Who Told You That You Were Naked?

“The LORD God then called to the man and asked him: Where are you? He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.’ Then God asked: Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat?” (Gen 3:9–11). You probably recognize this discourse between God and Adam from after the fall of mankind, when Adam and Eve hid from God because they were ashamed of what they had done. When God finds Adam, He asks him why he hid. Adam replies that he was afraid because he realized that he was naked. Then, God inquires, “who told you that you were naked?” He then goes on to question if Adam has eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the following verses, we hear Adam and Eve confess of their disobedience to God, they receive the just consequences of their actions, and the serpent is forever cursed for having lied to and deceived God’s children.

I want to further focus on the line, “who told you that you were naked?” Fr. Mike Schmitz, in his podcast The Bible in a Year, highlights this verse particularly, when reviewing this section of Genesis. He notes that it can be read in two very different ways. He mentions that many of us, including myself until I heard Fr. Mike describe the second perspective, can see this verse as God being angry at Adam and Eve for finding out that they were naked, almost as if God were saying, “who let you in on the secret?” or as if God did not want them to be aware of the fact that they were naked. However, the other way to understand this phrase is through the lens of a loving Father (which God is). He is asking Adam and Eve, “who lied to you or misled you to believe that you are worthless, unworthy, or shameful?” We see the loving concern of a father who encounters his dejected children, with the knowledge of the much higher place to which He has called them. Further, we see God provide Adam and Eve with fig leaves, to cover their nakedness. This indicates that God cares for us, even in our brokenness and rejection of Him. He does not stop loving us, despite our lack of love for Him. The rest of the Scriptures tell the story of the rescue mission that God undertakes to use the chosen people of Israel to lead creation back to Him, ultimately sending His Son into the world, to suffer and die for and redeem His beloved children. During this Triduum, leading up to Easter Sunday, we should take time to recognize the lies that the devil and the world tell us, and reflect on how God is calling us out of our brokenness, to be who we were created to be.

These three days, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, are the perfect time to reflect on the path of humanity since the fall and how our own journeys mirror this pattern. In our own lives, we will likely reflect back on a wandering course, sometimes close to God and sometimes veering further off course from Him. Nonetheless, in both the history of mankind and in our own lives, God continues to send opportunities for redemption — times when, if only we are aware of and willing to accept Him, He can bring us much greater fulfillment and peace than anything that the world can offer. The Bible in a Year podcast, based on Jeff Cavin’s original Bible study, is wonderful because it helps you to see the bigger picture of the multiple attempts God makes to bring His people back to Him, and it allows you to reflect on how you are like the people of Israel, accepting God’s blessings when it is easy and doubting God when His blessings are disguised as crosses to help us grow deeper in love of Him. This back and forth trust and distrust of God is caused by believing the lies of the devil that God does not love us or that we are unworthy of His love.

But, maybe right now you don’t believe that God loves us or why He is even deserving of our love in return. There is so much suffering in the world, that it may seem doubtful that there is a good God who created all this. However, the pain and strife in the world are not due to God willing it, but Him allowing it, to bring greater conversion in our hearts. Sin and struggle are the just consequences of turning away from God. For, if we reject God, we turn in on ourselves and He cannot provide us with the grace that we need to live in this fallen world. But, if in the midst of the tragedies of this world, we would more often open ourselves to seeing His plan in the midst of it all, we can rise above our troubles and work to rid the world of its present evils, through forgiveness of and charity towards our neighbors.

But, before we go out to make change in the world, we must have a proper relationship with God. That is because our relationship with God affects how we see ourselves and how we see others. If we have a distorted image of God (e.g. that He is a distant and demanding God), we may think that He doesn’t love us when we sin and that we can never meet His requirements for being loved. This then causes us to not feel worthy of goodness and forgiveness, to try to find fulfillment in other, temporary pleasures, and to become indifferent about making positive changes in our lives. Additionally, if we see God and ourselves in this way, we start to impose this view of the human condition on others. We see others as not deserving of our charity, and we can even impose unrealistic demands on them to earn our love. This is the chain of deception that we spiral downward into when we listen to the lies of the devil and the world that we are worthless, unworthy, and shameful.

Contrarily, God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him might not perish, but might have eternal life (John 3:16). Through Jesus’ mission on earth, we see Him restoring humanity to its rightful dignity. In the Gospels, he reaches out to the broken, belittled, and blackballed. He heals the blind and the leper; He forgives the adulterer and the tax collector. Notice, however, that despite plentiful admonition and correction, the haughty Pharisees are unable to receive Jesus’ restoration because they are not willing nor open to humble themselves to receive His grace. They believed that they can do it all on their own, something that sounds all too familiar in our world today. We think that we can find fulfillment on our own; we believe that we can fix the world’s problems with our own human solutions; we tell ourselves that human dignity is based on appearance, success, or whatever other fleeting quality is in fashion. That is the distorted perspective that God is calling us out of, if only we are open to entering into relationship with Him, so that we may properly see ourselves and others as we truly are, sons and daughters of a loving Creator.

You may think that believing in God is too traditional, wishy washy, or weak. But, in a world that is aching from seemingly endless violence, hatred, illness, selfishness, and greed, what more could we need than faith in a Creator who calls us to love our neighbor, to give of ourselves before we take from others, to see others with dignity (regardless of race, religion, creed, or status), and to treat other like we would like to be treated? Being a Catholic Christian does not mean following arcane traditions passed on by a Church that is broken by human weakness and sinfulness. It means being faithful to the message of Jesus Christ, passed down from the apostle Peter, upon whom the earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ was established; it means spreading the Good News that we are called to something greater than what the world offers us; and, it means struggling alongside our neighbor to strive toward that calling each and every day.

And, it is Jesus who calls each and every one of us into this mission. As he tells the apostles in John 15, it is not we who choose Him, but He who chooses us; and, he appoints us to go and bear fruit that will remain (John 15:16). None of the good that comes into the world through the Church is our doing, it is the Holy Spirit working in us, to bring all of God’s creation back to Him. However, it is up to us to cooperate in this mission, which Jesus highlights in the next verse, “this I command you: love one another” (John 15:17). It is that simple. Every day, we must think, “how can I give of myself for another (whether it be your roommate, your coworker, your significant other, or the stranger on the street)?”

Of course, we will fail along the way. Jesus does not tell us that it will be easy or that we will be perfect. However, He does call us to that high standard (Mt 5:48); and, He equips us, with grace and forgiveness, to continue to renew our commitment to Him (Phil 1:16, Heb 13:20–21, Rom 8:30). As St. Josemaría Escrivá said, “a saint is a sinner who keeps trying.” Numerous saints, from St. Frances de Sales, to St. Benedict, to St. Anthony of the Desert, to St. Mother Teresa have spoken on this concept of beginning again. No matter what we’ve done, no matter how far we’ve strayed, nor no matter how we see ourselves or others, we can always seek God’s forgiveness and begin again, putting one foot in front of the other on the path toward holiness, and depending more on the means of grace that God gives us — the Sacraments, prayer, and community.

The message of Easter is just that — God is always active and alive in our real circumstances. He entered into our broken world, showed us that we can be restored, took on our human sinfulness, and redeemed us to be worthy of eternal life, through His passion, death, and resurrection. And, He continues to be active in our world today. Just as God breathed life into the dust and clay of Adam and Eve, through Jesus, God continues to breathe life into us. The life with which He animated Adam and Eve is in us too; it is the Holy Spirit, living in and moving through us, if we are receptive to Him.

As we enter into the Triduum, and proceed into the Easter season. Let us fully enter into the richness of this time. First, we must acknowledge the immense suffering that Christ undertook for our salvation. But, that does not mean that we will not have to suffer on our journey on this earth. Jesus did not come to remove strife from this world, but to enter into and redeem it, so that it can bring about a greater good. When we, like Christ, offer our suffering for the good of another, it takes on a higher purpose. If we sacrifice (from sacra + facere, meaning “to make holy”) our immense struggles and grief, let alone minor, everyday inconveniences, we can make the world a holier place. In a worldly sense, sacrifice can be seen in holding your tongue from making a snide comment, to preserve a relationship, doing your work well and on time, to be a good employee, or volunteering on a Saturday morning, to serve your community. However, in an eternal perspective, holding your tongue, doing your work well, volunteering, and even smaller sacrifices that others might not notice (e.g. not pushing the snooze button, skipping dessert, or not hitting the “next episode” button on Netflix) can become redemptive, when we consciously unite them to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. When we do this, participating in Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection, we truly are Christians — “from, of, or like Christ.”

So, in these days dedicated to focusing on the heart of Christ’s mission, let us be restored and renewed. As St. Paul tells us, “do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rom 12:2). Do not listen to the lies of the world that tell you that you are worthless, unworthy, or shameful. Do not believe that you have to settle for a temporal fulfillment or a lesser “love,” that is selfish and utilitarian. Do not follow the cyclical paths of temporal pleasure that only lead you to wanting more. Know that you are a beloved son or daughter of God, with an inherent dignity. Remember that your worth and fulfillment needs to be rooted in a daily, personal relationship with God. And, live as Jesus Christ did — treating others with the same dignity and respect that all human beings have, fratenerally correcting others when they are going astray, and calling all to a higher sense of purpose — to live for the good of others.