Reflection on the First Sunday of Lent
In the first reading from the Lectionary today, we are told that God planted two trees in the Garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life. The bulk of the story revolves around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, with the other tree, the tree of life, playing a secondary role.
What struck me today, however, is the fact that in Genesis God is worried that Adam and Eve, having now eaten from the first tree, will eat from the tree of life and “live forever” (Gn 3:22b). But then, 15 minutes after the reading, I received communion, eating the fruit of the tree of life, which is the cross of Christ. There are many ways to parse this. Certainly, this is one of the things St. Paul is trying to accomplish in the second reading. But in light of today’s gospel on the temptation of Jesus, I am struck by the way that Satan will tempt us to claim as our own what God will freely give. God our creator has given us life, and He wants to give us the gift of everlasting life. We only need to accept it for what it is–a gift–and not in pride insist that it is ours by right.
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It does seem likely that this reading is paired with the temptation of Jesus in the desert because it is so tightly connected in Christian tradition with “the fall” and with temptation. Christianity has gotten a lot of mileage out of temptation as an issue.
Scripture can also be legitimately seen as a collection of works spanning centuries, written by men and for men (for women as well, but the fact is the priests and scribes were men). As such, I think it worthwhile to examine the story also as an account of our collective inner journey toward awareness. In this interpretation, Adam and Eve’s tasting the fruit and experiencing their nakedness is a story about becoming human in the sense of physical and cultural evolution. From this perspective “the fall” is the story primarily about Adam and Eve rather than about God, and not just a story of self-inflicted disaster of separation from God. It is the natural consequence of physical and spiritual evolution of the human family’s ability to think, plan, judge and decide… a process which continues today, and arguably at a higher rate than ever before. The more we grow in knowledge and technological capability, the more we forget about trusting only in God, and the more tempting it is to rely on our own abilities and separate or even hide from God as Adam and Eve did with their fig-leaf loincloths. Eden’s exit-door is the landscape for the first part of our human journey.
In this story, God seems to leave scoping out the next part of the journey to us, after we leave the Garden. It’s up to us to learn how we will turn our selves and our lives “back” over to God. This process seems a little easier as we experience our own individual disasters and separation from God. And, most powerfully, we have the story of Jesus, God among us, exemplifying obedience and turning everything “back” over.
As I read this story aloud this morning, I couldn’t help but remember the back-story narration of Isildur taking the Ring in the “Lord of the Rings” movie.