Today is the feast of our First Parents, Adam and Eve. Not many people know that they have feast day, or are venerated as saints. But it was them that Christ came to die for, as illustrated in this marvelous and ancient anonymous Holy Saturday homily:
Something strange is happening--there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.
He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: "My Lord be with you all." Christ answered him: "And with your spirit." He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."
I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.
See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.
I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.
Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.
I am convinced that Eve gets a bum rap. It's hard to tell their culpability, given the 6,000-some-odd years of experience we've had. "Well, duh, of course the serpent is Satan, your enemy! Didn't you read the book of Revelation? Where were you during CCD class?" Adam and Eve had just been created. Eastern tradition treats them as small children in adult bodies, because emotionally and psychologically, they were. Really, how was Eve supposed to know that God didn't speak through serpents? God speaks in lots of ways, why not through serpents, if you were just created and have no idea yet what's going on in the world (and especially if you've received no more catechesis than is portrayed in Genesis)? Maybe God changed his mind. What? God? Change his mind? Well, how was she to know whether he wouldn't? (By the way, I think God does change his mind, or at least from our perspective, he changes his instructions to us.)
The real sin of Adam and Eve was not that they wanted to be gods or wanting to be like Him. After all, Jesus Christ came to make us gods (CCC 1999, 398, 1589, 1988) and so that was our destiny, and indeed Jesus commanded us to be like him. Divinizing us was a part of the plan from the very beginning. The problem was, we listened to the wrong god and grabbed for it ourselves, instead of waiting for our Father to give it to us.
I find this is a metaphor for the spiritual life. Whenever we try to grab for knowledge on our own apart from God, we get into trouble. We ought to wait for God to hand us the knowledge, and verify through prayer that it comes from God. Also, the garden becomes our hearts: Adam was supposed to take care of his own heart and grow and bear fruit, but when he tried to do things without God, he lost control over the garden and gave it over to Satan until God could purify it and restore his position. We repeat this scenario in every choice we make: Do we make a choice with God's will in mind, or do we jump ahead and do what we want or what Satan tempts us to do? (I think Revelation is similarly a metaphor for the spiritual life, but that's a much longer topic.)
Scott Hahn says that Eve was cowed into taking the fruit. (Note, it was not an apple; it was the tree of "knowledge of good and evil" in the garden of Eden, from which we were cast out). In other words, Satan subtlely but effectively threatened her implicitly with violence if she did not obey. I think this was true.
This reminds me of a line I ran across recently in the Liturgy of St. Basil I've been meaning to ask my pastor about that refers to Adam and Eve being "cast down to this world". The Garden of Eden is typically portrayed as some now-lost location on earth, but this implies it was really in heaven, and that we were cast down to earth (well, into this universe or dimension :-)) as a punishment. I find this a pretty interesting proposition; it neatly solves the "what happened to the garden of Eden?" question.
Anyway, the mystery of the Fall applies to more than just a question of what happened at Creation. It is a pattern that is repeated in our lives every day, and its meaning has an impact on our every day life. We are Adam and Eve, and we re-live the Garden of Eden in every choice we make. The Father wants to give us knowledge of good and evil (that is, knowledge of his will) and make us gods, not through the intercession of Satan, but through the power of Christ and the intercession of the saints.
So pray for us, Ss. Adam and Eve, that we may make the right choices and never accept knowledge of good and evil from our own hand, but only from the hand of God.
Hi Eric,
I have two separate comments/questions. The first is regarding Adam and Eve's culpability. You're right, Adam and Eve didn't read Revelation :), but can't we also judge the gravity of their sin by what we know of God? Especially what we know about God's mercy and His justice? Would God have punished all of humanity so severely because of a sin committed in ignorance? That doesn't seem to make sense. Throughout Scripture, we always see punishments from God that fit the crimes committed. He is the perfect parent and His punishments are intended to correct us and bring us back to Him.
The second point is regarding Adam and Eve getting kicked out of Eden. Tim Gray's book "Mission of the Messiah" has an interesting proposition. He argues that Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden, but not out of Eden. The Promised Land of the Old Testament would then be Eden (it's expanded in the New Testament, but that requires more detail than would fit into a comment box). There are a lot of points in favor of this theory, especially when you note that there is a lot of imagery throughout the Old and New Testament that points back to Eden.
Ok, Amy, I have a question for you in return. :-) (NB: Amy's a personal friend so I can take certain liberties in addressing her ...)
Suppose you walk into my house, and accidentally and unavoidably knocked over a vase, through no fault of your own. The vase falls and shatters.
Do the consequences fit the crime?
Even more interesting question: Who cleans it up? (which is not exactly the same question as, who is responsible for cleaning it up)?
LOL!
"Suppose you walk into my house, and accidentally and unavoidably knocked over a vase, through no fault of your own. The vase falls and shatters."
So are you saying that you think that Adam and Eve accidentally and unavoidably ate the forbidden fruit? :)
No, I'm not saying that Adam and Eve accidentally and unavoidably ate the forbidden fruit. You asked, "Would God have punished all of humanity so severely because of a sin committed in ignorance?" My reply was, consider this case when you knock over a vase inadvertently, are the consequences severe because of a sin committed in ignorance?
What happens if you are invited by a pilot into the cockpit, and you accidentally bump into a button that sends the plane into a fatal dive? Do those consequences match the sin?
A lot of questions arise. Why did God let Satan into the garden? Could he not have driven him out? Why did God not intervene and protect Adam and Eve from the serpent? Why didn't he put one of those plastic flip-covers over the tree like they do in cockpits, to make them think twice? Why did he send an angel afterwards to guard the barn after the horses got out?
My point is that you can't judge the culpability of Adam and Eve strictly on the basis of the disasterous results of what they did.
"What happens if you are invited by a pilot into the cockpit, and you accidentally bump into a button that sends the plane into a fatal dive? Do those consequences match the sin?"
Supposing that bumping into that button was a sin (for the sake of argument), if the intent to commit the sin is missing then the person isn't culpable. The results are the same regardless of the intent, so the plane would still crash, but the person who accidentally bumped into the button in the cockpit wouldn't have committed a sin, although he would probably feel a bit stupid about it when he stands before God.
In the case with Adam and Eve, if they didn't know that what they were doing was so very wrong then God wouldn't have punished them - and all of their descendents - so harshly.
Adam and Eve didn't just get kicked out of the Garden, their filial relationship with God was destroyed and wasn't restored until after the Incarnation.
"A lot of questions arise. Why did God let Satan into the garden?"
To allow Adam and Eve to be tested. Everyone who enters Heaven is tested first: all of the angels were tested and 1/3 flunked :) even Christ was tested while He walked the earth.
"Could he not have driven him out? Why did God not intervene and protect Adam and Eve from the serpent?"
Yes, He could have, but Adam didn't call on Him for help the way he was supposed to.
"Why didn't he put one of those plastic flip-covers over the tree like they do in cockpits, to make them think twice?"
Wait - does that mean you *couldn't* accidentally hit that button after all?!?! :)
"Why did he send an angel afterwards to guard the barn after the horses got out?"
To protect them from eternal death, the way Satan had planned. They were in the state of mortal sin after eating of the forbidden fruit. If they had eaten again while in that state it would have meant permanent separation from God or eternal death. Compare this to receiving the Eucharist while in a state of mortal sin, and then dying without repenting.
So you say God allowed Adam and Eve to be tempted so they could be tested. But God already knows our hearts, and knew they would fall. Moreover Scripture tells us we ought not to claim that God is testing us whenever we face temptations. There has to be more here than meets the eye.
As for why God did not protect them from Satan, you're doing a good job of regurgitating Scott Hahn (evil grin), but was Adam mature and experienced enough to know he ought to call upon God, to know that God would come when he was called, and to know that there were dangers he needed to watch out for? Certainly none of this is recounted in Genesis. I'd argue that Adam and Eve's only fault was that they were naive.
You said, "In the case with Adam and Eve, if they didn't know that what they were doing was so very wrong then God wouldn't have punished them - and all of their descendents - so harshly." Well that was my point about the vase — was it really punishment they got, or the natural consequences of what they did? The destruction of the plane is not punishment for the infant's fatal fandango; it's a natural consequence. So I would argue that Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden not out of punishment, but for their own protection — their nature, as it were, had become corrupted in such a way that made it in some way incompatible with heaven necessitating quarantine in this world (or something like that). Think of the "bubble boy". His plastic environment was not punishment for any sin; rather, it was necessitated by the weakness of his nature. I think you are right in that they might have risked eternal separation from God if they had stayed in Eden, and I like the comparison to the Eucharist because I firmly believe that the Eucharist is the fruit of the tree of life. But I don't look at these things as punishments, anymore than I look at quarantine, shots and blood tests, iodine and alcohol, dentist's drills, and what have you as punishments.
I realized I never answered this quesion:
"Suppose you walk into my house, and accidentally and unavoidably knocked over a vase, through no fault of your own. The vase falls and shatters. Do the consequences fit the crime?"
The consequences match the actions, but there was no crime. The vase shattered (I would have cleaned it up, too!) but I didn't get kicked out into the snow :)
"So you say God allowed Adam and Eve to be tempted so they could be tested. But God already knows our hearts, and knew they would fall."
Just as he knew what Judas would do, but Judas still exercised his free will and betrayed God. God knew what he would do, and even warned him about it, but didn't forcibly stop him. God knew what Adam and Eve would do and gave them all that they needed to keep from sinning, but still allowed them to exercise their free will and reject Him.
"Moreover Scripture tells us we ought not to claim that God is testing us whenever we face temptations."
Sure, but that doesn't mean that we're not tested.
"As for why God did not protect them from Satan, you're doing a good job of regurgitating Scott Hahn (evil grin), but was Adam mature and experienced enough to know he ought to call upon God, to know that God would come when he was called, and to know that there were dangers he needed to watch out for? Certainly none of this is recounted in Genesis. I'd argue that Adam and Eve's only fault was that they were naive."
LOL It's not just Scott Hahn, it's also St. Ephraim (I'm still looking for the links!). The punishments given to both Adam and Eve give us an indication of their sins because the punishments fit the crimes. For example, one of the woman's punishments (she wasn't named Eve yet) was:
thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have dominion over thee
This makes sense if she was trying to seize power over him. I believe St. Ephraim said that Adam was first (or oldest) in humanity, so she wanted to be first in divinity, which she thought she would gain by eating of the Tree of Knowledge. Also notice that it's only after this, when Adam is given dominion over her, that he names her. He named all of the animals since he had dominion over them, but recognized the woman as his equal, so he had no right to name her before the Fall.
No wisecracks about that - Christ restored the marital relationship to where it was supposed to be in the first place!
But Amy, why do we have to look at what happened to Adam and Eve as punishments?
Perhaps they were thrown out of garden for their own safety, as we discussed before, not as a punishment. Like I said, the Bubble Boy's bubble was not a punishment, it was a necessity.
And the words that God spoke to them — was it a condemnation, or simply a prophecy of the results? Maybe God was simply recounting the natural consequences.
Is the idea that these things were "punishments" (as opposed to natural consequences) something that is explicitly stated in Scripture, or is it merely a popular interpretation?
Is the idea that these things were "punishments" (as opposed to natural consequences) something that is explicitly stated in Scripture, or is it merely a popular interpretation?
Gen 3:7 would seem to be the natural consequences:
"And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons."
God later pronounced curses directly, which leads me to believe that they were punishments from Him rather than natural consequences.
I can see how some things would be the natural consequences but not others. When we commit a mortal sin there are natural consequences that will affect us whether we realize we're committing a mortal sin or not. Contraception is associated with divorce (or at the very least seriously damages the couple's relationship) even when the couple doesn't know that they've committed a mortal sin. If they're acting without full knowledge they are not guilty of committing a mortal sin but will still feel the temporal effects from it.
However, if they don't know that they're sinning, they will have a very different answer when they go before God than a couple who knows that contraception is a mortal sin but contracepts anyway.
If the sin committed by Adam and Eve was done without the full knowledge of the gravity of their sin, it makes sense that the natural consequences would still affect them. It doesn't make sense to me that God would heap additional curses on top of that to punish them for actions committed in ignorance.