A Garden, A Snake, And Some Fashion Advice

First reading	Genesis 3:9-24

The expulsion from the Garden of Eden

The Lord God called to the man. ‘Where are you?’ he asked.

  ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’

  ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he asked ‘

   Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?’

  The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’

  Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’

  The woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate.’

 

 Then the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this,

‘Be accursed beyond all cattle,

all wild beasts.

You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust

every day of your life.

I will make you enemies of each other:

you and the woman,

your offspring and her offspring.

It will crush your head

and you will strike its heel.’

To the woman he said:

‘I will multiply your pains in childbearing,

you shall give birth to your children in pain.

Your yearning shall be for your husband,

yet he will lord it over you.’

To the man he said, ‘Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat,

‘Accursed be the soil because of you.

With suffering shall you get your food from it

every day of your life.

It shall yield you brambles and thistles,

and you shall eat wild plants.

With sweat on your brow

shall you eat your bread,

until you return to the soil,

as you were taken from it.

For dust you are

and to dust you shall return.’

The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live. The Lord God made clothes out of skins for the man and his wife, and they put them on. Then the Lord God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, with his knowledge of good and evil. He must not be allowed to stretch his hand out next and pick from the tree of life also, and eat some and live forever.’ So the Lord God expelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he had been taken. He banished the man, and in front of the garden of Eden he posted the cherubs, and the flame of a flashing sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.

I love the story of creation in Genesis. It explains everything!  Where we came from, what we did to screw it up, what happened when we screwed it up, and what God did to get us on the road to getting it right. 

Enter the snake.  Eve is sitting there looking at the tree that she was not supposed to touch.  She had no real intention of touching it because God said not to. But it was a beautiful tree, and the fruit looked so juicy and good and it was in the middle of this garden with so many lovely things.  The snake comes to  her and asks, "Hey babe, what are you doing?"  She replies that she is sitting here looking at the tree that God told her not to touch.  Then she exaggerates and adds that she is not supposed to even look at it!  The snake uses this as his opening and tells her, "Pish posh young countess, He is a clever old man and He knows that once you taste this wonderful fruit that you will have the knowledge of good and evil.  Long story short, she ate some, brought some to Adam who ate it too and suddenly they noticed that their wardrobe was unusually thin, as in missing. So, they sewed together some fig leaves and covered themselves and hid from God.  That evening God came as was His custom to visit with Adam and Eve but, the author of Genesis says that God could not find them.  When He did He asked why they were hiding and they said it was because they were naked and afraid.  It is at this point everyone in our story gets paid.  The snake, he will crawl on the ground and eat dust all his days and the woman will win in the end and crush his head.  Eve gets the pains of childbirth and a yearning for her man.  Adam gets to till the soil and provide for his wife. Adam and Eve are shown to the door of the Garden of Eden, pushed through it and find that they cannot go back as it is guarded by cherubim and a firey sword.  

It sure sounds like God was angry with Adam and Eve and they received a stiff punishment. What they used to get for free, they had to work for. They flung seed out, watered it and while food grew, there also grew up thistles and weeds that they had to deal with. You don't want to anger God.  But wait, even though they were punished, God still showed them how much he cared for them.  Recall that Adam in his finite wisdom sewed together fig leaves so that they might cover themselves?  Well, he could not have made a worse choice for his and her matching outfits.  The leaves of the fig tree exude psoralens which is a substance that when activated by the ultraviolet rays of the sun will cause contact dermatitis and severe skin irritation. 

Why did Adam and Eve choose fig leaves?  Could it be that they knew what they had done was wrong and that they were dressing in a penitential garment? Could be that they were.  This garment would have caused redness, blisters, weeping sores, and they would probably have spent a lot of time scratching. God knew this and he recognized their contrition and instead of paying them the wages of sin, that is death, on the spot, he instead made for them clothing out of animal skin, which still might be a bit uncomfortable but nothing like the selection of the Fig Leaf Collection at the Garden of Eden going out of business sale! 

God does the same for us. To sin against God is the worst thing we can do. Even the smallest of sins offend God whose greatness and whose holiness we cannot begin to understand.   Our conscience knows this and we carry guilt as if we had eaten the forbidden fruit and as if we were wearing a stylish fig leaf garment. Every sin, no matter how small, except for the love of God for His sons and daughters could carry the death penalty. Instead of giving us what we deserve, He gives us His love and forgiveness to mesh with our repentance.  We come to Him is pain wear a fig leaf and He weaves a garment of love and forgiveness for us that removes the pain we carry in our conscience and restores us as honored members of His family.  

Please remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory today in your prayers.  Think especially of the millions of our Protestant brothers and sisters who have no one at all to pray for them.  Remember your family members and friends who have passed away, they may be there and need your prayers.  If they are not in Purgatory, then the prayers you pray will help another deserving soul.