Sleeping in the Bible represents a state of spiritual obscurity, in which we are distanced from the Lord and are not aware of His love and His wisdom. The Lord put the people of the Most Ancient Church (Adam) into such a state of obscurity (sleep) because they wanted to live from themselves. And in a way, humanity has been asleep ever since, unaware that our thoughts, our feelings, our very life and love flow into us from the Lord, and are not our own.

But the Lord would let Adam carry on. He took a part of him that was least alive – meaning the least receptive of the Lord, since the Lord is life – and prepared to make a new person that would give Adam the life he wanted. The people of the Most Ancient Church would be cut off from direct communication with the Lord and with heaven, but would instead – through the nearly lifeless bit of humanity represented by the rib – be able to experience life as their own.

(Mga Sanggunian: Arcana Coelestia 147, 148-151)