One day, in the form of a serpent with gleaming scales, Satan slipped into the garden. He approached Eve, greeted her with a soft and soothing voice, then, feigning compassion, asked whether she was truly perfectly happy and why she did not eat from the fruit of the tree that stood at the center of Paradise.
Eve replied, “The Lord has forbidden us to eat of it, and He has warned us that if we touch these fruits, we shall die.”
Then the devil, a liar from the beginning, answered, “No, you shall not die. On the contrary, your eyes will be opened. You will know good and evil, and you will be like gods. God does not want you to be like Him; that is why He has forbidden you to eat this fruit.”
As he always does, the devil played upon human pride. Through flattery and lies, he often succeeded in seducing them.
Eve felt her heart waver. For a moment, she resisted, remembering the words of God. But stirred by curiosity, she began to question the command: “What could be the hidden reason behind this prohibition?” Within her, a quiet murmur began to rise.
God has every right over His creature. When one begins to analyze God’s commands in this way, one opens the door to pride, the source and root of all evil. Indeed, pride slipped into her like a slow poison. She went to Adam and told him what the serpent had said.
The more she looked at it, the more the forbidden fruit now seemed more beautiful than all the others. She took it, brought it to her lips, tasted it, and then offered half to her husband. Adam, too, had the weakness to eat of it.
At that very instant – faster than lightning that tears through the night in a storm – something broke within them. It was the bond of love that united them to God. Their eyes were opened, but not to become like gods. Adam and Eve had listened to the devil and committed the first sin, called original sin.
The light with which God had clothed them faded away. They discovered themselves guilty, naked, vulnerable, and afraid. Their inner peace turned into turmoil; their minds and senses were thrown into confusion.
Filled with shame and fear, Adam and Eve sought to flee from the gaze of God. With heavy hearts, more frightened than repentant, they hid behind great trees. But no one can hide from God. He came to them, no longer with the serene countenance of a Father walking with His children, but with a grave and sorrowful face. His powerful voice, filled with deep grief, resounded through the garden:
“Adam, where are you?”
Trembling, Adam answered, “I hear Your voice in the garden, and I am afraid, because I am naked, so I hide myself.”
God said, “Who tells you that you are naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I forbid you to eat?”
Seeking to excuse himself, Adam shifted the blame onto his companion: “The woman whom You put with me gives me the fruit, and I eat.”
It was as though he blamed God for having given him a companion.
With great sadness, God turned to Eve:
“Why do you do this?”
Eve answered, her eyes lowered, “The serpent deceives me, and I eat.”
She too sought to excuse herself and blamed the devil.
God looked at the serpent and declared with authority:
“Because you do this, you are cursed above all animals. You crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I put enmity between you and the Woman, between your offspring and her offspring. She crushes your head, and you strike at her heel.”
Then God turned again to Eve and said:
“I multiply your sufferings. You bring forth children in pain, and your children are a source of great sorrow to you. You are under the authority of your husband, and he rules over you.”
Finally, God spoke to Adam in a very grave voice:
“Because you listen to the voice of your wife and eat of the tree that I forbid you, the ground is cursed because of you. In toil you eat of it all the days of your life. It brings forth thorns and thistles for you, and you eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you are taken; for you are dust, and to dust you return.”
God withdrew, deeply saddened. A heavy silence fell upon the garden. Adam and Eve then understood, with trembling, all that they had lost.
After this terrible sentence, Saint Michael the Archangel, the first defender of the rights of God, drove them out of the earthly Paradise. Adam and Eve left the garden of delights with broken hearts, and the gate of Paradise closed behind them like a great radiant door, forever sealed.
For a long time, the two ancestors of the human race remained silent, side by side, crushed beneath the weight of their fault. Before their inner eyes opened the immense abyss of suffering they had dug for themselves and for all their descendants. Remembering all the blessings they had lost – and above all the sweet intimacy with their Creator, which they would never again experience in the same way – they shed bitter tears. Day and night, they lamented their foolish act and wept for the beautiful Paradise they had lost.