Readings: Gen 2:18-24; Heb 2:9-11; Mk 10:2-16
In the economy of salvation, God has seen fit to purify us and prepare us for eternal life through suffering. This is not something most people like to think about; we wish there was an easier way. However, when we consider what happens to bring life about on the natural level, we seem to have no issue with the fact that it will include a fair amount of suffering. If this is true for natural life, it should be even more so with regard to supernatural life.
In the first reading we hear about the creation of Eve from the side of Adam. We are told that God took a rib from Adam which He then fashioned into the woman. In other words, Adam is wounded so Eve could be created. Nothing else God created for the man cost him anything. All other living creatures were separate from him and all he needed to do was name them. But things are completely different when it comes to the creation of Eve. She is not entirely separate from him and she alone has the capacity to complement and fulfill Adam just as he alone has the capacity to complement and fulfill Eve.
We are not told what occurred just prior to the creation of Eve except that none of the animals was a helper fit for the man. After this, we are simply told that God put Adam into a deep sleep and took out one of his ribs to fashion the woman. We do not know if there was any discussion or if Adam, now realizing that he was alone asked for a fit helper. The reason I mention this is because the creation of the woman really needed to be an act of true love by the man.
We hear about the joy of the man when he awakens and he is certainly aware that she was made from his flesh and bones, so there is the suggestion that the “surgery” God performed on Adam was done with Adam’s consent. It is also interesting that God used a rib instead of any other part of Adam’s body. The rib serves to protect the heart and lungs. Another way to say this is that the ribs are at the service of life and love. From Adam’s perspective, the creation of Eve was an act of love resulting in life.
To this day husbands and wives, motivated by love, willfully bring children into the world among great joy. However, every woman knows from before the baby is conceived that this will entail great suffering over a nine month period and will culminate in the most painful thing a human person can endure. Then comes even more suffering for both parents as they work to nourish, support, protect, and teach this child. Amid the greatest joys that are brought about through children come also the greatest heartaches, fears, and difficulties arising from these same children. Even with full knowledge and after much experience, these same couples, motivated by love, choose to bring more children into the world.
We can see the connection between love and suffering and we know the willfulness of couples to accept the suffering because of their great love. God’s love is infinitely greater than that of parents and while He desires life on the natural level, He wants most of all for us to achieve eternal life. When we look at the second reading, St. Paul reminds us that eternal life was won for us only through the suffering of Christ. St. Paul even remarks that it was fitting that when bringing many children to glory, that the leader of that work would be made perfect through suffering.
Eternal life is described in the Gospels as a marriage feast. In Heaven, that marriage banquet will be forever; in this life, the sacrament of Holy Matrimony is for the duration of life, until the death of the first spouse. If it was fitting that our Lord would be perfected through the suffering He endured to bring us to eternal life, then it seems equally fitting that married couples will find perfection through the suffering they endure to bring about natural life. The struggles that come with living the married life purify and perfect the love of the couple. This, in turn, if the couple navigates through these struggles with faith and prayer, will purify and prepare each of the spouses for the love and unity that awaits them in the heavenly marriage banquet.
For those who are not married, the sufferings that are part of life purify and prepare the soul in a way similar to what we have seen in married couples. God has designed everything to make us saints: to purify, prepare us for eternal life, and bring us to glory.
Fr. Altier’s column appears regularly in The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly published in St. Paul, Minn. For information about subscribing to The Wanderer, please visit www.thewandererpress.com.
