Mother Of The Living

Vocatur dehinc mater vivorum, id est, recte factorum, quibus contraria sunt peccata, quae nomine mortuorum significantur. Jam vero per sententiam quae in virum infertur, ratio nostra arguitur, quae et super peccati concupiscentia seducta, et a paradiso beatitudinis remota, habet maledictiones terrenae operationis, habet et dolores temporalium curarum, quasi spinas et tribulos. Sic tamen dimittitur de paradiso beatitudinis, ut operetur terram, id est, ut in corpore isto laboret, et collocet sibi meritum redeundi ad vitam beatam, quae paradisi nomine significatur, possitque aliquando manum porrigere ad arborem vitae, et vivere in aeternum. Manus autem porrectio bene significat crucem, vel cruciatum poenitentiae, per quem vita aeterna recuperatur. Accipit etiam tunicam pelliceam divino judicio, quo nomine corporis mortalitas significatur in historia. In allegoria autem de carnalibus sensibus abstractae voluptates, quae carnaliter viventem divina lege consequuntur, et contegunt. Qui si aliquando ad Deum convertitur per flammeam frameam, id est, per temporales tribulationes, peccata sua agnoscendo et gemendo, et per cherubim, id est, per plenitudinem scientiae, quod est charitas, perveniet ad arborem vitae Christum, et vivet in aeternum. Sanctus Isidorus Hispalensis,Mysticorum Expositiones Sacramentorum Seu Quaestiones In Vetus Testamentum, In Genesin, Caput VIII Source:Migne PL 83.222a-b

Whence she is called the mother of the living, 1 that is, of right deeds, to which sins are contrary, which are signified by the name of the dead. Now, however, because of the sentence brought against the man, our reason is convicted, which is seduced on account of the desire for sin, and far from the paradise of blessedness it has the curse of worldly labours and the grief of temporal cares, as thistles and thorns. So although he is dismissed from the paradise of beatitude, it is that he work the earth, that is, that he labour in this body and gather to himself merit for the return to the blessed life, which is signified by the name of paradise, and at some time he be able to stretch out his hand to the tree of life and live in eternity. For the hand stretched out signifies the cross, or the trials of penitence, through which eternal life is restored. And he receives a garment of skin in the Divine judgement, by which in the narrative bodily mortality is signified. And allegorically this is being led away by the pleasures of the carnal senses, which carnal life draws one away from the Divine law and obscures it. Yet he may, if at some time he turn to God by the flaming blade, that is, through temporal tribulations, recognising and lamenting his own sin, and through the Cherubim, that is, through a plenitude of knowledge, which is charity, come to Christ, the tree of life, and live in eternity. Saint Isidore of Seville, Expositions of Sacred Mysteries or Questions on the Old Testament, On Genesis, Chap 8 1 Gen 3.20