God created man in His own image and likeness. He endowed him with a mind and freedom, and therefore made posible that among all the living creatures on earth, only man has the ability to love God and other people. For man, to be happy means to love and be loved in turn. Paradise is a symbol of this initial state of happiness. Man lived in the certain knowledge arising out of faith, one that said only God was necessary for man for complete happiness. He lived in the conviction that he is loved by God and that it was only from God that he draws everything that is necessary for life and happiness. It is necessary to remember that happiness in paradise was to be complete when man turned to God, and therefore in the moment when he would become part of divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). God therefore calls man into existence without his consent but can give him complete happiness only when man of his own free will accept the love of the Creator. The first people before commiting mortal sin were happy but this was a happiness in progress, a happiness that was to reach completeness only at the moment when man would turn to God, thanks to a voluntary acceptance of Gods love. An important part of mans life in paradise was the belief in what God said in the commandment: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die (Gen. 2:17). The tree of knowledge of good and evil is therefore a symbol of truth, one that God revealed to man. What manner of truth is that? What does this prohibition of consuming the fruit of this single tree really mean? God simply wished to tell man the truth: remember, you are not God, but only human. Of your own powers you are not able to reach complete happiness. In your heart there are endless desires and aspirations, but without Me and left to your own devices, you are mortal and finite. Therefore remember that there exists a certain boundary that you are not allowed to trespass. You cannot, against My will, decide what is good and what is evil, for the Commandments arise out of My love for you. They are but a record of the world out there and mark the only path of life that I wish to lead you towards complete happiness and therefore, to the Godly side of nature. Godly, in its fullness of freedom, love and life, one that you shall attain only when you become part of My Divine nature. If, however, you were to take and eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, should you believe in the deception that you of your own powers, against My love, can attain happiness, then you shall certainly die. For in rejecting Me, you reject love and life, thus choosing death and self-destruction. Sin therefore is the greatest tragedy of man. This was the message of the Divine words directed to those in paradise, symbolically expressed in the prohibition of eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Before Original Sin, people had Divine law written into their hearts and did not feel its burden or restraint. In a spontaneous and natural way they were convinced that for their happiness, only God is necessary. The first attempt at questioning this truth was born not out of man but was suggested to him from without by the Father of Deception, satan, presented in the Bible in the symbol of the serpent. The serpent in the Bible is therefore symbol of the forces of evil. The angels, beings purely spiritual and therefore created were called upon to the communion of love with God when they were to accept the love of the Creator of their own free will. In return giving their love, some instead of choosing God, chose and came to love, alas, themselves. These angels chose a love that turned to a hatred for God. The desire for self-love brought upon these angels a state of truly fearful egoism. Evil is not simply a lack of good but in fact one that is alive, of spirit, though corrupt and one that depraves. This is a terrible truth, a mystery that awakens fear.......Satan is enemy number one, a seducer in the full meaning of this word. I know full well that this dark, destructive and appalling creation truly exists and functions, one that sets sophistic traps of relativism, so as to destroy the moral equilibrium of man. Satan is a perfidious hypnotist, one who knows very well how to pervade into our senses (through imagination and desire) so as to cause all manner of deviation. Is it true therefore that God said: You shall not eat of any tree of the garden? (Gen. 3:1). This would appear to be an innocent question that the serpent set the people. It contains an unusually intelligent preparation: the suggestion that it is not true that God loves you. After all, He prohibits you from eating the fruit of this one tree and therefore limits your freedom. Satan therefore wishes that the seed of resentment is sown in man, a feeling of urt inflicted by the Lord and conviction that God in fact does limit his freedom. Satan, in his temptation, goes even further: he denies that a direct consequence of sin is death. He suggests that it is not true what God says: 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. 3:2-5). Satan drop by drop, fills mans awareness with the venom of evil, the sin of pride, in perfidious assurance: 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). To know good and evil, the language of the Bible, means to carry all the might of God Himself. The serpent says that only upon breaking this prohibition can man achieve full happiness, thus opening before him a boundless, divine perspective. It is in this way that satan attempted to completely falsify the image of God in human consciousness. Up to then, man believed and experienced through intuition that God created him out of love and that is the greatest good posible for him. All of a sudden, then he hears that God not only does not love him but is his greatest enemy, an absolute tyrant, for He prohibits the eating of the fruits of this tree, denies access to complete happiness and does not wish that man become the same as He. The temptation of satan, served in such a powerful and attractive form, raised suspicion and doubt in the first people. In fact, original sin came to be committed. It is the sin of pride and disbelief in the love of God. Mn ceased to believe God and instead believed satan. God was motivated by pure love in saying do not, for it shall be the end of you and in this way you shall enter into only death and nothingness. In expressing belief in what satan had to say, man believed that sin is not something evil, that does not lead to the dereliction of human happiness and life. This falsification of the image of God means, just as it does commonly today, there is a conviction of the attractiveness of evil. Sin can have an attractiveness to us, seeming to be powerful and good, a well of pleasure in life. A sin can appear to be wrong only because God has prohibited it, while in the end in fact it is good. It is thus how people think who are captives to the Father of Deception. The only chance of rescue in this fearful world of subjugation to evil is the belief in the love of Christ. We need to believe again that God loves us and shall never cease to love, and that He in fact desires the best for us. Christ is with us united in every situation of our lives and leads us along the straightest path to Communion with Him in love, and therefore to a complete happiness. AMEN!
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 16:45:22 +0000