The dynamic of the first fall of our first parents that we call Original Sin is fascinating in its psychology and can easily be applied to our own lives, our own temptations, our own falls and our own rebounds! Indeed when we read the Bible, which is truly the Word of God, we must read our own lives into the Biblical reality.
HOLY SPIRIT. Before reading and meditating the Word of God always beg the Holy Spirit to enlighten your mind, as well as to touch your heart so that you will truly have an encounter with God on an ever deeper level! This being said, what are some the golden nuggets of wisdom that we can glean from this passage that we are most likely familiar with, but possibly have never really read and meditated in great depth.
1. LOVE IN CREATION. God is love and love gives of itself. God wanted to share His life by creating human life and by creating Adam and Eve. Of all of the levels of creation on earth the creation of Adam and Eve was the most lofty, sublime and important. If you like, the creation of the human person was and still is the crown of creation. God created al other things for the purpose of man and woman and their eternal salvation.
2. FREEDOM. God is love, but God desires to be loved in return. To love demands freedom; freedom, however, always demands a risk of abusing it! In other words with respect to freedom Adam and Eve could have either used the freedom to glorify and praise God or to abuse their freedom and allow sin to enter into the world.
3. THE TEST: THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT. The only prohibition that God imposed on Adam and Eve was to avoid eating the fruit in the middle of the Garden, the fruit from the tree of knowledge; if done, they would die! The life of man and woman on earth is a constant testing ground to either obey God or reject God’s command. This goes back to the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.
4. THE SERPENT: THE DEVIL IN DISGUISE. The devil arrives on the scene disguised as a serpent or snake! Often the devil will disguise himself, as we saw in the film of Mel Gibson, the Passion of the Christ—huge yellow snake, small snake, man, woman or a combo of both!!! The devil wants to deceive and trick!
5. FATHER OF LIES. Jesus will call the devil the “Father of lies and a murderer from the beginning.” The devil talks to Eve and lies about God! Eve enters into conversation with the ancient serpent, the devil! By entering into conversation the devil lies to her and tricks her to doubt the goodness of God. How often have we entered into a conversation with the ancient serpent, the devil, in our mind? The devil has presented us with the forbidden fruit in our mind—money, illicit sexual pleasure, power, fame, vanity, revenge, jealousy, greed, etc.—and the devil has painted it as good. Just as the forbidden fruit appeared to be good for the sight and tasty for eating, so how often has the devil pulled a fast one on us, pulled the wool over our eyes by lying to us, tricking us and deceiving us???
6. SIN THROUGH THE GATEWAYS OF PERCEPTION: THE EYES! Another key lesson or message that we can learn from Adam and Eve, but especially in the case of Eve is the use or better said the “abuse” of the eyes. The devil tempted Eve to use her eyes to look up to the forbidden fruit. The eyes are the mirror of the soul. By looking at the forbidden fruit the temptation and alluring force became even more powerful, almost irresistible! Today we live in AN IMAGE WORLD: Instagram, Facebook, Photos, t.v. movies and magazines. It is not a surprise what I will write now—the most powerful poisonous as well as addictive image is that of pornography! How many people in the modern world have viewed pornography? How many have serious addictions that despite many efforts, cannot overcome this powerful chain? In a word, we live in a pornographic world! The lifting of the eyes to the forbidden fruit done in the Garden of Eden today is the use of the eyes to view immoral and impure and highly addictive pictures in the modern electronics show-case, wherever that show case may present itself!
7. CONSENT OF THE WILL. Being totally seduced by the enemy, Eve lifts up her hand, gives full consent of the will, grabs from the forbidden fruit and bites into it! ORIGINAL SIN!!! From Original Sin that we are all born with, flows actual sin. If the action is serious—in moral theology called “Grave-Matter”, one has full knowledge as well as full consent of the will then a mortal sin is committed. How often have we seen the forbidden fruit, knowing it is evil, we still bite into it and taste the bitter fruit???
8. SHARING IN EVIL. Adam could have walked away from Eve and told her to take up the matter with God, but we all know that Adam also took and ate from the forbidden fruit. He shared in the sin of Eve. Both of them were responsible for the commission of Original Sin. 9. SOCIAL EFFECT OF SIN. One of the effects of sin as a whole is that all too often our sin has effects as well as repercussions on other people. As the poet Wordsworth so clearly stated: “No one is an island unto himself.” Indeed our actions do affect others. Eve led Adam into sin. Still Adam is just enough to blame as Eve. Given that Adam was the husband, should he have not warned Eve of the danger of being so close to the forbidden tree and prevented the sin???
10. NEAR OCCASION OF SIN.
Another point worthy of reflection is the following: both Eve as well as Adam should have never even gotten close to the forbidden fruit. In sum, they had placed themselves in the near occasion of sin!
How often has this happened in our own lives??? We draw close to a person, place, thing or circumstance that we know is dangerous. We are close to the forbidden fruit, exactly like Adam and Eve. In other words we are playing with fire, walking on ice, climbing up a slippery slope and playing in danger. Most likely, like Adam and Eve we too end up by biting into and eating from the forbidden fruit!
