The

Mary Michael Machabee

Institute

Newsletter

September 30th, 2024

Joyful Marriages and Ordered Families
FORTIFIED BY
The True and Sacred Narrative of Genesis
 

Part I

In this first installment this series of short lessons, we will look at the Patriarch Adam, the first man created on the sixth day of Creation, before the Fall and glean lessons to help form holy and happy families. Christ himself directs our gaze back to our first father when He spoke: 

"To whom Jesus answering, said: Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you that precept.

Mark 10:6 But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.  7 For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother; and shall cleave to his wife.  8 And they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh.  9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.  10 And in the house again his disciples asked him concerning the same thing.

11 And he saith to them: Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her.  12 And if the wife shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.  13 And they brought to him young children, that he might touch them. And the disciples rebuked them that brought them.  14 Whom when Jesus saw, he was much displeased, and saith to them: Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God.  15 Amen I say to you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter into it."

Biblia złota klasyków, Jan Ladislaw Sýkora 1899

Notice, in Christ’s defense of marriage, he references the real man, Adam, and his real wife, Eve, by alluding to the book of Genesis. The Hebrew people would often refer to the different books of the Scriptures by the first line. An astute observer would note that after speaking of the stability of marriage until death separates the couple, Christ commands that his disciples allow the children, which they were trying to bar from Him, and commands those listening to receive the children.

Christ bringing forth Adam from the slime of the earth

In the beginning…

Gen. 2:6 But a spring rose out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth. 7 And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

After the creation of the cosmos, before it had rained, the Lord God made a spring to well forth water upon the surface of the earth. Throughout Holy Writ, springs will be used by God in fact and in prophetic visions. This water will give life, relief, death, clean, and symbolize each member of the Holy Trinity, the Church, grace, prosperity, a good wife, fear of the Lord, and wisdom. Here Adam is formed from the mixture of dirt and water, the slime. Man is a mixture of matter and form; the natural and supernatural; the flesh and the spirit; body and soul; virtue and grace. In this moment, man is perfect. The body-soul composite of man is harmonious and peaceful, externally and internally.

Baptism of Saint Francis of Assisi by Antonio del Castillo (1660s)

Man must remember this truth. He is both body and soul; the two are supposed to be inseparable and harmonious. Today, body and soul are often not harmonious in our fallen state, and great violence must be done by mortifying the flesh and the spirit to act rightly. Man must pass through the terror of his soul being separated from his body at death. A father must understand this about himself, his wife, his children, his bishop, priests, fellow parishioners, Catholics, and all other heathens- he is of a fallen nature. He must be born again by water and the spirit, mortify his flesh and his spirit, offer worship to God, pray, learn the truths of his faith, and live according to the mandates of Christ and his Church in order to save his soul. No man, woman, or child can live otherwise and expect to save his soul.

The Seven Sacraments from My Catholic Faith by Bp. Morrow