Gen 3, 16 In pain shall you bring forth children

(Gen 3, 16) In pain shall you bring forth children

[16] To the woman he said: "I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master."

(CCC 1609) In his mercy God has not forsaken sinful man. The punishments consequent upon sin, "pain in childbearing" and toil "in the sweat of your brow" (Gen 3:16, 19) also embody remedies that limit the damaging effects of sin. After the fall, marriage helps to overcome self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one's own pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and to self-giving. (CCC 1608))Nevertheless, the order of creation persists, though seriously disturbed. To heal the wounds of sin, man and woman need the help of the grace that God in his infinite mercy never refuses them (Cf. Gen 3:21). Without his help man and woman cannot achieve the union of their lives for which God created them "in the beginning."