Eve Teaches Us Not to Hide

We start our study in the book of Genesis and the Creation story. The book of Genesis was written to reveal to us spiritual truths, not scientific facts.  It teaches us about creation of the world and creation of us.  We can learn, for instance, that God is the author of all life, that He created man and woman in his image, to be like him. etc.  There is so much to learn from these first 3 chapters of Genesis. Even though the purpose of the book is to teach us spiritual truths, the Church teaches us that there is still historical truth in it.  Adam and Eve were real people.  The Fall was an actual event.  The emotions were real that Adam and Eve experienced.  This week we focus on Eve and what she teaches us about ourselves as women. She has a lot to teach us!

If you have your Bible handy, you may read Genesis 2:18-25.  The scripture says “The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame”.  Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, also known as Paradise.  Before the Fall, in the Garden, Eve was in perfect relation to God and to her husband.  She was perfectly in line with the Father’s Will.  She experienced perfect trust in her Father. No doubt, no shame, no distance from God.  SHE HAD DEEP INTIMACY WITH GOD.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) tells us that “Adam and Eve were in an original state of holiness and justice”.  She didn’t have to TRY to be holy, to struggle toward holiness – it was a part of who she was.  The Church also teaches us that because of this intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die.  Eve experienced an inner harmony in her heart, with God and with Adam.  In other words, we can say that Eve was living her dignity as a daughter of God perfectly! She KNEW and LIVED the fact that God created her “good” at all times of each day. 

In Genesis 3:1-8, we see the classic scene of the serpent tempting Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge.  Earlier, God had put a limit on Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge.  The Church tells us that this one limit is symbolic of the fact that we are CREATURES, and NOT THE CREATOR.  In being created, we are limited.  We are not God, who is limitless; He has no beginning, no end.  We are dependent on our Creator and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral laws.   The CCC says that man “must freely recognize and respect with trust” these limits.  We must TRUST God and his plan for us!

In this first sin, “man…let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and disobeyed God’s commands…All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.” (CCC 396) and further, in that first sin, “man preferred himself to God” (CCC 397).  So Eve loses trust in her Creator.  She asks herself (with help from Satan), “Is God holding back? Does He really have the power to make me free?  Is He even worthy of my trust?"  She prefers her own will to the will of God; not trusting that HE knows what’s good and evil in her life.  She now wants the power to make that decision for herself about what is good and evil.  That line from the catechism, that Eve let trust "in her Creator die in her heart" really hits me hard. 

Next, Adam and Eve realize they’re naked and they hide.  They are afraid of God.  Eve is now experiencing shame for her sin and is hiding from God.  She no longer sees her Creator as good.  That harmony and intimacy is now lost.

This is all such a typical pattern of sin in our own lives!  We are tempted, we give into sin, then we are shameful of ourselves and hide from the Lord.  We retreat farther and farther away from Him. 
 Think about what it’s like to be naked.  When we are naked, we are vulnerable.  When we become emotionally “naked”, we see who we truly are and many of us women don’t like what we see. 
We “hide” in shame from God, not turning to Him in prayer, avoiding Him at Mass (even if we are there physically), we create a façade of lies to convince ourselves that we’re OK without Him, etc.  We put on different masks to hide the parts of ourselves that we’re ashamed of or that we don’t like.  We create so many masks that we no longer recognize our own “goodness” as his created daughters. 

I (Alycia) often hide from God when I am ashamed of my sins and who I am, or even when I feel overwhelmed by my daily responsibilities.My family’s finances are often tight and I can get very overwhelmed by a feeling that we will never “get ahead”.  We will always have a stack of bills and sometimes not even all the money to pay those bills.Instead of going to the Lord, I hide from Him.  I don’t want to face the truth of my sufferings.  The truth is that I could do better to not spend frivolously, but I ignore that, and I ignore God.  Well then I feel that I am a horrible wife because I don’t pay more attention to our finances.  Then I surround myself with lies, that I’m a horrible wife because this and that, etc.  I fall deeper into shame, which all started from a lack of trust in His goodness.  And I will hear God calling my heart to prayer in my daily life, but I actively choose to ignore him, falling deeper in to despair and sin.  I will “hide” behind food, behind the internet, behind being mopy and self-centered around the house, being passive aggressive with my husband, etc. I am afraid of God and his judgments, so I avoid confession when I am in this cycle of sin and shame.

But there is hope sisters, for me, and if you can relate to my story, there is hope for you, too!

In Romans 5:20-21, Paul is speaking about the first "transgression" of Adam.  He says, "...where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more...".  God promised a savior to free us from the slavery of sin during the judgment of Eve.  That freedom is found in Jesus.  Jesus Christ gave himself as a gift to us on the Cross.  And, like the image of Divine Mercy, in dying on the Cross, he opened up a life of grace and mercy to us.  Where sin increases, grace overflows all the more!

In my prayer time once, I was crying out to God, and instead of hiding from him, I was coming to him with my shame and utter disgust in myself that I am such a wretched sinner.  I just remember being so disgusted with myself.  I also remember, then, hearing a very clear voice in my heart say, “Your sin does not cause me to retreat away from you. It causes me to draw nearer to you.” 

When you feel overwhelmed by your owns sins, by how you don’t live up to certain standards, when you don’t like who you are when you are “naked”, etc, grace is overflowing for us at that time.  God is near at that time, to clothe us with His salvation.  You MUST remember when we experience the harshness of sin and judgment, GOD IS ALWAYS THERE TO CLOTHE US WITH HIS SALVATION.  There is ALWAYS mercy in his judgments.  That is how God works.

October 1st is the Feast of St. Therese.  St. Therese teachings us a lot about God’s mercy.   In a pamphlet on St. Therese's teachings, Fr. Peter Cameron says, “Only the love that is mercy is capable of restoring men and women to themselves.  That is why God reveals himself to us as mercy and nothing less.  For mercy is the content of our intimacy with God.  Mercy is what our friendship with the Lord is all about."  And then the lovely Therese says something that I think really sums up what we can learn from this story of Eve: “I expect each day to discover new imperfections in myself…I am simply resigned to see myself always imperfect…My own folly is this: to trust that your love will accept me.”

Therese is teaching us that we need to resign ourselves to the fact that we will always stumble in our journey and we will always have imperfections.  We need to accept this and move on, basically.  When we are inclined to shame and disgust in ourselves, St. Therese encourages us instead to say to God, “I am so weak and powerless over sin in my life.  And for this reason, I give myself to you.  I come to you, trusting that you love me, and that I CAN love you in return.  Loving you doesn’t consist in being the perfect daughter, but in being the trusting daughter.”

Sisters, God is inviting us to trust Him. He doesn’t want us to run and hide in shame, but he invites us to hide in him, underneath the Cross, where his grace and mercy overflow unto us.   He wants us to shed the masks that cover up our true selves, to turn to Him and to let Him shelter us in His love.

His grace and mercy are available in the sacraments!  The sacraments get their “power” from the work of the Cross.  So every time we actively participate and open ourselves up to the sacraments, we are doing just that: hiding under the shadow of the Cross.

Let’s learn from Eve. Don’t let trust in God’s goodness die in your heart.  Don’t forget that you were made “good” and that you are His beloved daughter.  Don’t let shame keep you from His grace and mercy.  He accepts you, right where you’re at, and he has made a way for you to be intimate with Him, through Christ our Lord.

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