The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise
As we continue our journey, now at the doorstep of the Great Fast, we see again in the gospel reading today the Church emphasizing and demonstrating how our relationships with others are directly connected to our relationship with God. We saw a couple weeks ago as we celebrated the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, as well as the Prodigal Son, examples of what a true and healthy response to God looks like. Today as we prepare ourselves for Forgiveness Vespers the Church has us remember the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise...You’ll see there are no such examples here.
You may have noticed last week with the remembrance of the Last Judgment the tone is more somber. There’s no good example here with Adam and Eve - no repentant Publican or Prodigal Son returning to the love of his forgiving father...There is no happy ending here. As if God is telling us - you’re going to have to wait until the end of this journey of Lent for a happy ending.
Adam and Eve are cast out of paradise - and they’re not going back. Their safety and comfort are gone. And the church is telling us if we accept Lent as it has been given, our comfort and ease, for what will feel like a long time, is also gone.
In remembering their expulsion the Church is not just preparing us to enter the arena for the Lenten struggle, but is also reminding us that the real arena we’re about to enter is not just the season of the Fast: the real arena is the world. And the purpose of Lent, of the Great Fast, is to help us become increasingly aware of the fact that, in a real sense our life in this world - the world Adam and Eve were expelled to - is a Lenten world. This world is not paradise. Real and lasting happiness, peace and joy, in this world can only be found, and can only be kept, through repentance and forgiveness. As St. Isaac the Syrian said “This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits.” And regarding forgiveness, St. Silouan says that God will judge us by the quality of our love - and that will be based on our love for our enemies.” which is to say, the quality of our forgiveness.
Our first parents Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God - but they also sinned against one another - they betrayed God and they betrayed each other. We all know the sequence of events. Eve disobeying God then compounded her sin by tempting Adam to disobey. Adam sinned and then tried to lay the blame on Eve. They broke trust with God - and they broke trust with one another.
This is why in the Gospel today we see the spiritual reality that we cannot maintain and grow in our relationship with God unless we constantly repair our relationships with one another. Christ’s teaching in vs. 14 is very simple and it’s very stark: “For if you forgive others God will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others neither will God forgive you,” Heaven and hell my brothers and sisters is standing and sitting right next to you! We have to try to have a right relationship with one another, and that can only happen if we have, and maintain, repentance and forgiveness. This is the whole point of the Forgiveness Sunday service we’re about to experience.
The Church uses Forgiveness Sunday to teach us that it is only once we have forgiven one another that we can then turn our attention to the Fast - that is, doing the other things God has given us to do. And if we fail to do it, or don’t mean it, the Fast will be nothing more than an Orthodox diet.
Adam and Eve, in order to restore their relationship with God, had to first repair the damage they had done in their relationship with one another. And while the Scriptures don’t record what their relationship was like after their expulsion, you have to wonder if it took a while - because often it does. Perhaps they, like so many of us, didn’t realize how important their relationship with one another was to their relationship with God. That is, until they could see first-hand what happens if you don’t forgive one another. One thing seems certain: they realized it by the time Seth was born, that is, after their first born son murdered their second born son.
We have to repent and forgive...we have to try to have, and maintain, a right relationship with one another . . . That’s what God cares about and what matters.
So how do we do that? How for the weeks and weeks of the Fast do we hold onto our repentance - do we remember to forgive? This will sound odd or even frightening to some of you but, we must force ourselves to look into the eyes of our fear (or fears). It doesn’t matter what our particular fear is because if we force ourselves to look intently enough, long enough, into the eyes of our fear we will all see the same thing: we will see death. And that’s a very hard thing - but it’s not a bad thing for those of us who know Christ. Of course if you don’t trust Him with your life don’t do this. But if you do the Church tells us it’s an indispensible weapon in our spiritual battle against sin, this Lenten world and the devil.
St. Basil the Great says the most necessary food for the penitent (which is what we should be during the Fast) is the remembrance of death. Death is the greatest curse of this Lenten world but it can be turned into a great blessing - and if we can do that it will be the greatest unnatural resource that we have.
St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain passed down an amazing example of this among the Athonite Fathers of the Great Lavra. During Lent Geronda Athanasios would select a monk to go to each of the brothers during their work hours every day and say to them: “Brothers and Fathers, let us be mindful of ourselves, for we will die ... We will die. ... We will die.”
Brothers and Sisters let us use the remembrance of death to find our repentance, to help us forgive and maintain a forgiving heart. Let us be the happy ending of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from paradise! Let us use the remembrance of death to prepare ourselves during the Great Fast to experience and live in Christ, who by His death will conquer death. ...Let us prepare ourselves during this time to experience and live in Him who will lead us back to paradise.
Amen.
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