of the ONE GOD, Eve failed her TEST by an elation of spirit,
by vanity and pride, which blinded her prudence; for she did not pray
to God to verify the serpent's story. She did not continue to love God
above all things; and she lost the realization of her nothingness by
the Pride, which sprang up within. She, likewise, lost her CROWN—the
Gift of Divine Will—that cannot reign in a vessel of pride. Poor
Eve, her human will was left alone to animate her. This human will was
not intended by the Creator to operate separately from the Divine Will.
On its own this human will is weak, vacillating, inconstant, and disordered.
Adam chose to please his wife
Eve
So Eve, with a poor human will, separated from God, did take the fruit
of the Tree which God had commanded her not to touch! This seems to
be incredible: a creature that had been given everything, even the fullness
of Divine Life, rejected the MOST LOVING GIVER. However, all would not
have been lost if Adam, the first to be created, had corrected Eve and
led her to repentance. But—alas! Adam, too, succumbed to pride
and human respect. He, too, stopped loving God above all things. He
preferred to please his wife rather than obey his Creator. Thus, the
headlong plummet of our first parents— from the fullness of Divine
Life to the depths of squalor. What madness! What an infinite loss!
What a dolorous and most lamentable thing! All of nature wept. All of
creation wept bitter tears. Their king and queen had lost their dominion.
Disorder and disharmony had entered the Universe and sepulchral
silence descended everywhere. No longer would celestial music fill the
Universe as before. The ideal of the Creator had been wrecked—but
not forever.
Decree of Redemption and Sanctification
Behold Two Decrees of the Holy Trinity to set all aright again: the Decree
of Redemption and the Decree of Sanctification. But man must first pay
the just price of his perfidy. The children of Adam would not be able
to inherit the supernatural Gifts bestowed upon the human race in Adam
and Eve. The children would, instead, inherit the great loss.
The Redemption of man
Redemption only intermediate step
The Mercy of God is unfathomable and His Decrees are unchangeable. Man
could be saved if he truly wished, and God would receive all the glory
He deserved to receive from every creature. And, so it was that God decreed
the Redemption of man and also the complete Sanctication of man. The Redemption
would provide the way for man to live in God's grace and the Redeemer
would open the gates of
Heaven to men.
Yet, the weak human will could continue to reign in men. Whatever sanctity
he would come to possess would be only a shadow of the original sanctity
given to Adam and Eve and the sanctity possessed by Jesus and Mary. The
sanctity of these four (and here we speak of Adam and Eve prior to their
Fall) was the sanctity of the fullness of Divine Life, which is the sanctity
of the Divine Will—the very Life of the Most Holy Trinity. So, at
a later time, after the fruits of Redemption had developed among the generations
and men had come to know the necessary truths, the Decree of Sanctification
would come into effect at the precise hour appointed by the mysterious
Wisdom of God. It is opportune here to point out that the doctrinal seed
of this great reality is contained in Holy Scripture, but the clarity
of the "HOW" of the unfolding of this eternal Decree would have
to be made known to men when the propitious moment would arrive. So be
it! Glory, honor, and thanksgiving to the King and Master of History!
Only God could restore Gift
Since man had lost something that was Divine, namely, the Gift of the
Divine Will—the crowning glory of man—no mere man, nor even
an Angel would be capable of regaining it and restoring it to mankind.
It was necessary, therefore, that Someone Divine restore This Gift. It
was the activity of humans which rejected and lost the Divine Gift; therefore,
it was just and fitting that human activity be involved in the recovery
of the Lost Gift. Behold the Prodigy of
