At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus. G.S.
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Is the Bible True or Not?
Dear Fr. Gilles, we would greatly appreciate your input regarding religion class for our daughter. Her teacher is stating that the story of Adam & Eve, Noah's Ark, and a large chunk of the Old Testament is myth. She is frustrated and asking us whether the Old Testament is real or fictitious. We have explained that The Bible is very real and feel that this approach to the Bible in a Catholic School does nothing to up build a 14-year old’s' faith. Please help with insight. Blessings, Your Friends.
My dear
Friends, Parents, and Youth, this is simply a good opportunity for you to help
each other make acquaintance with our secular culture - now's as good a time as
any. Our beloved Youth needs to see for herself the difference between
looking with eyes, mind, and eyes of faith or looking with eyes and mind
only. For example: "Adam and Eve is a myth" means that it
happened so long ago that there were no movie cameras, no reporters, no tape
recorders, and we have absolutely no documentation left at all from the time of
that first man and woman. That is true.
Some people
use this fact to draw the conclusion that nothing in the Bible is real or can
be trusted, often because they don't like parts of the Bible - especially the
commandments - such as God really doesn't like adultery or stealing, because
these things kill our spirit. Others don't like the Church and so they
want to discredit the source of the Church's authority, which is God's divinely
inspired Word. Others mean well, but there's something about this story
and really all of the Bible which makes them feel uncomfortable; so they just
dismiss it and rely on arguments from science to discredit the validity of the
Bible. They think they are doing something good, by exposing something
old and unreliable, they think; so that young minds can venture into life
without the burden that the Bible seems to put on people's minds and
consciences. We shouldn't blame them, they simply have never understood
how to approach the Bible with respect as well as with intelligence.
Whether there
actually was a first man called Adam and a first woman called Eve isn't really
the point. Keep in mind that Adam means "man" and Eve means
"from man". Let's make no mistake - there definitely was a
first man and a first woman. Apes didn't mysteriously and gradually
become human - so that it would be impossible to tell who exactly the first
humans were. The best that the most brilliant scientists can do is
formulate theories, and since the origins of humanity are buried in time, it is
very difficult, if not impossible to test these theories. This is an area
of science where old stories have as much relevance as scientific theories.
Pope John Paul
II is on record for saying that some scientific theories are not necessarily in
disaccord with faith. It's possible that God created man and woman in
ways similar to the story told in Genesis. It's also possible that the
first human beings evolved from primates, but what made them human wasn't
simply evolving, but God giving them a supernatural soul. Once they
received a soul within their body, they became "awake" and could now
know God through personal experience. They now had a conscience and could
tell the difference between right and wrong. They could now choose to
love and put others first or refuse to do that. They could receive from
God spiritual gifts such as faith, which allows them to see with inner,
spiritual insight into things and their inner meaning beyond what only their eyes
or mind could reveal.
A person of
faith looks at the apparent mythical origins of Adam and Eve and sees that
someone took the trouble to try to remember something about the first human
beings in order to help their children remember the lessons to be learned from
the experience of that first human couple. This is where the Holy Spirit
exercised his power - in the lives of the first couple themselves, who came to
understand what happened to them and what it meant - in the lives of succeeding
generations who tried to remember the story and the meaning of it for them, and
in the lives of those who eventually recorded the story in the form we now have
today, and finally, in the lives of those of us today who read the story and
open our minds and hearts to receive the truths that God wants us to have so
that we can face life and learn from the painful experience of Adam and Eve.
The central
truth told in the story of Adam and Eve is that God created them and gave them
a close relationship with Him. There was a difference in the relationship
that the man and woman had with God - Adam remembered God telling him not to
eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but Eve did not - she had to
take Adam's word for it. The tempter exploited this difference and the
weakness in Eve's relationship with God and tempted her with knowledge that
would make her equal to God. She was tempted not to trust any longer that
God would give them all good things and grab it for herself.
When Adam went along with her, what they were doing was trying to make themselves into something more than what they were - they no longer trusted that what God had made them was good enough, they no longer trusted that what God was giving them would satisfy them. What they were really doing was rejecting God's role in their lives - they were no longer satisfied with the way God was exercising his role in giving them life - they were deciding to take God's role over themselves and decide how to shape their own lives. They would decide what is good and evil. They believed the lie of the tempter that they were lacking some knowledge, and if they had it they would be equal to God. They were lacking the experience, the taste of evil. What the evil was that they tasted, the story does not tell, only that it appeared desirable to the eye and tasted sweet, but the result was very bitter.
What exactly was the “original sin”?
If we extrapolate
from the final results, namely, the shame this first couple felt over their
nakedness; we may formulate a hypothesis that the evil they did had to do with
their bodies. It may very well be that they were tempted not to patiently await
the unfolding of God their Creator’s plan for the development of their intimate
relations, but instead were tempted to take their cues from the other creatures
around them. This is not at all a bad hypothesis, considering the current situation
of the human species.
To this day we
human beings are poised on a razor’s edge between a tender hearted and other
centered view of our human sexuality, which seeks the good of the other ahead
of one’s own desires, on the one hand; on the other hand, is the mad rush in
every society and culture for seeking one’s own pleasure, which all too often
is at the expense of the other’s well being and dignity. Men in particular are
tempted to “take” pleasure from their woman – or even assorted women – with little
or no concern about how the woman experiences them. As it turns out, what may
be briefly pleasing for the man may actually be painful for the woman.
In effect,
then, human beings sacrificed civility, kindness, tenderness, and genuine love
of the other on the pagan altar of selfishness, impatience, unfettered emotion
and impulsiveness. What God intended to be gracious and kind with tenderness
has become violent, brutal, and destructive for the pursuer as well as the
pursued.
Whatever the
original sin was, as the direct result, the man and the woman now became
ashamed of their nakedness, they became afraid of God and hid when He called
them to walk with them in the afternoon in the Garden as He usually did with
them. When God questioned them, they lied: Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed
the serpent. Neither of them took responsibility for what they had done,
so God had no choice but to let the evil consequences continue to grow inside
them. God described what the effects would be like for them.
Adam would be
frustrated in all his efforts to cultivate the earth. Eve would have a
distorted, exaggerated desire for her husband - a kind of grabbing that would
give her husband the impression he was being strangled; so he would react and
dominate her with his strength. They would suffer the loss of harmony
with God, with each other, with the creatures and with the earth, because they
had broken their trust in God, in each other, and in the earth - they broke
their trust that everything God created would be sufficient to bring them
happiness. The desire of their heart became corrupt.
So that is what the story is really about. It is the same with all the other stories in the Bible. They are all inspired by the Holy Spirit to remind us of truths that we have forgotten or never known. Jesus said that the truth will set us free to know and love God, each other, and all God's creatures. God created the world around us and He gives us a share in his responsibility to care for this world and do all we can to keep it in harmony.
May you have peace and love in Jesus, our Lord, Fr. Gilles
Originally
composed February 26th, 2003
March 8th, 2021
Gilles A. Surprenant, priest of Montreal, Associate of Madonna House Apostolate, & poustinik
At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus. G.S.
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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
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