“And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to himself.” (Gen. 2:18) Adam’s Need: As Christians, we believe that God created everything for a reason and nothing was done just haphazardly. We also believe that everything God created was good, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” (Gen. 1:31) When God created Adam, He formed him out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. But at the same time, man was the crown of creation since God formed him after He had prepared every possible means of happiness and comfort for Adam. Yet, as Adam looked at the animals that were under his dominion, he found that each had others of its kind. As for himself, the Bible says, “But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.” (Gen. 2:20) Adam needed someone like himself; someone he could talk to and share with all the goodness that God has blessed him with; someone who can think like him and be a helper comparable to him. This need is what prompted God to create the woman, “And the Lord said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.'” (Gen. 2:18)
Eve’s Creation: God created the woman out of man himself, “And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God has taken from him, He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.” (Gen. 2:23) The woman was created to be like him in the image and likeness of God, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.” (Gen. 1:27) Adam was very happy with the woman; he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” (Gen. 2:23) showing that she was his beloved and how he cherished her. She complimented him and supplied him with his needs to have one similar to himself able to understand him and with whom he can share his thoughts. She was not foreign or alien to him, because she came from his side, close to his heart. Their relationship was wholesome and harmonious, because God was the center of their being; it was free of egocentricity and domination of one over the other, because God was the bond between them. Their perfect relationship with one another, with God, and with the whole creation arose the envy of the devil, as we say in the Divine Liturgy, “And death which entered into the world by the envy of Satan…”
Eve’s Faults: Eve fell because of her naivete, curiosity, and pride. She allowed herself to carry on a useless conversation with the serpent. Isn’t that what we often do? We put ourselves in the wrong place and end up mingling with the wrong people. The unproductive conversations we often carry entangle us into a snarl of confusion and doubt. With Eve one thing led to another, until she fell. She wanted to try something new. Isn’t this the web we often fall into when we want to experiment with new things even after we are warned of their negative effects?
Her other fault is that she did not fulfill her vocation for which she was created. She was supposed to be a helpmate and ended up being a contributor to Adam’s fall. This does not mean that Adam was merely a victim, since he took and ate of the fruit willingly and of his own free will. Their fall marked the end of all harmony and the end of their perfect life together and with God. It marked the beginning of tension between the sexes. Our Lord Jesus Christ healed this tension between the genders by blessing the union between man and woman in the Wedding at Cana of Galilee.
May our Lord give us the pure heart that is willing to follow in His commandments, and fulfill our vocation for which we were created
