Читать книгу Catholicism For Dummies - Rev. Kenneth Brighenti - Страница 59

Just as God tested the angels (see the preceding section), He also tested the first human beings: Adam and Eve. He told them not to eat of the forbidden fruit, which was found on only one tree in the entire, bountiful Garden of Eden: the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. All they had to do was overlook one tree! A serpent, who was the devil in disguise, told Eve that she and Adam wouldn’t die if they ate the fruit of the tree forbidden by God. Eve ate from the tree and got her husband to do likewise. Adam and Eve chose to defy God and disobey His command. God punished them both — and one of the penalties was death. They didn’t die on the spot, but had they not disobeyed the Lord, mankind would have remained immortal.

Of course, we must place some blame on the serpent. But he never coerced the free will of Eve or Adam. Another name for the devil is the Author of All Lies, which is evident in his distortion and perversion of the truth.

Temptation comes from the world, the flesh, or the devil. It is a proposition in our mind to choose an inferior good over a superior one. No rational person chooses evil for the sake of evil; such a person is a sociopath. Nonetheless, rational people do sometimes choose evil: They choose lower goods, ignore higher goods, and often employ immoral means to fulfill (supposedly) morally good ends.

The devil takes a lesser good — like pleasure, convenience, or comfort — and tempts us to raise it above higher goods like life, honor, duty, commitment, family, friendship, and faith. Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation, and there were consequences.