East of Eden

Adam and Eve had it all. God created them in His own Image, and He gave them dominion over all the living things of the earth. He created a garden in which they could dwell. What more could Adam and Eve possibly have asked for?

Yet the Eden God created was not without temptation. In the midst of the Lord’s wonderful bounty, the fruit of every tree was theirs for the taking but one. Why did they find the fruit of that one tree so irresistible? There was no evil in the world that God created until that first sin. Only then did Adam and Eve know evil, and only then, too late, did they appreciate the goodness of God. The tree truly did impart to them the knowledge for which it was named.

How, we ask now, could Adam and Eve have been so stupid? What a pair of idiots. It’s easy to blame them for blowing it for the rest of us.

But did they? We are all born in original sin, and even though we could learn from their mistake, we continue to perpetuate their sin every day. Every day we reach for more than God wishes for us. No matter what we have, it’s never enough. As if life wasn’t sweet enough, we overindulge in sex or drugs or alcohol. Even if we’re wealthy, we need even more money or a larger car or boat or house or more power and influence. The list is limited only by the things human beings desire. As they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence…no matter which side we’re on. We are never satisfied. That is our sin, our curse.

When Siddhartha discovered enlightenment sitting beneath that Banyan tree, he realized that the cause of all pain was desire. He realized that we could not know nirvana until we overcame desire. The first step for St. John of the Cross[1] in seeking Divine Union was the mortification of desire. Jesus taught that we should not worry about what we are to wear or to eat, for our Heavenly Father will provide for us no less than the birds of the air or the wildflowers.[2] He taught that His yoke is easy and His burden light, but only by losing our life will we find it.[3] In the Peace Prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi[4], he said that it is only by dying that we will come know eternal life. Neither Jesus nor St. Francis were speaking of literal death but of death to ourselves, death to what we desire.

Of course we cannot completely escape desire. We desire to breathe, to eat, to live and work and procreate. Not all desire is bad. We simply have to learn to distinguish between our own willful desire and that which God desires for us. We must die to ourselves and live for His Will. I won’t pretend that it is always easy, but often it is just as clear as it was for Adam and Eve. In that case God told them what His Will was. Quite often God’s Will is just as clear for us, but we choose to ignore it. We grasp for what we want simply because we can and for no other reason. And in so doing we assure we will never see Eden. We cannot blame Adam and Eve. We are Adam and Eve.

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[1] The Ascent of Mount Carmel and Dark Night of the Soul

[2] Matthew 6:25-34

[3] Matthew 10:39

[4] The Prayer of St. Francis