus in unum conjunxit. Quapropter quicunque fidem hanc destruxerit, et ita impoenitens sine emendatione perduraverit, in terram Babylonis convertetur, videlicet in terram confusionis et ariditatis, quae sic absque pulchra viriditate agri, id est benedictionis Dei, permanebit, atque ultio Dei super illum cadet, usque ad ultimam lineam consanguinitatis, quae de ferventi sanguine ipsius praecessit, quoniam peccatum istud hominem illum tangit.
Quod in praedicatione incarnati Filii Dei spirituali populo exoriente completa sit promissio Dei dicentis ad Abraham, quia secundum numerum stellarum coeli semen ipsius multiplicaretur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.15.5 — And he brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
- ↩Gen.13.16 — And I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring also can be counted.
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