Refusing the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Then the Lord God gave the man this command, ‘You are free to eat of all the trees in the garden. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat; for, the day you eat of that, you are doomed to die.’ (Genesis 2:17-18)

The first three chapters of the Book of Genesis are almost dismissed by any intelligent person as just a story meant for children. But let us look a little further. 

The greatest saints of the Church, including Saint Paul, ALL the Church Fathers and great evangelists in our own time, up to the present Pope have firmly believed in and always quoted from these first chapters of Genesis. It is from these chapters that they have drawn the very purpose of the coming of Jesus Christ. If Adam and Eve did not exist, the person of Jesus Christ also is only a myth. There is no original sin, then, and we can repeat the words of Saint Paul applied to us: "and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointless and you have not, after all, been released from your sins." (1 Corinthians 15:18)

Let us concentrate our attention to something mentioned in the second chapter of Genesis, "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." What can this mysterious symbol mean? The very name is difficult to understand, and in danger of shrugged away in disbelief. But knowing that the words in the Bible are mysterious indeed, let us implore the Lord's help for assistance in unravelling this difficulty for us. "and he said, ‘To you is granted to understand the secrets of the kingdom of God; for the rest it remains in parables, so that they may look but not perceive, listen but not understand." (Luke 8:10)

So there is this tree planted in the middle of the "Garden of Eden", called the "Paradise of Pleasure", the "Garden of God", or a state of "walking in the presence of the Lord", or the state of "an experience of God". Eden is the state of great peace, righteousness and joy, "for it is not eating and drinking that make the kingdom of God, but the saving justice, the peace and the joy brought by the Holy Spirit." (Romans 14:17) In other words, it is a Kingdom, here among us, yet not of the world. It is a Kingdom among us: "The coming of the kingdom of God does not admit of observation and there will be no one to say, “Look, it is here! Look, it is there!” For look, the kingdom of God is among you." (Luke 17:20-21) Yet the Kingdom of God is not of this world: ‘Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom does not belong here.’ (John 18:37)

The advent of sin in our lives destroys this joyful experience. When we were all little children (before we experience the movements of concupiscense) do enjoy this state of uninterrupted joy. Yet, when we grow up, knowingly or unknowingly, we partake of the forbidden fruit, from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Pope Benedict XVI wrote in an article that there is a perennial dialogue going on between man and the Serpent of Paradise, who offers us the temptation to be like God, of deciding what is right and wrong for ourselves. This is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and we taste of it, from the very first moment when we decide to become like God, we unhappily renounce the "Fear of the Lord", we thrust God's commandments "behind our backs" and decide in our own mind what is right and wrong. This is unfortunately the moment we also "prefer darkness to the light." "And the judgement is this: though the light has come into the world people have preferred darkness to the light because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19)

This being our unhappy state of mind, what should we do? Who can help us? The Helper, the Holy Spirit! Therefore, what is important for us is to receive the Holy Spirit, who convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgement, who painstakingly cleanses our soul, our inmost heart, our thoughts from the embrace of evil, which intertwines and clings ever so closely to the depths of our hearts, mind and thoughts. He brings to our minds, once again the Divine Light of the Word of God, which alone can pierce, penetrate, judge and cleanse us. "The Word of God is something alive and active: it cuts more incisively than any two-edged sword: it can seek out the place where soul is divided from spirit, or joints from marrow; it can pass judgement on secret emotions and thoughts." (Hebrews 4:12) 

Hearing the Word of God and receiving and welcoming the Holy Spirit into the depths of our hearts can help us to understand when and where, how far, each of us has tasted of the forbidden fruit. May He strengthen us all to reject the temptation of deciding what is right and wrong for ourselves, and give more and more room to the virtue of the "Fear of the Lord" which is our protection from evil, from firmly rejecting the "forbidden fruit."

"Since these promises have been made to us, my dear friends, we should wash ourselves clean of everything that pollutes either body or spirit, bringing our sanctification to completion in the fear of God." (2 Corinthians 7:1)

"Then he said to human beings, ‘Wisdom?—that is fear of the Lord; Intelligence?—avoidance of evil.’" (Job 28:28)