The First Sin

In the middle of the Garden of Paradise, God planted two trees. One was the Tree of Life, and had Adam and Eve eaten of its fruit, they would have been free from every kind of sickness and would never have died. The other tree was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and of its fruit God forbade them ever to taste. He told them that they might eat the fruit of every other tree in the garden, but that if they ever ate the fruit of this tree they could no longer be His children, for they would lose sanctifying grace, and sickness and death and every other kind of trouble would come to them.

You may be sure that Adam and Eve kept away from that forbidden tree, for they did not want to disobey God, and they did not want to lose sanctifying grace.

But that horrid devil who once fought against God in Heaven and who was raging in hell, was jealous of Adam and Eve and did not want them to be God’s adopted children. So one day he crept into the beautiful garden, took the shape of a great snake and twined himself about a branch of the forbidden tree. Pretty soon he saw Eve coming towards the tree. Oh, why didn’t she keep away? Why did she even want to look at that tree when God had told her what terrible things would happen if she and Adam should eat its fruit?

Closer and closer she came. Then the devil called: “Eve.” She looked up and saw the great coils of the snake glittering among the leaves. She was not afraid, for not a single animal in the whole garden would hurt her. But she knew that this was more than a snake, for he had called her by name and God had not made any animal so that it could speak. She felt that something was wrong and she should have gone away as fast as she could. Instead of that she came nearer and the devil said to her: “Why don’t you eat one of these nice apples? See how fine they are.” And Eve answered: “No, indeed, God told us not to touch the fruit on that tree. He said that if we did we should die.” Then the devil said: “Don’t you know why God told you that? It is because if you eat this fruit you will be great like God and He doesn’t want anyone to be great like Him.”

Eve thought for a moment. She knew how good God was and how kind He had been, and how He had warned them. But she said to herself: “Suppose the devil is right. How fine it would be to be great like God.”

She stretched out her hand, took an apple and bit into it. At once an ugly black mark covered her soul, the beautiful dress of sanctifying grace was gone. She looked up. The devil was not there. The tears sprang to her eyes. She had never cried before. Oh, how the devil had lied to her! Great like God? Why, she had lost all her greatness. A terrible something lay heavy on her heart and clutched at her throat. What could she do? Now she knew what it was to sin. The garden seemed so dark, a great cloud hid the sun. She was afraid. She had never been afraid before.

Adam would be looking for her. What would he say when he knew what she had done? Then there came to her the most terrible thought she could have had. Hadn’t she done enough wrong as it was? But she went from one sin to the other. She made up her mind to try to make Adam sin, too, and then he couldn’t look down on her. Another ugly black mark spread over her soul.

She dried her eyes, made herself smile and, taking an apple, went to Adam. Laughing, she told him what the devil had said and what she had done, but she did not let him know what a terrible change had come over her. She coaxed him just to bite into the apple and Adam did so. A terrible black mark covered his soul and the beautiful dress of sanctifying grace was gone. An awful something lay heavy on his heart and clutched at his throat. What were they to do? They were afraid. The garden was so dark and a great cloud covered the sun.

God called them. They heard and ran and hid. His voice followed them. With their faces in their hands and crying, they came and stood before Him. He asked Adam why he had disobeyed Him and Adam blamed Eve. He asked Eve and she blamed the devil.

Then God told them that because of their terrible sin, sickness and suffering and trouble and death would come to them and to their children—to every man and woman that would ever be born. He sent them out of the garden and placed His angels with flaming sword to guard the gate so that they might never come back.

If only Eve had urged Adam never to touch the forbidden fruit instead of coaxing him to eat it, the world would not be the sad place it is. And there are little boys and girls today who go around like Eve trying to make other little boys and girls sin, teaching them to say bad words and to do bad things. Never, never be one of them, for it is a terrible thing to help to make another child bad. And if ever you should learn something bad do not speak of it to anyone except to your mother or to the priest.

And if anyone coaxes you to do anything wrong, do not listen to him as Eve listened to the devil, or else you will be very sorry for it as she was. The only thing to do is to keep away from any one that makes you sin.