HW: What on earth do we moderns do with Adam and Eve?

A reflection for the first Sunday of Lent, inspired by Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7. Written and spoken by Kieran J. O'Mahony OSA

Gentle piano music to close the meditation

Transcript

John’s Lane
D08 F8NW
22 February 2026
Adam and Christ
Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7

Welcome
The word “Lent” is an old English word for spring — the time when the days are lengthening. These six weeks are there to help us make the journey to the feast of the resurrection “with minds and hearts renewed.” We are greatly helped by the brilliant choice of readings for the Sundays of Lent. In particular, the first readings give us a kind of large narrative arc — the story of the people of God — Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, David and the great Exile in Babylon. Today, we start with Adam and Eve. A modern person — shaped by scientific and critical thinking — might be tempted to react: what could be more remote and irrelevant?

Topic
I’ll make four comments — each one necessarily too brief and too much at the same time.

Steps
Firstly, most bible readers are aware that there are two fairly different creation stories in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2-3. When you read the Bible more, you discover that there are not just two but at least four different versions of creation in the Bible. This can be a challenge to our binary western minds. Non-binary thinking simply says “here’s another way of looking at the same reality.”

Secondly, because this is just one way of looking at reality, there is no obligation to treat the stories as some kind of real history. The stories are not historical: they not about our remote ancestors who messed up, their actions long ago being the cause of the tragedy of life. Instead, these accounts tell the story of each one us, as we leave not the Garden of Eden but the garden of original innocence and make our way through life. Of course, real fundamentalists will tell you the world is just 6,000 years old and will give you the date of creation: 23 October 4004 bc, shortly after lunch. We don’t have to go down that route, thank God.

Thirdly and quite understandably, when we read the story of the fall of our first parents, our minds turn automatically to the later Christian doctrine of original sin. This is not necessarily or even not at all what the Israelite writers had in mind. The Jewish people, the descendants of those who composed this text, really have no doctrine of original sin, even though they read exactly the same stories as we do. Our developed Christian doctrine goes back to St Augustine, writing on the cusp of the 4th and 5th centuries ad. 

So, with all that in mind, what are we to make of the stories? Written in a very appealing and approachable style, these ancient stories represent the human condition, the story of us all and the story of each one of us. We all make the journey from the garden of innocence to the real world of work and love and pain. On the way, we encounter goodness and gift as well as inscrutable evil; we also discover freedom and choice, language, companionship and the desire for children, feelings of guilt and shame. Suddenly, we find ourselves no longer in the garden of original innocence.

So what does our reading from Genesis tell us about ourselves? For me a few things stand out. As we grow up, we become aware of the good and evil. Somewhat unaccountably, we are drawn to what is forbidden — easy enough to recognise. We learn the ambiguity of language and how to shift blame away from ourselves. We all experience the loss of “original innocence” and realise that we are naked. Eventually, we are confronted with the fact of our own death. The stories are not about our remote ancestors who somehow royally messed up. Instead, these accounts constitute the story of each human being, each one us as we make our way as grown-ups through life. Like all good mythology, the stories are powerful and invite reflection and consideration. Simply put, we are invited to recognise ourselves in the myth.

Conclusion
The journey of Lent is a springtime of grace. All three readings are an invitation to look at ourselves honestly. With Adam and Eve, we can pray: have mercy on us, O Lord, for we have sinned. In Christ, we know the abundant free gift of God — the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, given to us. Holding these two realities, we are invited to recognise the need for change in our lives, for conversion and growth. Whatever I choose to undertake for Lent should be part of that new growth, so I can arrive at the great festival of Easter, with mind and heart renewed.