Lesson – Genesis i. 27‒31; ii. 1‒10
So God created man in His Own image. In the image of God He created him: male and female He created them. And God blessed them, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the Earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the Earth.” And God said: “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of the Earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it will be for meat. And to every beast of the Earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creeps upon the Earth in which there is life [I have given it] for meat.” And it was so. And God saw everything that He had made, and it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the Sixth Day. Then the heavens and the Earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work, which He created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the Earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the heavens and the Earth, and every plant of the field before it sprung up in the Earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the Earth, and there was not a man to till the ground; but there rose up a spring from the Earth and watered the whole face of the ground. So the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God had planted a garden earlier in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food: the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.Dom Prosper Guéranger:
The serpent said to the woman: “Why has God commanded you that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?” (Genesis iii. 1). Thus opened the conversation which our mother Eve so rashly consents to hold with God’s enemy. She ought to have refused all intercourse with Satan. She did not and thereby she imperils the salvation of the whole human race. Let us recall to mind the events that have happened up to this fatal hour. God, in His omnipotence and love, has created two beings upon whom He has lavished all the riches of His goodness. He has destined them for immortality, and this undying life is to have everything that can make it perfectly happy. The whole of nature is made subject to them. A countless posterity is to come from them and love them with all the tenderness of grateful children. Nay, this God of goodness who has created them deigns to be on terms of intimacy with them, and such is their simple innocence that this adorable condescension does not seem strange to them. But there is something far beyond all this. He, whom they have hitherto known by favours of an inferior order, prepares for them a happiness which surpasses all they could picture with every effort of thought. They must first go through a trial, and if faithful, God will bestow the great gift as a recompense they have merited. And this is the gift: He will give them to know Him in Himself, make them partakers of His own glory, and make their happiness infinite and eternal. Yes, this is what God has done, and is preparing to do for these two beings who, but a while ago, were nothing!
In return for all these gratuitous and magnificent gifts, God asks of them but one thing: and it is that they acknowledge His dominion over them. Nothing, surely, can be sweeter to them than to make such a return. Nothing could be more just. All they are, and all they have, and all the lovely creation around them, has been produced out of nothing by the lavish munificence of this God. They must, then, live for Him, faithful, loving and grateful. He asks them to give Him one only proof of this fidelity, love and gratitude: He bids them not to eat of the fruit of one single tree. The only return He asks for all the favours He has bestowed on them is the observance of this easy commandment. His sovereign justice will be satisfied by this act of obedience. They ought to accept such terms with hearty readiness and comply with them with a holy pride, as being not only the tie which will unite them with their God, but as the only means in their power of paying Him what He asks of them. But there comes another voice, the voice of a creature, and it speaks to the woman: “Why has God commanded you that you should not eat of every tree?” And Eve dares, and has the heart, to listen to him that asks why her divine Benefactor has put a command upon her! She can bear to hear the justice of God’s will called in question! Instead of protesting against the sacrilegious words, she tamely answers them! Her God is blasphemed and she is not indignant! How dearly we will have to pay for this ungrateful indifference, this indiscretion!
“And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in Paradise we do eat, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of Paradise, God has commanded us that we should not eat, and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die” (Genesis iii. 2, 3). Thus Eve not only listens to the serpent’s question: she answers him. She converses with the wicked spirit that tempts her. She exposes herself to danger. Her fidelity to her Maker is compromised. True, the words she uses show that she has not forgotten His command, but they imply a certain hesitation which savours of pride and ingratitude. The Spirit of Evil finds that he has excited, in this heart, a love of independence, and that if he can but persuade her that she will not suffer from her disobedience, she is his victim. He, therefore, further addresses her with these blasphemous and lying words: “No, you will not die the death, for God knows that in whatever day you will eat thereof, your eyes will be opened and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis iii. 4, 5). What he proposes to Eve is open rebellion. He has kindled within her that perfidious love of self which is man’s worst evil, and which, if it be indulged, breaks the tie between him and his Creator. Thus the blessings God has bestowed, the obligation of gratitude, personal interest — all are to be disregarded and forgotten. Ungrateful man would become god. He would imitate the rebel Angels. He will fall as they did.
