Sacred Mysteries: Beneath the flesh and bones of baptism

An analogy teased out by the great 4th-century African, St Augustine, might seem far-fetched. He likened the creation of Eve, from the side of the sleeping Adam, to the creation of the Church, the bride of Christ: “Adam sleeps so that Eve may be formed; Christ dies for the Church to be formed. Eve was formed from the side of the sleeping Adam; from the side of Christ who died on the cross, struck by the lance, flow the sacraments with which the Church is formed.”