Eve: the First Transcendentalist
Being born into sin, for what are we to be forgiven?
If sin is my nature, then I am innocent as any beast of the field; but if sin is my choice, then I stand in judgement of myself. God cannot forgive me for what I have freely chosen. This is the lesser glory of Sin. So what could be greater?
Sin is not just a question of freedom: it is also a question of knowledge.
We can only have truly sinned if we knew better than to sin, and this is the greater glory of Sin: that we can discern Good from Evil. This is not our shame, but rather our triumph, for in Sin we are made gods!
In the Pauline sense, each of us is Adam, for each of us stands as the origin of Sin. Well, actually, I think it better to say each of us is Eve, for it was Eve that chose to partake of the forbidden fruit!
"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Indeed it was by this fruit that the first moral law was conceived, and it was not issued by God, but by us, for it is thanks to Eve that we can discern Good from Evil.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Who, then, in the entire Bible, is more deserving of veneration than Eve, for by Eve we have knowledge, and by Eve we have choice!
And have we died? Quite the contrary! It is by the courage of Eve, who chose freedom under the threat of death by God himself. This does not mean that God was proven wrong, but rather that God enabled Eve with an opportunity to confront death with informed liberty.
In light of this, it seems scandalous that so many have chosen to venerate the simple innocence of Mary. It seems a forfeiture of our humanity and our divinity. Let us, rather, have the courage of Eve to know and to choose.
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