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PATROLOGOS edutainment

God therefore blessed Adam and Eve and gave them authority and sovereignty rights over the whole earth. 

And God doesn't content only with that. He also takes special care regarding the accommodation and the dwelling of man, so that his life would be as much as possible more comfortable and pleasant. 

And for this purpose, God prepares a wonderful garden, the garden of Eden, a true terrestrial paradise of delight and comfort, and He put there the protoplasts, «to cultivate it and care for it». 

He doesn't construct, therefore, a majestic palace, with marble columns and with golden jewels and with iron and bronze gates 

and with stairs that would shine with whiteness and with vast halls decorated with plentiful furnishings, 

with walnut floors or from any other valuable timber, with the walls decorated with works of sculpture and with mosaics. 

No. For palace God gives to Adam that wonderful garden, in which roof was the sky and floor was the earth. 

Was there ever any other palace, with more majestic and more beautiful roof and more handsome floor than these? 

Was it ever capable a human hand to depict and to paint on the roof of even the most wonderful and most rich palace the beauty and the glory, with which the sky is dressed with the infinity of its stars during the night and with the brightness and the dazzling light of the sun during the day? 

Or maybe did people ever managed even with the hanging gardens, for which a queen once spent so very much in order to be made, and even with the exquisite and rare flower pots, that they are carefully looking after, 

maybe, we say, did they ever manage to decorate their halls and their parlours, as it is decorated even now after the transgression and the sin of Adam the earth with its forests and with its flora? 

Ah! no; neither lounges, nor dining rooms, nor bedrooms, nor wardrobes in order to keep his clothes has Adam with his wife, nor washbasins and bathrooms. 

The shadow of the trees, the lawn of the earth, the rivers with their fresh and clean water were apt and sufficient to substitute everything that afterwards the human disease and the weakness and the vanity have created. 

Because the protoplasts back then, apart from that they had a body health, that ourselves, not only we have never seen in our lives, but neither also we have ever imagined, they also had an environment very hospitable and very serene, because the earth as yet with the creatures on her had not gone wild, as she got wild afterwards, when the infringement occured. 

They also had the innocence, for which, while they were naked, they weren't ashamed of each other, since the grace of God covered them. 

And this was the greatest source of their happiness. Because this innocence, was the result of their purity from all sins and of the communication, in which they always remained towards God. 

And precisely, my reader, since the epoch that the man lost this innocence of his and found himself in the need to dress himself with clothes, with which he covers his nudity, since then he started to also construct hats in the beginning, and great buildings afterwards in order to be housed under them. 

Precisely ever since the happiness flew away from the earth and we are hunting it now, us humans, without ever being able to reach it. 

And the people fabricate clothes made of silk and even gold embroidered clothes. They build palaces and mansions. But instead of reaching happiness in there, she escapes from them, she escapes even further away. 

And where does she goes? Where the innocence remains and the cunning is not known and the malice of life. 

And because it happens that this innocence you encounter it more often in the huts of the shepherds and in the impoverished houses of the peasants and of the poor people, it should not seem a paradox to you the fact that in the palaces with the beautiful marbles and gold ornaments you most rarely encounter happiness, while you find it, relatively always, and as much as the, after the transgression, developed situation permits it, amongst the poor and the people living with natural simplicity. 

What did it look like that garden and that Paradise of Eden? What wonderful thing, what dream, what allurement, what beauty! 

You should consider, my reader, that at that epoch, that the protoplasts had not yet sinned, the earth had not yet gone wild as it went wild afterwards. 

Her terrain and her soil was not dry and infertile. Her trees and her lawn were always fresh, abundant, full of vegetation and life. 

The very best garden of today would appear to be a desert, without any charm and without any beauty, if it had to be compared to the freshness and the vegetation, that presented the whole earth during that epoch. 

The whole earth was paradise when compared to the situation in which she was degenerated afterwards after the transgression of Adam. 

And as if, they weren't then enough the so many delicacies and the so many beauties of that vast paradise, that was called earth, for the sake of man He also plants a new garden. 

A paradise inside another paradise, a true miracle of delight and pleasure, where in comparison to it the whole beauty of the earth seemed like a place desert and poor. 

What a wonderful place must have been the Paradise! The sun has never seen a so bright and so beautiful place. It was the glory of the earth the Paradise of Eden. 

It was the earth at its highest point of her glory, of her beauty, of her flowering, of her freshness, of her wealth! 

A true terrestrial paradise, a bright image of the other Paradise, which lie in Heavens, and which is called Kingdom of Heavens. 

And what is it, that couldn't be found within that wonderful garden? Extremely tall trees, but also little branches and bushes, the clones of which were touching the earth. 

Trees, on which it resounded the sweet and variable song of the birds, a true harmony, which pleased the ears of the protoplasts more than any other music and sweeter than any other musical instrument from those, which afterwards the people invented. 

Broadleaf trees with thick shadow and trees with small and thin leaves, which gave a light shadow. 

Flowers and leafs with many and various colorings and varieties of wonderful odors, which poured charming and pleasant perfume in the air. 

There you could find everything that could please the eye, the sense of smell, and every sensation in general. 

But even the trees with the various fruits, various in the shape, various in the colour, various in the aroma, also various in their taste, and in their sweetness. 

And in order to use the language of the Holy Bible, «Out of the ground God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food». 

And apart from the rest of the trees, in a place that they could better be seen and be distinguished not only by their shape and by their size, but also by the location that they were planted, there existed inside Paradise two trees of great importance. 

One of them was called «the tree of life» and the other was called «the tree of knowledge of good and evil». 

For what purpose did God commanded to spring up there these trees, and for what purpose they were given to them these names, will shall say in a next mention. 

Now, reader friend, I wish to occupy myself a little with the complaint that are causing within our heart all these things that we have learned about this Paradise of the great pleasure. 

Ah! Eve, what have you done to us? Ah! Adam, where have you dropped us? From what place your sin has driven us out and to which exile us wretched have we been degraded! What have we, the miserables, missed and what happiness has escaped from our hands! 

The billionaire who loses his wealth and deteriorates to the point of dying without owning anything and the king who gets expelled from his throne and is sent to the exile, he doesn't lose and he doesn't suffer what we have lost and what we have suffered all of us humans because of the protoplasts. 

We have lost the Paradise. If you can, show me here in this world something that resembles to it in the wealth, in the glory, in the beauty, in the delight. 

We have lost the Paradise! do not moan and do not lament, my brother. We have lost the Paradise on earth, but thanks to the mercy of Jesus Christ, the Paradise of heaven remains open and we can enter in it and abide there to the eternity. 

Compared to this Paradise the garden of Eden was a shadow, a type, an image. Eden was loosing its shine and its beauty compared to the shine of heaven. 

This Paradise, therefore, be careful, my reader, not to lose. From this enjoyment be careful, not to be banned. This gladness and this blessedness be careful, not to forfeit. 

Alas, if we lose it! If now for the loss of Eden we cry and we lament, imagine what we shall do then, when finally every hope of ours will be eliminated and we shall be found for ever ashamed and miserable. 

It is time now to learn, my dear reader, what was the tree of life and what was the tree of knowledge of good and of evil. 

The tree of life to which tree of today it looked like we do not know. 

We only know, that it was found in the middle of Paradise, that it was a natural tree like the others with trunk, with branches and with leafs, and that it was bearing fruits, which had elegance and extraordinary strength, wonderful, unique, which espacially to this tree and to its fruits God had given. 

Which was this extraordinary and unique elegance and strength? These fruits were giving immortality to the one, who would eat them. 

Therefore, the protoplasts in these fruits they were finding the medicine against the bodily death. 

Because although it's true that God had created them immortals, it still remained in their power and it depended on them to remain immortals and to never know death. 

Namely, if they had remained faithful in their obedience towards God and if they had not sinned, then with the strength and the grace, that they would have received by eating the fruits of the arbol of life, they would remain immortals. 

You might tell me, how could a wooden tree with material fruits to have such a power, so that it can maintain the human body in immortality? 

And I will reply to you, that this power of the immortality did not of course have it by itself that tree. Neither it could ever have by itself one so wonderful and amazing property. 

The source of life, the creator of it, is God. God, therefore, in whose command everything subsides and everything is possible, commanded the fruits of this tree to be the food of immortality, with which the body of man would remain in the condition of incorruptibility and of immortality, with which God had created them! 

Eh! what do you think? When God has commanded it, could it not happen? And when God gave into that wood that power, could it not have it? 

Ah! she would say the bereaved mother, why couldn't I also have from that fruit, in order to give it to my child and not die on me? 

Ah! would cry out the black-dressed wife, why can't I with everything that I have to buy from this fruit in order to save from the mouth of the grave my young husband, who is dying and he leaves me alone! 

Ah! is groaning the whole mankind, why can't I find nowhere this fruit of life, this immortal tree, in order to hit right in the head that black and awful tyrant that tortures me and makes me shed bitter tears, namely, the death! 

Blessed is the God, my brother. He took away from us after the transgression of Adam the tree of life out of compassion and great benevolence, and He gave us as replacement the bread of life, the life-giving body of Christ for eternal and blissful life. 

Now, as it degenerated the life of man after the sin, God said, this is a deprived life, bitter, full of sighs. 

Let it better not be therefore this life. Let him stay here in this world the man fifty, sixty, seventy, even hundred years in order for him to develop and let him then depart from this place of his conviction and of his exile. 

It would be a terrible torment for him to live eternally one such penalized and bitter life. Let them die therefore the people. It doesn't matter. 

Let Me give them, however, God said, another remedy of immortality, a mug of true life, which will give them the blissful and eternal life of Heavens and which in time will resurrect in glory also the descomposed inside the graves bodies of theirs. 

And this remedy, of which the image and type and shadow was that tree of Eden, today it is called Bread of Life; 

and do you know who is, my dear reader? Jesus Christ. The venerable body and the most pure and most holy Blood of our Saviour, both man and God. 

Thirsty and hungry wayfarers of the life, who are seeking the peace and you don't find it, the eternal life and you can't meet it anywhere, receive, eat and drink from the grail of life, which He holds in His Holy hands the Son of the Virgin Mary and Son of God. 

Eat and drink, not like Judas, that is, with a dirty heart and with the soul black by the sin. 

Eat and drink with contrition and with humility, like patients who can feel their miserable condition and they go to the medic with the desire to meet their health and with the disposition to comply to his instructions. 

Eat and drink after having previously prepared through sincere repentance, your soul in order to receive this life-saving remedy. 

Oh! then Christ will live inside you, and when Christ will be revealed during the second coming glorious and bright, then yourselves as well «with Him you shall appear in glory». 

Some said, that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the fig tree and that consequently the forbidden fruit was the fig. 

And they uphold this idea of theirs in the fact that the protoplasts, when after the transgression they realized that they were naked, in order to cover their nudity they took fig tree leaves «and made themselves aprons», as the Holy Bible says. 

But this does not prove anything. Because if they have preferred the fig tree leaves the protoplasts, they did this probably because these leaves are wide and thick and therefore they could more easily be used for the purpose, that they wanted them. 

This idea therefore, that the tree of knowledge was the fig tree is not supported by any fact, and doesn't have any real and worth of discussion foundation. 

But which then was that tree of the knowledge and good and of evil? We don't know. As we don't know also which was the tree of life. 

We only know, that it was a tree and that it bore fruits. We can also understand, why it was named tree of the knowledge of the good and of the evil. 

It was named this way, not because with its fruits, when the people would eat them, they would receive some useful and life-saving knowledge. 

Not at all. Because then how could God have forbidden to Adam and Eve to eat from these fruits? 

It was named tree of the knowledge, because through the prohibition, that God gave to not eat from the fruits of this tree, first of all they learned Adam and Eve, which is the will oof God. 

And the more they would keep this commandment of God, even more they would comprehend how much benevolent, how much beneficial, how much life-saving, is the will of God. 

And even more they would be enlightened about how much disastrous and how harmful it is when someone does not obey to the commandment of God. 

And thus it would become a motivation this tree for the protoplasts to reach perfection, to rely upon the benevolence, to experience the joy and happiness, which benevolence gives to the man, to become similar as much as possible to God, and to receive in this way more knowledge not only of the goodness but also of the evil. 

The evil however they were not going to know by experience. They would know it in the same way that knows it also God, Who as infinitely saint that He is He has no relation at all with evil. 

God nevertheless know evil. He knows it but not by experience; away from us this blasphemy; but He knows it in theory. 

As also a medic knows that the strychnine and the arsenic are terrible poisons, although himself he never tried to take them. Because, if he had taken them, he would die. 

Such kind of knowledge would receive also the protoplasts about the evil. Without trying it out and without, through experience, getting to try it, they would perfectly know what terrible misfortune follows it closely and what catastrophe it brings upon the man. 

But if Adam would be deceived and eat from that wood of the knowledge, as it afterwards happened, what would happen then? Wouldn't he then receive that knowledge, about which we are talking? Wouldn't he know the good and the evil? 

Alas! What disgrace! He would know it, of course, as he indeed got to know it, but in a way perverted now and very harmful. 

Why? Because now he would lose the good that he had in his hands and he would try out the evil, but now through the experience he would get to know, how much misery there is in it and what a catastrophe it brings to the man. 

And so it happened. The protoplasts ate from that fruit. And immediately the innocence, with which God had endowed them and the happiness, which they enjoyed, slipped away from their hands. 

And they fell in the disgrace and in the affliction, that the evil creates and the sin, that they committed. 

And as, someone healthy, when he loses his health, and a painful illness and with great affliction takes him over, then he better realizes what a valuable possession it was the health that he lost and he feels with the pains, that he suffers, what a bad thing is the illness, which he suffers, likewise also the protoplasts. 

They lost their happiness. They fell into the open sea of despair. And they lament away from Paradise and the land of pleasure. 

How dearly have they paid the knowledge, that they wanted to receive in a different way than the one, that God taught them! 

And how painfully the tree of knowledge taught them the knowledge of good and of evil, which assuredly they would obtain, without sacrifices and without laments! 

Thus was the Paradise, my dear reader. Superior than any description, more perfect than anything else that anyone can imagine, a garden which they had not planted hands of men, but the hands of God. 

«And the Lord God took, the Holy Bible adds, the man, whom He created and put him in the paradise of pleasure to cultivate it and to safeguard it». 

Pay attention to these words, my brother. The more plain they are, the more their significance is great and high. 

First of all they inform us, that the man was not created inside the Paradise. Inside the Paradise he entered afterwards. God put him there afterwards. And for God to do it like this, it seems that He has some important reason and very didactic. 

I wonder, which could it might be this reason? Simply, God wanted to make Adam understand, how much benevolent He had been towards him his Creator and how much He paternally cared for his happiness. 

When he would enter Adam in there, he would well understand, that this Paradise did not rightfully belong to him, since in fact he wasn't born and neither was he created in it. Someone else had planted it and someone else ruled it. Namely, God. 

And Adam therefore would immediately hear something like a voice, which would tell him: «You see, Adam, how much He loves you, He, who created you? Do you see what He prepared for you and what He gives to you? 

All this beautiful place, that you see in front of you, He planted it and it is His. He planted it for you. He gives it to you, in order to make you happy. And it depends on you only for you to stay in here forever and to have happiness as your inseparable companion. 

Be careful, Adam to remain faithful and grateful to Him, who loves you so much and is so much interested and cares for you. 

Be careful, Adam that it doesn't slip away from your hands this happiness, that your God is giving you. Be careful not to lose the Paradise and to not be expelled from this wonderful garden of delight». 

It was therefore a wise pedagogy of God towards Adam the fact that He created him outside of Paradise and He introduced him into that brilliant garden afterwards. 

And He introduced him in the Paradise of pleasure «to cultivate it and to safeguard it». He didn't introduced him there for him to sit idle and lazy, without doing anything, and only to entertain himself or for him to become a great and never before seen idler. 

On the contrary. Man must work. And him who doesn't work, as the divine Paul said afterwards, has no right not even to eat. 

And Adam therefore had to work. With the only difference that the work would be pleasant to him. 

It would not be a laborious work that would exhaust his strength and would paralyze his organism. It would be a kind of pleasant exercise that would rather alleviate the body and would add him greater pleasure. 

It would not be a lost and unrighteous effort like the one, that he is doing today the poor farmer or the gardener, when, after he irrigates his field or his garden with much sweating and he toils to cultivate them, he comes at the time of the floration or of the harvesting some natural disaster and ruins everything. 

No; Adam would work comfortably, pleasantly, peacefully, and the earth downunder would give him the blessing of God abundant, excessive, rich. 

And thus after a light and very pleasant effort Adam would eat his food, sweeter and he would sit at his table with much more appetite and with much more pleasure he would lie down in order to sleep. 

He would rejoice more and he would enjoy much more, when he would see, that the fruits that he was eating, were augmenting also by his own effort, and the trees, which with their shadow gave him rest, they grew and increased also by his own cultivation and care. 

And it teaches you now, my brother, this example of Adam, that the corporal work is consistent with the work that someone must do for the development of his soul. 

Because Adam was admitted in Paradise mainly in order to become perfect spiritually. And yet you see clearly, that the Creator assigns to him corporal work as well. Which means, that also the corporal work contributed to the high purpose of Adam's refinement. 

Therefore, my Christian, work for the formation of your soul. But also work your livelihood job, your profession, your craft, with which you seek to earn your daily bread. 

Work on this task with honesty, with justice, with fear of God, with truth, with diligence, with love. And be certain, that you execute a command of God. 

Do not have any doubt, that you perform a God's liking work, a work of virtue, a work of spiritual development, and only is enough that the love and the justice are you eternal companions. 

Do not ever forget, that laziness and idleness, as the ancients were saying, is the mother of every evil. 

God, as we said, introduced Adam in the Paradise of delight «to cultivate it and to safeguard it». What meaning has the word «cultivate», we already said in the previous. Now it is time to learn was meaning also has the «safeguard the Paradise». 

Adam to safeguard the Paradise. Strange, you might say. Did they also exist back then thieves and muggers, who were lurking in order to steal from that wonderful garden the plenty of fruits, and to destroy its charming beauty? 

The only people who inhabited the earth back then was Adam with his wife. By whom then safeguard the Paradise Adam? 

He had to safeguard it from the fowls, from the beasts, from the animals, which although they were calm and peaceful, still, they had no reasoning in order to distinguish where they should build their nest and what they should eat and from where they should feed and where pass through and run, in order not to harm and in order not to destroy that Paradise of delight. 

A wise pedagogy by God this is as well, my reader. Certainly God, Who with so many fine instincts endowed the animals; God, Who has taught the little fish right after it receives life, to know by nature how to swim and how to cross the seas; 

Who led the infant, when he comes out into the world, to immediately know by nature also the way of how to suckle his mother's milk; Who so very many marvelous capabilities He gave to the irrational beasts. 

He could also, to the animals, that would stay or enter in the Paradise, to give them naturally the ability to distinguish of what to eat, and of what not to eat, where to go and where not to go in there, in order for Paradise to remain well protected by itself. 

And as you can observe the animals today, although they do not have rationality, they can still naturally distinguish, which herb is poisonous and which one can serve them as medicine to a disease they have, thus at that time also God perfectly could have given them the natural ability to distinguish, so that they would not harm in any way that beautiful and wonderful garden of Paradise. 

He didn't do it however. He preferred to entrust to the care of Adam this task, simply because He wanted to educate him. 

And you will might ask me, how and in what way with this safeguarding of Paradise Adam would be educated? And in this question of yours I come now to answer. 

First of all, my reader, with this task Adam would assume more vivid interest for Paradise and he would attach himself more to it. 

He would love more Paradise, just like you yearn today for the vineyard or the field, in which you have toiled to cultivate it and which, when it is filled with plenty of grain, you sit day and night and you guard it, so that they won't destroy it the passersby or the birds and the wild animals. 

He would love Paradise, and if with much pleasure he would guard it, so that they wouldn't damage it in any way the animals, much more Adam would take all measures for not completely losing it, as he lost it afterwards. 

And if it would hurt him to see a part of his beautiful garden to be destroyed by the beasts or the fowls, how much worse and more appalling impression would create in him the idea, that he could lose the Paradise? 

And therefore, he would become careful. Careful, not just against the animals for them not to harm the Paradise, but careful also against himself, in order not to ever extend his hand towards the forbidden tree and disobey the commandment of God and lose the Paradise. 

Becides he would be taught also something else Adam. He would see that inside God's creation there not only exist beneficial beings and forces, but there are also forces, which can cause evil and damage. 

And he would continually be taught by his experience on things, that as there exist among the creatures predatory beasts and fowls, which damage and destroy the Paradise, thus there exist also other wild and untamed and beastly creatures, them being spiritual and rational, who became on their own option evil and treacherous, and who might would make Adam to completely lose Paradise. 

Without a doubt, God must have given instructions about it to Adam and He must have enlightened him about these treacherous spirits of his blessedness. 

And he would be taught therefore that, as it was necessary to safeguard Paradise from the beasts and the fowls, the predatory ones, likewise it was necessary to also safeguard his soul and this Paradise from the intrigues of the devil. 

Do safeguard, Adam, the Paradise. And at the same time remember, that as they can hurt the Paradise the perceivable beasts, likewise they can hurt your soul also the spiritual beasts, your invisible enemies. 

Do safeguard the Paradise. And beware lest not only they destroy it for you the wild beasts, but that they might also snatch it from you at some time. 

God, Who such a great love He showed to the protoplasts, was justified to hold the claim, that also Adam together with Eve show love and loyalty towards Him. 

Who can deny it? So many good things He gave them. With so much authority He surrounded them. So much wealth and so much happiness He set at their disposition. 

Wasn't therefore fair for Him to ask something from them as well, in a way that they would also get the opportunity to show their love and their obedience and their respect towards their Creator and their Benefactor? 

Eh! well and for this reason God, after He introduced Adam inside Paradise, at the same time He gives him also a law, one commandment, and He asks from Adam to preserve it and to keep it precisely. 

And God is doing this not because he had the need for Adam to keep His commandment. Neither it would add anything Adam to God, if he would keep this commandment, nor it would deduct anything from Him if he breached it and he infringed it. 

God is doing this, that is, He gives this commandment and asks from Adam to keep it, for the interest of Adam himself. 

Adam and Eve were, as we have said, free. They were images of God. God therefore is asking now to make them perfect. 

The purpose of God is that the free will of Adam and Eve would consolidate and would strengthen, in order for them to always remain steady and unshakeable towards the good and the virtue. 

Because, as free that they were the protoplasts could and it was at their authority to also do bad, as they finally did and they fell from their height and from their destination. 

The purpose of God therefore was to perfectize the protoplasts, for them to acquire a steady character, strong, perfect. And then on they would become happier and more blissful. 

Why? Because from images of God, that they were, they would become similars to God. They would resemble even more to God, they would unite with Him, and thus they would become even more members of the blessedness and glory of God. 

But how would that be achieved? How the characters of the protoplasts would be perfected and would become stable towards the good? How? Through the test. Their free will had to be tested. 

It had to be set some restriction, some barrier on the freedom of the protoplasts in order to train their will to always be disciplined to God and to never disobey His will. 

And for this reason God gives His commandment. In order to be tested the will of the protoplasts. 

And the more they would obey to God, the more they would become perfect; the more they would come close to Him, the more they would unite with Him, 

And observe, my reader; as God appeared to be good, very good at everything towards Adam, so He appears also now, when He gives him His commandment. 

He behaves towards him as a affectionate father, who does not want to torture, but to discipline His child. As a father, who wants to educate and to lift, but never to tyrannize and punish his child. 

Because what does He ask and what does He demand from the protoplasts? He doesn't ask from them to stare at the nice fruits on the trees and not to eat them. 

He doesn't tell them to pass under the trees being hungry and to force their stomachs and to clinch their jaws, in order not ever to be fooled and cut some fruit to satiate their hunger and to give pleasure to their larynx. 

No. Instead He gives them the right to eat whatever they like from any tree they would want. He concedes them, that all these things He gave to them, were under their authority and they had the right to eat and to get pleasure from them. 

«From every tree that is in paradise you can eat», says God to Adam. 

From every tree you have the right to eat. And only a tree I forbid you to touch. Only «from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, do not eat from it». 

They are so many the other trees and so abundant their fruits and so varied their flavors and their tastes, that you don't have anything to suffer neither anything to miss, Adam, if you don't taste the fruits of a single tree. God, Who made it everything, He is telling you not to eat from that tree. 

Say, Adam, that God wouldn't make this tree and that this tree is missing and doesn't exist. You don't have anything to lose, if you don't eat from it's fruits. You won't miss anything, since you have so many other tree at your disposition. 

In fact, on the contrary in one such insignificant and measly sacrifice that God is asking from you, you get a chance to show Him your love, your obedience, your devotion. 

God doesn't ask from you great things, while He gave you great and important things. Isn't it therefore proper and just in anything He asks from you, you to respond? 

He didn't therefore ask no big thing God from Adam. He asked him to reduce a little his appetite and his desire. A little, a very little. 

Because, as you see, my reader, from all the other trees, which were countless, He gives him the right to eat. Only from that tree He does not allow him not even to taste it. 

He asked him to put a bridle to his curiosity and to show some patience for the satisfaction of the thirst which his mind naturally had for learning. 

Certainly it could occur to Adam the idea: «what kind of tree can this be? And why did God forbid me to come close to it? And what taste can they have its fruits?». 

Such and similar other ideas of curiosity could certainly occur to Adam. And these ideas would be as much dangerous, as much the commandment of God seemed at first sight to be easy and minor. 

Because it could occur afterwards to Adam also another idea: «And what will happen to me, if I eat this fruit? For so insignificant thing is God going to punish me?». 

Therefore, it was needed here for Adam to have unlimited confidence to God. It was needed for him to have absolute obedience to His words, so that he would not allow himself not even to discuss with these ideas that would occur to him or that someone else would put in his mind. 

He needed to never forget the love that God showed to him and to every single question of curiosity and bewilderment, that would come to him, to respond: 

The good God, Who created me, knows what favors me and what benefits me. Let me listen to Him therefore. What He orders me and what He commands me, it is beneficial and profitable for me». 

Thus he should think and thus he should respond to the temptation of curiosity. And you won't have in this no objection, my friend reader. 

On the contrary indeed, with every right you must feel sorry for Adam, because, although he had in front of him so many examples of the exceptional love of God towards him, in a moment he forgets everything and dares to violate a commandment of his Creator so easy, so just, so rational. 

And you might even think, that if it had been you in his place, you wouldn't experience no difficulty in abiding by the commandment of God and that by no means you would obey to the commandment of the serpent, but you would remain disciplined to your Creator. 

I have heard it by many saying it. Why couldn't it be, they say, that we were in Adam's place? Certainly the humanity would not suffer the hardships, that suffer now. Because us we would faithfully safeguard what God ordered us. 

And what fault do I have, others say, for me to suffer for the transgression of Adam? If it was me in his place, I would not be a transgressor. 

The truth is, my reader, that once something happens, everyone wants afterwards to tell us their judgement. And as it says the popular proverb, when someone stumbles, they all accuse his poor sight. And they do not take under consideration, that themselves also it would be probable to stumble and even get badly hurt. 

The same happens regarding the transgression of Adam as well. 

Has stumbled the protoplast. Do not yell and do not stretch, my Christian. You too if you were at his place, the same would happen to you. 

No doubt remains in me about it. And pay a little attention, and with the help and with the illumination of the Lord I hope that you will be convinced. 

Hasn't it ever occur in your life that your parents or your teachers they forbid you to do or to listen to something? Surely it must have happened to you. 

I ask you: what have you experienced and what have you felt in that occasion? Hasn't it seem to you difficult this prohibition and wouldn't you wish an hour earlier for this prohibition to be lifted and for you to be freed by it? 

And yet your teacher or your father or your mother has not forbidden you any big thing. 

He maybe told you, to not drink too much water, to not open a box, which he has placed on top of the table; to not eat from that food which is harmful to your health etc. And you consider tough and heavy this mandate and this instruction. 

Put therefore now yourself in the place of Adam and think and calculate and weigh and contemplate, if then you also would not rather desire to not have existed this little prohibition that God would have given to you, and you would not have preferred to be free from it. 

And I continue, my reader, and I direct to you another question, the question, why today do you dare to fail the commandments of God, since you well know, that eternal death and implacable punishment is reserved for the sinners? 

You might tell me, that the corruption, which we have inherited from the ancestral sin, drags us towards the sin as captives, without even wanting it many times. 

I agree to this. But you shall also agree to something else. Namely, in that Christ is willing and powerful to set us free and to empower us, so that we stand out as faithful keepers of the divine commandments, as long as we appeal to Him. 

I ask you therefore, my Christian, why don't you appeal to Christ? Why does sin attract you more rather than the Redeemer and Savior of the world? 

My Christian brother, examine yourself well. Give to these questions a true answer and then start discussing about how you would behave if you were in the place of Adam. 

God did not merely limit Himself into giving His commandment towards the protoplasts. Simultaneously he announced beforehand to them also the punishment, which awaited them, if they violated this commandment. 

«for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die». That is, He tells them, that at that day that you will dare to eat from this forbidden fruit, you shall die. 

But for such a small thing, that is, for a fruit that they would cut and they would eat, it is therefore reserved death? Definitely. The transgression here is judged by the majesty of the One Who gave the command. 

Who talks to you and who commands you, oh, man? He is certainly not your similar. He is God Himself. Don't you take heed, therefore, at the word of God? Does it not scare you His warning? Do you dare to despise the desire and His commandment? Well, you deserve not only one, but thousands and millions of deaths. 

But for one thing so small? Exactly, for a fruit that you ate. Precisely because God asked you to keep one so small thing, one so easy commandment, and you haven't kept it, precisely for this you are even more reprehensible. 

Inasmuch the small and easy you haven't kept, imagine what you would do, if He would ask you also something bigger and more difficult. 

«you shall surely die»! God is fair therefore and righteous are His judgements. He threatens death, because with death it was fair to be punished that transgresion and that sin. And He predicts it and He preannounces it, so that he could not complain afterwards Adam, when the severe punishment would fall upon Him. 

He predicts it to him so that Adam would take his measures and for him to become more cautious. And thus, together with the love and the gratitude towards God he would also have the fear towards the threat of God like two springs in his soul, which would restrain him from the transgression. 

Therefore, it is as if God was saying to Adam. «Adam, if it is not enough the love and the gratitude that you owe to Me for the so many good things, that I have done to you, to restrain you from disobeying My commandment, at least restrain yourself out of My fear. 

I predicts it to you, that if you dare to eat from this fruit, you shall die. Do fear therefore this punishment». 

«you shall surely die»! What terrible sense and what fearful meaning this threat has! «you shall surely die»! 

It's not just bodily this death, with which God intimidates the protoplasts. It is something much more terrifying. It's death of the soul, and as a result of this death of the psyche it followed afterwards also the bodily death. 

And you will certainly want, my reader, to be clarified to you what does it mean death of soul and what kind of bad thing it is. 

But in order to learn it and understand it, my brother, you must set before your eyes the state, in which the body degenerates, when death hits it. 

And then, having before your eyes this state as image, you should contemplate, as much this is possible, what does it mean that same state for the soul, which we call death of the soul. 

Therefore, the bodily death what is it? It is separation of the body from the soul, which vitalizes it. 

And when it comes this separation, then the eyes cannot any longer see and get pleasure with the nice images that presents to us the creation of God and the art of the man; 

the ears cannot any longer hear the pleasant voices of the loved ones and be attracted by the sweet songs of the birds and by the brilliant harmonies of the music. 

The tongue immobil, with the mouth closed shut and with the jaws fixed, he cannot taste anymore the sweet and tasty foods and drinks. 

The good look, the handsome face, that dazzled with its beauty, what happens to it now? You loathe to come close to it. It swells along with the rest of the organism, it emanates an unbearable stench, it rots little by little and in a while it dissolves. 

What pleasure it experienced before, when it still was in life that same body! What glory and what magnificence it had! What power and what beauty! 

And now? Immobile, unconscious, stinky it causes disgust and it degenerates to decomposition and to rottenness. 

At least this, that is, the dead body, no longer feels anything. If it stinks, it stinks for the others. If it decomposes, itself does not understand anything. 

Come now to the soul, my Christian. What is the death of the soul? Separation of the soul from God, Who is the life and the happiness and the strength of the soul. 

What happens to the soul, when it separates from God? It degenerates like the corpse, but with the difference that she does feel the misery and the rottenness and the stench, in which through her death she degenerated. 

The soul doesn't taste now, the soul does not experiment the gleefulness, that God gives to those, who do not separate from near Him. She doesn't feel any longer the serenity and the peace, which transmits the Spirit of God to those, in which He dwells. 

She doesn't feel the relief, which God gives. But what does she feel then? Maybe she doesn't feel anything? Ah! no; she feels. 

She feels an anguish, a restlessness, a torture, an affliction and ends up in a miserable state, completely opposite to the state, in which exist the soul that is connected with God. 

Oh, Lord, Lord; have mercy for the creature of Your hands. Have compassion for the disobedient and prodigal children of Yours, who slipped away from your embrace. 

And attract again, we beg You, our souls towards You, so that they may find in their union with You their peace and the life in bliss. So be it. 

End of chapter 2