When the woman listened to the snake ’s clever lies , she was deceived. Her thoughts were led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ, the Word of God, Who was abiding in her. (2 Corinthians 11:3-4). The woman became blind to the reality, as a consequence of listening to the snake’s clever lies. Once she listened to the snake , she started to doubt the truth. Doubt appears as a consequence of losing clarity . This losing of clarity ( initial moments of confusion) and the resulting doubt s of the Divine Truth are the first and second sign s of spiritual blindness. When spiritual blindness occurs, we start to see things humanly , and not spiritually , or rather “not as they really are” . We start to use human reasoning rather than the Divine Truth as the standard of our judgments. On the other hand, t he Divine Truth, the Word of God , helps us to “ see things as they really are ” ( Hebrews 4:12-13 ) . Where there is clarity, there is
BROTHER AND SISTERHOOD IN JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD A Reflection on Fraternity based on Sacred Scripture “For it was not the angels that he took to himself; he took to himself the line of Abraham.” (Hebrews 2:16) Brothers and Sisters in Adam The words “brothers” and “sisters” occur extensively in the Old and New Testaments with different meanings. In the Old Testament, the words are used almost exclusively to those who were born from the same stock, though the term is sometimes also extended to the next of kin. The word “father”, on the other hand, though predominantly applied to the parent, also appears in several instances as extended to a praiseworthy and virtuous figure who has passed on a spiritual heritage to those who follow him, in the language of the Bible, “begetting them spiritually”. In the Old Testament, all human beings are thus brothers and sisters in Adam, as far as human nature is concerned, but in the New Testament, Gentiles join Jews in being made “brothers an