The following comes from "St. Bruno of Segni"-also called St Bruno of Aste [Asti]-"(1049–1123) was born into a noble family in Asti, Italy. Drawn to a life of holiness, he became a Benedictine monk and a priest known for his deep love for God and strong defense of the Catholic faith, especially the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist at the Roman Council of 1079. Appointed Bishop of Segni in 1081, he worked tirelessly to combat simony and uphold Church discipline. Later, Bruno became abbot of Monte Cassino and served as papal librarian and cardinal legate. A renowned theologian, he wrote commentaries on Scripture and important Church figures. He died in Segni in 1123 and was canonized by Pope Lucius III in 1181". The following comes from the Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Latina, Vol. 164. The translation was done using ChatGPT.
Gen 3:9 “The Lord God called to Adam and said: ‘Adam, where are you?’” O most merciful Lord, who wills not the death of the sinner but his life, always calling the erring to repentance! Why does He say, “Adam, where are you?”—not because He did not know his place, but because He compassionates his fall, as if saying: “Adam, where are you? Into what misery have you fallen; from what glory into what abyss you have plunged!”
Gen 3:10 Adam answered: “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.” “I heard,” he says, “your voice—meaning: I sensed your wrath and indignation—and I was afraid. Because I was naked, that is, fit for punishment, for I had lost that garment of righteousness with which I had been clothed, and thus I neither feared nor blushed. And so I hid myself. But where can I flee from Your face? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I descend into the depths, You are present” (Psalm 138[139]:8).
Gen 3:11 To him God said: Who told you that you were naked, unless you ate from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat? As though He were saying: “If you had not eaten what was forbidden, you would never have recognized the shame of nakedness in your members. But because you did eat, now you perceive another law in your members fighting against the law of your mind” (Rom 7:23). “Therefore you hid yourself, and for that reason you blushed.”
Gen 3:12 Adam said: The woman whom You gave me as a companion gave me of the tree, and I ate. As if he plainly said: “It is true, Lord, I cannot deny it, but it was the woman who made me eat.” But what woman was this? The very one that You Yourself gave me as a companion. O unhappy man, created in such wisdom—how did you lose your sense so quickly? You do not attribute your sin to yourself, but to God, as though the woman whom He gave you as a companion had herself become the principal cause of your fall.
Gen 3:13 Then He said to the woman: Why have you done this? She replied: The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Both ate; neither asks for mercy. Instead they excuse their sin, and therefore they obtain not pardon but the penalty of a curse. For this the Psalmist was afraid when he said: “Do not incline my heart to an evil word, to excuse excuses in sins” (Ps 140:4).
Gen 3:14-15 And the Lord said to the serpent: Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and beasts of the earth. On your breast you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmities between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. She shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for her heel.
Not only is the evil spirit—who is signified by the serpent—accursed, but even the serpent itself is hated above all the animals of the earth. The ancient enemy “walks upon his breast,” for he tramples down all his own shrewd counsel and wisdom which dwell in the sinner, and never abandons those whose hearts he possesses, but reigns over them arrogantly. He “eats the dust” all his days, because he cruelly torments with insatiable punishments the sinners whom he deceives.
There are enmities between the devil and the Church—which is signified by the woman—and between their respective seed and children. Thinking and desiring opposite things, following opposite ways, they can never have peace or concord. The Church “crushes his head” because, foreseeing the beginning of his cunning schemes, she destroys his counsel and artifices at their very outset. He, however, “lies in wait for her heel,” for unless she walks rightly and stands firm in the path of good works, he immediately attacks her and, like one seeking a stumbling foot, tries to trip her and cast her down.
Gen 3:16 To the woman He said: I will multiply your labors and your conceptions; in sorrow you shall bear children; and you shall be under the power of your husband, and he shall rule over you.
These words, understood literally, need little explanation. Yet you may recognize the multiplied “labors” of the Church if you recall the prisons, chains, scourges, and various torments of the saints. Her “conceptions” are multiplied, as the prophet attests: “Rejoice, O barren one, burst forth and cry out, you who do not bear; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband” (Gal 4:27; Isa 54:1). She “bears in sorrow,” as the Lord Himself says: “A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow” (John 16:21). She is “under the power of her husband,” for no one except Christ is her true spouse.
Gen 3:17-19 To Adam He said: Because you listened to the voice of your wife rather than mine, and ate from the tree concerning which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the earth in your work. In labor you shall eat from it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
“No excuse,” He says, “will help you; for because you despised my command and obeyed your wife, the earth shall be cursed in your work, not in mine. When you act wickedly, that is your work; when you act well, it is not your work but mine. Therefore the earth is cursed not in my work, but in yours—that is, your flesh. You ate from the forbidden tree: this is your work.” And who is ignorant of what blessing the earth lost because of this work? For it is clear that it would have freely supplied all things necessary had the first humans not done this deed.
Thus it is added: In labor you shall eat from it all the days of your life. Had you not sinned, you would have had all good things in abundance without labor; but because you sinned, it will not even grant you the due labor without resistance, but will bring forth thorns and thistles. You shall eat the herbs of the earth, since you misused the delights of Paradise.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, because by pride you despised rest. Until you return to the earth from which you were taken, for you will not be, as you imagined, a god, but dust, and to dust you shall return.
Gen 3:20 Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of many living. For she is mother only of living human beings, not of all living creatures; but since souls alone cannot die, men alone among earthly creatures are rightly called “living.”
Gen 3:21 God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them. In this He showed them to be mortal, for He clothed them with the skins of the dead. Thus, like condemned persons, even in their very clothing they bore the sign of the curse they had incurred.
Gen 3:22 Hence it is added: Behold, Adam has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. This is to be understood ironically, as though He said: “Behold how the man has been diminished in his dignity, because he wished to be more than man.” See then lest he stretch forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and live forever. For just as by taking from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he subjected himself to the laws of death, so also by taking from the tree of life he might have regained immortality and lived forever.
Gen 3:23-24 Therefore it came to pass, as is written: The Lord God sent him out of the garden of delight to till the earth from which he had been taken. And He cast out Adam, and placed before the garden of delight the Cherubim and a flaming, whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.
Cherubim means “fullness of knowledge.” It signifies the apostles and the doctors of the Church, in whom the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are stored. And when anyone, because of his sin, is cast out of Paradise—that is, from the Church—lest he dare approach the tree of life, that is, the body of Christ, he is forbidden by them.
The sword is “flaming” and “shining,” without stain, so that whoever is struck by it is either enlightened or burned. Hence the Apostle says: “To some we are the fragrance of life unto life, to others the fragrance of death unto death” (2 Cor 2:16). It is also “turning every way,” ready and swift to strike, striking around in every direction those who fall, condemning the poor equally with the rich.
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