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Adam and Eve - Adam et Ève
Those three very large stained glass windows illustrating from left to right, the temptation, the condemnation and the rejection from paradise are of Guido Nincheri’s masterpieces.
The biblical story of the creation of mankind with Adam and Eve as our first parents is unfortunately seldom illustrated. Created out of God’s love, mankind was the crowning of creation. Created in His image, Adam and Eve were created as saints, able to converse directly with God, in communion with God. As saints, they were not to know illness, pains of any kind and would not die but be “assumpted” to heaven. God’s own son was to dwell amongst them, in a world in complete harmony and total justice.
But our original parents were put to a simple test that they failed, opting for their own navels instead of God. It is impossible to grasp the catastrophic, cataclysmic and cosmic impact of this event as the order of creation was perverted and reversed. No other event in the creation or evolution of the world, whether it is the extinction of dinosaurs, glacial ages, the formation of black holes, etc., had such an impact and can even be compared. In fact, the original sin is the only single major event in the creation of the world that completely changed its destiny as well as our own fate: from then on, mankind was to know injustice, disharmony, illness, pain and die. But most importantly, mankind would be separated from its only true vocation that is to dwell in God’s love. Because males and females were created in the image of God and lost communion with God, they were no more "transparent" to each other and suddenly knew that they were nude, introducing concupiscence that would forever make their relationship to each other, to the rest of creation and to God, so difficult. To such an extent that not knowing God anymore, they created their own gods to whom they offered innumerable human sacrifices, i.e., gifts.
In a fallen mankind, there are no such things as distant, undisturbed by civilization, innocent tribes living in harmony with themselves and with nature, nor philosophical, social and economic systems that are sustainable outside of truth, beauty and love. All of creation was stained by the original sin of Adam and Eve. At this point God could have gotten rid of His creation turned upside down but as God is love, He made himself known to His creation again, a story called Revelation told in the Bible and He gave mankind the means to become saintly again through His Church and its sacraments. And this is why the only individuals who do succeed to live as creation was originally meant to be are saints.
Lastly, as God’s only son would have dwelt in a saintly mankind before the fall, He could not have dwelt in a fallen mankind. As the mother of God, Mary could not have been of this fallen mankind; in the thoughts of God ever since and the summit of creation, she was created free of Adam and Eve's sinful inheritance, able to converse directly with God, not knowing illness nor physical death, hence her Immaculate Conception and her Assumption.
Adam and Eve - Adam et Ève
Those three very large stained glass windows illustrating from left to right, the temptation, the condemnation and the rejection from paradise are of Guido Nincheri’s masterpieces.
The biblical story of the creation of mankind with Adam and Eve as our first parents is unfortunately seldom illustrated. Created out of God’s love, mankind was the crowning of creation. Created in His image, Adam and Eve were created as saints, able to converse directly with God, in communion with God. As saints, they were not to know illness, pains of any kind and would not die but be “assumpted” to heaven. God’s own son was to dwell amongst them, in a world in complete harmony and total justice.
But our original parents were put to a simple test that they failed, opting for their own navels instead of God. It is impossible to grasp the catastrophic, cataclysmic and cosmic impact of this event as the order of creation was perverted and reversed. No other event in the creation or evolution of the world, whether it is the extinction of dinosaurs, glacial ages, the formation of black holes, etc., had such an impact and can even be compared. In fact, the original sin is the only single major event in the creation of the world that completely changed its destiny as well as our own fate: from then on, mankind was to know injustice, disharmony, illness, pain and die. But most importantly, mankind would be separated from its only true vocation that is to dwell in God’s love. Because males and females were created in the image of God and lost communion with God, they were no more "transparent" to each other and suddenly knew that they were nude, introducing concupiscence that would forever make their relationship to each other, to the rest of creation and to God, so difficult. To such an extent that not knowing God anymore, they created their own gods to whom they offered innumerable human sacrifices, i.e., gifts.
In a fallen mankind, there are no such things as distant, undisturbed by civilization, innocent tribes living in harmony with themselves and with nature, nor philosophical, social and economic systems that are sustainable outside of truth, beauty and love. All of creation was stained by the original sin of Adam and Eve. At this point God could have gotten rid of His creation turned upside down but as God is love, He made himself known to His creation again, a story called Revelation told in the Bible and He gave mankind the means to become saintly again through His Church and its sacraments. And this is why the only individuals who do succeed to live as creation was originally meant to be are saints.
Lastly, as God’s only son would have dwelt in a saintly mankind before the fall, He could not have dwelt in a fallen mankind. As the mother of God, Mary could not have been of this fallen mankind; in the thoughts of God ever since and the summit of creation, she was created free of Adam and Eve's sinful inheritance, able to converse directly with God, not knowing illness nor physical death, hence her Immaculate Conception and her Assumption.