Fact: We are not in the Garden of Eden
Fact: I am not perfect. Required by command of the Lord.
[BIBLEDRB]Matthew 5:48[/BIBLEDRB]
And the third fact:
[BIBLEDRB]Col 1:24[/BIBLEDRB]
But you can be. If it were not possible God would not have made it a command.
If Christ paid the price in full, why are we not in the Garden of Eden? If I were there, I promise I would never touch that tree.
What can I do to erase my banishment from the Garden of Eden? I want to go there.
We will be part of the new heaven and the new earth–far superior to the Garden of Eden. Eden was never meant to be our eternal home. God always had better plans for us than that. Eden was a testing ground to see if man would obey or if he would fail and have to be redeemed. We know what happened.
St. Paul tells us quite clearly:
2Cor.4[16] So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. Through the Sacraments and in prayer and good works
[17] For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
[18] because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Our present bodies are corrupted and corruptable, but we will be given new incorrupt bodies at the general resurrection. Then we will enjoy better than Eden, we will enjoy complete union with he who is love, joy, peace, abundance, wisdom, beauty… Our present sufferings are nothing compared with that, even the suffering that comes from not being able, in our own power, to become holy. But holiness is obtainable–we have to cooperate with God’s grace to achieve it because on our own we cannot.