Adam and Eve were Saints?
No one ever talks about this but December 24 is the Feast of Adam and Eve: The first sinners became saints too?
Scientific proof of Adam and Eve? A massive study of 5 million genetic “bar codes’’ shows all humans are descended from one man and one woman who lived between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago.
The study supported another part of the Creation Story: 90 percent of animals came from parents who lived at that same time.
We are all family, descended from the same mother and father…
Genetically, we are far more alike than not alike (99.9 percent according to an earlier DNA study). Yes, the non-believers don’t buy the story of Adam and Eve. But the scientific evidence does have a way of sneaking in, supporting the historic and cultural stories that have been passed down over thousands of years.
Adam and Eve get little respect. Even believers tend to deny Adam and Eve. The Fourth Commandment says “Honor thy Mother and Father’’ but we seldom refer to Adam and Eve that way.
When we hear about them in Church, it’s the story of their failings, how they messed up, defied the one rule God gave them, listened to the evil one, brought sin into the world and lost Paradise.
The Original Sin we all carry with us is inherited from our ancestors, Adam and Eve, the mother and father of all of humanity.
“So it’s all her fault?’’ a beloved relative said of Eve…
Yes, but everything happens for a reason and because they chose to “do it their way’’ rather than God’s Way, the chasm of distrust between God the Father and His children created a need for a bridge to bring us back to the father: Jesus Christ.
This is why Mary is called “the new Eve’’ and Jesus is called “the new Adam,’’ brought to Earth to show us the way home to the Father. That is why the Feast of Adam and Eve is followed by Christmas.
The Christmas tree tradition (originally called a Paradise Tree) began in recognition of the December 24 Feast of Adam and Eve, recognizing the tradition that teaches that Adam and Eve were rescued by Christ after He died on the cross, rescuing them and our other ancestors, bringing them to live in Heaven.
But how the heck are Adam and Eve saints if they are the first sinners who passed sin on to all the rest of us? Father Larry Richards says we all have a simple choice: we can choose to become saints or we can go to hell. Christ came to Earth as a baby on Christmas, lived, died to save our souls and was resurrected to show us the way and bring us home.
Matthew Kelly has a beautiful book called “The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity,’’ which teaches that we all too easily fall for the lie that we (or more often, the people we hate) are irredeemable with no chance of becoming saints. That’s a lie. We can all become saints.
Even Adam and Eve. Even you. Even me. Merry Christmas.
