So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman.....
The reason why these verses struck my notice is the similarity that exists with the account of the blood and water which flowed from Christ's side after his death on the Cross as recorded in John 19. Verses 33-34 state:
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
Eve - the Bride of the First Man - was made from a rib taken out of Adam's side.
The Church - the Bride of Christ - was in a sense made from the Baptismal Water and the Eucharistic Blood which flowed from the pierced side of Christ.
The Church is born primarily of Christ's total self-giving for our salvation, anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross. "The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus." "For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the 'wondrous sacrament of the whole Church.'" As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam's side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross.This idea is an ancient one, as someone pointed out at a different forum:
Doctors of the Church and other Saints drew a beautiful correlation between the piercing of Jesus' side by the soldier, and the life of Eve coming from Adam’s side. We read in Genesis 2:22 that the life of Eve was made from one of Adam's ribs. In John 19:34 we read that once one of the soldiers pierced His side there immediately flowed out blood and water. The life of Eve came from Adam's side, but the true mother of all living, the Church, was born by the piercing of His side.
““There flowed from his side water and blood”. Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit”, and from the holy eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.”
St. Athanasius commented:
“He was pierced in no other part but His side, whence flowed blood and water; that just as deception had come through the woman formed from the side of Adam, so from the side of the second Adam might come the redemption and cleansing of the first--redemption by blood, and cleansing by water.”
St. Cyprian commented:
“If Adam was a figure of Christ, the sleep of Adam was the death of Christ Who was to fall asleep in death; that in the injury of His side might be figured the Church, the true mother of the living”
St. Ambrose commented:
“There came forth water and blood, poured out for the life of the world. This life of the world is the rib of Christ, the rib of the second Adam. For the first Adam was made into a living soul, the last Adam into a life-giving spirit, the last Adam is Christ; the rib of Christ is the life of the Church. From His side water flowed and blood. . . Why from the side? Because whence came the fault, thence also comes grace, the fault came through woman, and grace through Our Lord Jesus Christ”
From Adam came Eve, and from Christ came the Church.
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