There are two complementary truths that shine through these stories. The first truth is that man is created for the world. In the first story God creates man to "rule" over the earth - which has been interpreted as meaning that man should dominate creation, but really seems to mean more that man should cultivate and care for the creation that pre-dates him and that has goodness and worth apart from him.
But the second truth of Genesis is that the world is created for man. Just as the garden was created for Adam and Eve, so too is nature given to us to provide us with life and beauty and joy. It is ours to use - it is a gift given to us from God. So it is also ours to take care of, to wonder at, to marvel in.
There is a mutuality of gift at work in creation. We are God's gift to creation; creation is God's gift to us. In a certain sense, Adam and Eve's crime can be seen as one of ecological greed: they see that the tree of knowledge is good and pleasing, they think it will bring them wisdom and understanding, so they refuse to respect it for its own sake. They ignore the rules God has given them for creation's proper use. In other words, they exploit the tree for their own gain.
Adam and Eve's act of disobedience - their exploitation of nature for their own selfish purposes - is what makes fasting for the rest of us necessary. Their act is the opposite of fasting: God asked them to abstain from eating from the tree - to sacrifice their right and power to eat that fruit - and they did not obey. God asked them to hold that tree sacred, as a symbol of the intrinsic goodness and worth of creation in and of itself, apart from man's use of it. Adam and Eve were called to a recognition that creation was made to serve them only insofar as they used it to serve creation in return.
But they could not hold onto this awareness. Their eating of the tree was not simply an act that impacted their relationship with God; it also impacted their relationship with all of creation, for now we, their heirs, must struggle with a creation that we see as hostile because it refuses to give us what we want when we want it.
The goal of fasting is to re-instill a reverence for creation in us. It is to teach us how to refrain from exploiting creation and its gifts - to see it as sacred on its own terms, and to use it only insofar as the using of it empowers us to give back to it. Thus Jesus' atonement for Adam and Eve's act of lustful greed takes the form of a fast: a refusal to exploit His divine power to give Himself bread for His own gain. Adam and Eve refused to sacrifice their right to eat the fruit of the tree; Jesus, to atone for their sin, sacrifices his right and power to turn stone into bread, to manipulate creation for His own gain.
Fasting as Christ did leads us to an awareness that the world is not given to us solely for our exploitation. Setting aside a time when we abstain from using the gifts of creation is not a rejection of those gifts; it is, rather, a period during which we reflect on the sanctity of those gifts, the goodness of the Giver, and ask ourselves how to use those gifts wisely, with prudence and moderation and, above all, love.
If we fast well, and combine our fasting with prayerful reflection, we will, as Gerald Fagin, S.J., put it, "grow in a sense of reverence. We will have a deepened sense of the sacredness of all things. . . Reverence is a disposition of heart that allows us to live before the beauty and goodness of every creature and the God who made them. . . [R]everence will enable us to find God in all things." Adam and Eve's lack of reverence for the tree and for the God who made it led to our downfall. Let us during this season of fasting recreate in our hearts a reverence for the gifts of the world and the God who gives them to us.
But they could not hold onto this awareness. Their eating of the tree was not simply an act that impacted their relationship with God; it also impacted their relationship with all of creation, for now we, their heirs, must struggle with a creation that we see as hostile because it refuses to give us what we want when we want it.
The goal of fasting is to re-instill a reverence for creation in us. It is to teach us how to refrain from exploiting creation and its gifts - to see it as sacred on its own terms, and to use it only insofar as the using of it empowers us to give back to it. Thus Jesus' atonement for Adam and Eve's act of lustful greed takes the form of a fast: a refusal to exploit His divine power to give Himself bread for His own gain. Adam and Eve refused to sacrifice their right to eat the fruit of the tree; Jesus, to atone for their sin, sacrifices his right and power to turn stone into bread, to manipulate creation for His own gain.
Fasting as Christ did leads us to an awareness that the world is not given to us solely for our exploitation. Setting aside a time when we abstain from using the gifts of creation is not a rejection of those gifts; it is, rather, a period during which we reflect on the sanctity of those gifts, the goodness of the Giver, and ask ourselves how to use those gifts wisely, with prudence and moderation and, above all, love.
If we fast well, and combine our fasting with prayerful reflection, we will, as Gerald Fagin, S.J., put it, "grow in a sense of reverence. We will have a deepened sense of the sacredness of all things. . . Reverence is a disposition of heart that allows us to live before the beauty and goodness of every creature and the God who made them. . . [R]everence will enable us to find God in all things." Adam and Eve's lack of reverence for the tree and for the God who made it led to our downfall. Let us during this season of fasting recreate in our hearts a reverence for the gifts of the world and the God who gives them to us.
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