Domination - of women, of nature, of labor - is the anatomy of sin, not the...

February 15, 2025

Domination – of women, of nature, of labor – is the anatomy of sin, not the Creator’s design. Scripture is subtle but clear: all suffering is the natural consequence of listening to a creature’s voice instead of God’s.

Whether patriarchy…

‘Because you have done this… your husband… will be your master.’ – Gen. 3:14, 16 (REB)

…environmental threats to human life…

‘On you account the earth will be cursed…

it will yield thorns and thistles for you.’ – Gen. 3:17-18 (REB)

...or even agriculture and the economic foundations of human culture…

‘You will eat of the produce of the field, and only by the sweat of your brow will you win your bread…’ – Gen. 3:18-19 (REB)

…suffering results from human willfulness, not the Divine will. In Scripture, God is merely describing our chosen path, not doling out punishments.

Even death itself is a side effect. Though creaturehood is ours by nature, mortal decay and return to the elements is presented as something new.

‘Until you return to the earth;

for from it you were taken.

Dust you are, to dust you will return.’ – Gn 3:19 (REB)

[Interesting side-note: Notice that humankind is made for the Garden, but not in it.

Created elsewhere, the man is moved to the Garden in a primordial state. When systemic consequences of our choices rupture that state, God makes “coverings from skins for the man and his wife and clothed them,” and then “banished him from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he had been taken.” – Gen. 3:21, 23 (REB)

Although Sacred Tradition affirms the human creature as both a material and spiritual being, an esoteric reading suggests these garments aren't animal skins but rather the human body itself. This poses the interesting notion that even having a body of ordinary matter may be a consequence of sinful choices. In this reading, though created in a transfigured, spiritual body, the original human being takes on a material existence, perhaps as a kind of existential life-raft from its Creator, a vessel of matter to keep afloat in a sea of broken spiritual relationship.]

Either way, the point is clear: we are punished by our sins, not for them.

So what hope is there?

It is here the early Church Fathers saw the first preaching of the Gospel, when God tells the Serpent, who shall grow through history to become the Great Dragon:

‘I shall put enmity between you and the woman,

between your brood and hers.

They will strike at your head,

and you will strike at their heel.’ – Gen. 3:15 (REB)

Even in its newly broken spiritual state, God plants in humankind the seed of its own restoration: a future offspring who will end the Serpent's work and remake what it has just unmade. [Perhaps that's why these new bodies of ordinary matter are so necessary?]

Fast forward to today's Gospel reading in the mass, and that work becomes clear: in the desert where nothing grows, Christ feeds those who hear him.

“So he ordered the people to sit down on the ground; then he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks to God he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples to distribute….” -Mk. 8:6 (REB)

Once, Humankind that listened to the Serpent had to seed the hostile soil for food. Now, on that same hostile soil, it listens to the promised Seed and is fed. Before, it took what was God's. Now, it receives.

Listen to the right voice, the Logos of God, and the fundamental relationship to creation shifts from scarcity to abundance. That's the mark of the true disciple.

Beware, then, the faithless teachers, the worldly leader and their false prophet. Their eyes see only scarcity, and their hands can only take. Like the apostles, they look on this world of struggle and ask:

‘How can anyone provide these people with bread in this remote place?’ – Mk. 8:4 (REB)

But unlike the true follower, they do not listen to the Lord's response. They take what they want and pass their suffering to others. Do not be like them.