Image and Likeness - Installment Six

c. The consequences of sin

“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” (Gen 3.7)

Before sinning, Adam and Eve had dwelt in the garden in a state of intimate communion with God and with each other. This state of communion manifested an openness that left no room for shame. “And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.” (Gen 2.25) Now, however, they had chosen against the Will of God and the likeness to God was irreparably diminished. The lie of their disobedience brought forth shame within them. It is in this light that their nakedness became intolerable. The physical nakedness that needed covering was itself symbolic of the spiritual nakedness of sin. Man shamefully seeks to avoid the consequences of his spiritual nakedness by covering over his physical nakedness. This physical nakedness has revealed the physical differences between the male and female. The complementariness of their creation as human beings has been lost in a focus on differences that result in shame.

And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Gen 3.8-10)

In the same way that Adam and Eve attempted to cover their nakedness from each other, they now hide from God. Man does not want God to see the sin he has committed and so attempts to hide from Him. “I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

The desire to hide the effect of sin from God reveals sin’s effect of warping man’s understanding of God. Intimacy with God has been lost through sin and now man conceives of God as dangerous, not to be trusted; Someone from whom he must hide. This is the closing off of that openness which formerly characterized human life. Man’s very personhood has been diminished in the rejection of that intimacy with God that was a constituent part of man’s very being. With the closing of this communion with God, all effective communion with others (exemplified here by Eve) is also demolished. The intellect, the conscience, the very core of man’s existence has been reduced to a focus on fear, isolation and shame.

The faltering admission of Adam, framed in his acknowledgement that he was naked, provokes not immediate death but the opportunity to repent. The serpent had mixed falsity with truth in the temptation in exclaiming, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3.4f) The particular truth that hid the lie was the claim “you will not die”, for the Evil One knew that the death of which God spoke when He said, “in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gen 2.17) was not an instantaneous physical one, although physical death would also result from the sin. Nonetheless, a spiritual death has already taken place in the breaking of communion.

With the sin came the end of the intimate communion with God for which man was created. The effect of this new perverted life was the opening of a void in the very essence of man’s existence, the loss of that which gave his bodily life immortality and enlightened his soul. However, the image of God could not be totally lost in man; it could only be perverted. The Love of God, which as noted above is itself the very Essence of God’s Being, would still animate man, would continue to instill in him a desire for love and a propensity within himself to love.

But this propensity and longing would necessarily be corrupted by the absence within man of that intimacy with God that was its origin and defining source. The life of man, created to be immortal, both soul and body, ever growing and evolving into greater likeness to God, his creator, was now separated from God. Thus, physical as well as spiritual decay would set in.

Yet, this mortality was itself both a consequence of man’s sin and a gift from God. Death would prevent the continual degradation of man. The separation of man from God would not be allowed to continue unabated to eternity. Although the Evil One had succeeded in corrupting and halting the growth in the likeness of God within man, he was unable to fully extinguish the Image in which man was created. Death would put an end to the disfigurement of man’s soul – that corrupting rot that disfigures and demonizes humanity. It is also within the context of this slow fruition of the consequences of sin that the opportunity for repentance laid.

The process of repentance is offered to man in the form of a dialogue. As God is all knowing, He has no need to question Adam for His own benefit, rather God will question him to provide a chance for Adam to admit his sin and thus seek the reestablishment of that intimacy that had marked his existence heretofore.

Man has already betrayed his transgression by attempting to hide from God. This reveals the break in communion with God caused by eating of the fruit. It is impossible for anyone or anything to be hidden from God, who is all-knowing. Thus, God begins the dialogue by offering the man an opportunity to confess his transgression. “He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" (Gen 3.11) These questions serve two purposes.

The first question regarding nakedness confronts Adam with the reality of his shame in having chosen to separate himself from God. The intimate communion with God before the transgression covered him, as it were, with the Love of God that perceives all of creation as “good” (cf above). The human being, created in the image of God, enjoys an innate goodness and beauty that cannot be shameful in itself. Thus, ‘nakedness’ is a condition defined by separation, lack of intimacy, and the rightful perception of inferiority. That Adam recognizes his nakedness betrays his own awareness that he has separated himself from God and therefore no longer enjoys the intimacy that previously covered him.

The second question arises both as a consequence of the first and as the opportunity for the man to offer an honest recognition of the sin and express the contrition that could open the door to reunion. God confronts Adam with the fact that his nakedness could only become an issue of shame if he has “eaten of the tree”. Unless this is the case, man’s nakedness would not be a cause of shame. Therefore, confronted with this reality, God’s question concerning the tree of knowledge of good and evil is itself an invitation for Adam to confess his transgression. It is through confession that the man will accept the reality of his sin and thereby seek the forgiveness of God, the restoration to that state of communion lost in his decision to disobey. Again being united in the intimacy of his original creation and returned to the true path, man will begin again to grow in the likeness of God for which he was created.

Next Installment: The Consequences of Sin (continued)

My Lady Sleeping

Your suffering, My Love, is now over,
and deep in slumber you rest in the shade;
while left behind and wounded I linger,
my injuries never to be allayed.

Dearest One, in this life how I loved you,
though sincerely I doubt you ever knew
the truth of how deeply I would miss you,
wandering a darkness I'd ever rue.

Here without you I remain left alone.
Day but dawns on another vale of tears,
and midst the lengthening shadows I moan,
and weep for the barren expanse of years.

My God, how malicious you seem to me
to abandon me and take her away.
How pitiless that you did set her free,
and leave me here to tread this empty way.

O My Lord, why did you let me meet her?
Why allow her beauty to pierce my soul
only to rip her away and take her,
and my life never again to be whole?

For now I'm am once again without hope;
my life adrift, storm tossed, crushed on the shores
of futility where I can but tope
the chalice of misery ever more.

Each day now passes slowly into night,
a darkness that only feigns to give way.
I fumble along an endless twilight,
pleading with God to reveal why I stay

while she who was so dear, so beautiful,
should now slumber in the peace of the shade.
God, what sin of mine was ever so cruel
as this exile of my life you have made?

My life’s light you will ever be, My Love.
Twas your radiance alone could give birth
to a life worth living, soaring above
the misty darkness that covers my earth.

Words are too weak to bear my love for you.
Let it suffice that I miss you and pray
for that day's start where all will shine anew,
and ever after once more we may stay

together, never more parted. Dear One,
may my days pass swiftly till this life's through
and I may hold you again at heaven's dawn
and to ages of ages cherish you.

Sometimes you cheer; sometimes you cry; sometimes you just have to laugh

So all those disappointed folks in the US and England can smile.

Image and Likeness - Installment Five

b. Anatomy of the First Temptation

The serpent (Satan) speaks to Eve. This should not surprise us. Adam and Eve exist in a state of communion with God and His creation. Adam has given names to all creatures (cf Gen 2.19-20). In Scripture, names indicate the spiritual reality of the creature. Consequently, a name also indicates a spiritual relationship between the one who names and the one who is named. The name symbolizes how the creature is perceived and thus how the one who names will interact with the one who is named. This also explains why the Name of God in the Old Testament is so mysterious, and why It is not spoken by devout Jews to this day.

Scripture does not specify how the serpent speaks to Eve. As we have noted above, far from being a simple snake, the serpent is in fact Satan. As a fallen ‘angel’, Satan has spiritual powers that allow him to tempt man. He has the ability to deceive through his use of these powers. This being so, the exact means by which Satan communicated his temptation to Eve is not given, and to some extent it is not relevant. Suffice it to say, “Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.” (Psalm 36.1)

As we have noted above, human beings are created as communal creatures. It is through speaking that man primarily communicates with others. Thus, all communication, even spiritual communication, is understood and ascribed in Scripture in terms of verbal communication.

The serpent begins his conversation with Eve by asking a question: “Did God say, `You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?” (Gen 3.1) This question serves two purposes. Firstly, it presents the serpent as innocently seeking knowledge about God’s command. This places Eve in a position of superiority, as she will have the answer. Secondly, it plays upon the free will. God has told Adam and Eve that eating of the tree will result in their death, but He has not explained why or how this will happen. Up to this point, Adam and Eve have not asked Him. Love does not seek knowledge; it seeks intimacy. Thus, they have had no need to question God’s motives.

However, by framing the question in this way, the serpent has already begun his temptation. Why has God forbidden eating of this tree? What is it about this tree that makes its fruit forbidden? We might say that the serpent has planted a “seed of doubt” with Eve that, even if lying dormant for some time, threatens to grow with disastrous consequences.

Eve enters the conversation. “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, `You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” (Gen 3.2) The Church Fathers have noted that Eve’s answer already shows the effect of the serpent’s temptation. God did not prohibit man from touching the tree or its fruit, only that man was not to eat the fruit.

We may further note that Eve’s answer shows the method the devil uses in temptation; first the spiritual; and then the physical. The doubt raised in Eve’s heart by the serpent’s question has raised a desire that manifests itself in the exaggeration or misrepresentation of God’s command. This allows her to enter into the temptation. Is eating of the fruit much different from handling it? All the trees of the garden are, after all, “pleasant to the sight and good for food”; why is this one forbidden? (Gen 2.9)

Also noteworthy is the fact that death itself is mysterious. One can easily understand what the death of another means, but the death of oneself is truly unimaginable. The end of my life, with life going on around and without me, is something I cannot comprehend except in an abstract way. This persistence of expectation of existence is part of the image and likeness of God. Eve, as one of the first two created people, understands death even less than do we since at this point in time no death has yet occurred in creation.

The serpent now presses home the temptation. “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3.4 – 5) Eve can see the fruit and desire it, she can smell it, hold it. Now the serpent assures her that the threatened consequence for eating it is false. Death, that which she cannot comprehend anyway, will not follow if she eats of it. The serpent has used simple logic, albeit with a false premise, to lead Eve to a logical (and false) conclusion.

In the serpent’s rejoinder the deception of his temptation, the lie, is clearly seen. If Eve eats of the fruit her eyes will be opened, and she will “be like God” and know good and evil. Eve already has full communion with God, yet here she is promised that somehow there is something lacking which she can obtain by means of her own choice to disobey God. She, who is already created in the image and likeness of God, is promised falsely that although she ‘is not like’ God she can be through eating of this fruit. In short, by eating the fruit, she will gain knowledge and this knowledge will be what will ‘truly’ make her like God.

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate.” (Gen 3.6) The voice of temptation (the serpent) has spoken to Eve’s heart. A longing awakes within her and weakens her weakened trust in God, which in turn leads to her sin.

We must clarify that the pursuit of wisdom is not sinful in and of itself. Rather, the pursuit of a wisdom that is contrary to God leads to sin. It is in acceding to temptation that wisdom betrays and the responsibility for sin becomes personal. Sin warps our understanding and leads to desires that are contrary to the good for which and in which we were created. To some extent, every sin manifests itself in a gained ‘knowledge’ that separates us from God. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who practice it.” (Psalm 111.10) Fear of the Lord is not cowardly terror; it is the fear that comes in love. This fear recognizes that my completeness is found in the other; thus, my fear of God is a recognition that the loss of communion with God shatters my completeness and leaves me less than I am and less than I was created to be; this fear it not a matter of servile fear that God will bring me to harm in some way.

In the course of revelation history, God manifests Himself in many ways, and ultimately as Love. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4.16) This mutual abiding in love reflects the image of God within us. It draws from us godly purpose and wholesome desire, through which true wisdom is built up. When Eve enters into the temptation of the serpent she no longer recognizes the gift of God’s image within her, and the wisdom she imagines she will receive in disobeying God becomes reflective of enviousness and pride. These passions reveal the deficit of a rejection of the fullness of humanity within the person and consequent longing for completeness. As this completeness can only be obtained in the intimate communion with God, in whose image we are created, all other choices are deadly. Thus, the responsibility for Eve’s sin falls on her. The serpent may tempt her, but she exercises free will in disobedience.

This should also clarify that Adam’s participation in the sin of eating of the fruit is in no way innocent or the result of deception on Eve’s part. Adam’s fall is entirely the result of his misuse of his free will. Some have portrayed Eve as giving Adam the fruit in a manner in which he did not recognize it. This is no more than an attempt excuse him from his own responsibility in his fall. The reality of his responsibility for his own sin will be clearly manifest when God confronts him.

Next Installment: The Consequences of Sin

Remembering my father

Today is the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Forerunner (for those following the New Calendar). It also marks the anniversary of the birth of my father (a coincidence that ensured his was always the family birthday I never forgot).

In a way, this particular anniversary begins a series of commemorations that undoubtedly will prove difficult for my family and me. As some of you know, my father fell asleep in the Lord last summer, and of course I will be remembering him appropriately on the anniversary of his repose. That said, I find myself thinking of him today and so offer this small post in his honor.

He did the best he could with the lot he was given, and he stood by me when my beloved wife reposed. Thanks be to God, he reposed in the Faith with full Last Rites.

May his memory be eternal.

Bravo Team USA

Congratulations to the USA, for making it into the knockout round of the World Cup Football Tournament.

And congratulations also to our mates across the pond, the United Kingdom.

Feel free to blow your vuvuzelas...just not near me, eh?

Image and Likeness - Installment Four

TEMPTATION, SIN AND THE FALL OF MAN

With what we have considered thus far, we may proceed to examine in detail the events recounted in chapter three of Genesis – the first sin and fall from paradise.

At the end of the second account of creation, Adam and Eve are placed in the garden. God has revealed “it is not good that the man should be alone” and created animals and ultimately the female, Eve. (Gen 2.18-24 passim) The likeness of God within man draws him from isolation to communion. Even as God is in a Community of Persons (the Most Holy Trinity), the essence of man, itself possessing that image of God within him, impels him to seek community, to discover his humanity (as it were) in others. The harmony of male and female uncovers the abundance of humanity and reveals the image of God to man. Communion with God, intimacy with the Divine, is incarnated in the union of male and female and in the fellowship of community.

This is the setting at the opening of chapter three. Adam and Eve share communion in the garden with God, both with and through each other and with God. The spiritual intimacy of human life unfolds in its fullness in the paradise of communal intimacy with God.

a. The Serpent – Satan

It is striking then that chapter three begins with the serpent. “Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the LORD God had made.” (Gen 3.1a) We may immediately conclude that the serpent is not another God. God is the creator of all things. Therefore, the serpent is a creature. (Gen 1.1, Wis 11.25) As a creature, the serpent was created good since everything created by God is good. (Gen 1.31)

Yet, we see already in the tone of the text that the serpent (a ‘wild creature’) will play a discordant note in the history of the world. In fact, the serpent is not just some metaphorical “snake in the grass”, he the devil. Scripture does not dwell on the devil, but sufficient information is given that the Church has come to a clear understanding of who this creature is and the purpose over which he has given himself to accomplish.

The devil is often called Satan and is first mentioned by name in the book of Job. In Job, Satan is described as walking to and fro over the earth. (Job 1.7) He accuses Job of hypocrisy and causes a series of events designed to bring Job to despair. (Job 2 passim) In First Chronicles, Satan tempts David into ordering a census, contrary to the Will of God. (I Chr 21.1) In Zechariah, Satan is seen standing next to the high priest accusing him before God. (Zec 3.1f) The Apocalypse identifies Satan specifically as the serpent and reveals him to be an angel.

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.” (Rev 12.9-10)

We can thus conclude that Satan is a deceiver who accuses man before God. He existed before man was created, but is himself a creature nonetheless.

Further, he was himself cast out of heaven. Our Lord says of him, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” (Luke 10.18) The Wisdom of Solomon reveals that the reason for his fall was envy. “God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.” (Wis 2.23f) Moreover, our Lord says of him, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8.44)

From these passages and others, the Fathers of the Church have taught that Satan was a spiritual being created by God with wisdom and power. Yet Satan rebelled against God, and in his pride and envy attempts to deceive man into similar rebellion. How he seeks to accomplish this is seen in clear detail in Genesis chapter three.

Next Installment: Anatomy of the First Temptation