Читать книгу Catholicism For Dummies - Rev. Kenneth Brighenti - Страница 62

If the wound resulting from Original Sin was the end of the human story, it would be bleak and pathetic, for sure. But God’s mercy and love are without limit. God’s justice condemned and punished humankind for disobeying, and God’s mercy promised that a Messiah would redeem and save the human race. Salvation would then be possible for everyone, past, present and future. The Book of Genesis tells of punishment but also of promise.

Speaking to the serpent, God said:

Upon your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (Genesis 3:14–15).

The Catholic Church sees a prophecy in this verse, which is fulfilled in the person of the Virgin Mary. She is considered the woman whose offspring (Jesus) will crush the head of the serpent (the devil). By His grace, God devised a plan to save and redeem man by sending the Son. When Jesus died on the cross (on Good Friday) and rose from the dead (on Easter), He opened the gates of Paradise and made heaven possible once again (see Chapter 4).