456th Meditation
“But man did not remain in his splendor. Tempted by the Evil One, he disobeyed your command and was banished from Paradise” (Hymn of Praise to the Blessed Trinity).
Our Father had made it easy for man… Of all the things that abounded in the beautiful garden of Paradise, only one was forbidden: the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:16-17). But our first parents listened to the lies of the fallen angel, which aroused their sensual and spiritual appetites. Adam and Eve thus disobeyed God’s commandment, with all the consequences our Father had warned them about. What had happened could not be undone: man had listened to seduction and had to leave Paradise.
What a tragic event, the consequences of which we still bear today! The intimate and trusting relationship with our Father was broken. The devil had given Eve a false image of God, and he continues to do so with humanity.
That unconditional trust in the Father was lost, and mankind has lived under a heavy shadow ever since. It is a hard fate to live outside paradise, to eat bread by the sweat of our brow (Gen 3:19), and to experience the many consequences of original sin in ourselves and in others, even in the irrational creation.
And our Father? After having seen how a great part of the angels He had so gloriously created turned into demons and perverted their noble vocation, He now had to see how His beloved children of the human race turned aside from His path and fell under the dominion of those spirits who separated themselves from Him. The wonderful harmony of His Creation was obscured!
And how did our Father react? Tomorrow we will talk about it…