The meaning of Tree of Life

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David_Castlen said:
What does “tree of life” mean in genesis 2?
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There are Church teachings on freedom that are relevant here I believe; they make a general statement about man’s freedom and the possible use or abuse of it. They boil down to our ability to choose good or evil, life or death, God or no God. Again, these are statements that apply generally to all humans:
1730 God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. "God willed that man should be ‘left in the hand of his own counsel,’ so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him."26

Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created with free will and is master over his acts.27

I. FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

1731 Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.

1732 As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach.

In Eden, Adam & Eve’s freedom had not yet “bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God”. This binding is the goal; this constitutes man’s ultimate perfection. IMO eating from the Tree of Life would mean to positively draw near to God. It’s been related by Fathers to the Eucharist, where we partake directly of God, the Source of Life. Adam & Eve weren’t ready for that intimacy with God apparently; they were still neutral in their commitment, in their love, still ready to experiment with their own wills, apart from Him.

398 In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully “divinized” by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to “be like God”, but “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God”.279

But man cannot be apart from God and still live, and thrive, and have “life and life abundantly”, possessing the eternal life and attaining the happiness he was created for; “Apart from Me you can do nothing”, Jesus tells us.

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Another teaching tells us that God created His world “in statu viae”, in a “state of journeying to perfection”. Adam & Eve were on that journey as well. They didn’t need to travel far, however, to be able to reach out and grasp that fruit that would represent their resolute commitment, their binding, to God. Instead they took a detour out of Eden, so to speak, one that God knew would occur and had planned for, one that would involve much pain and strife and suffering; they would take the long way home, at least so long as they’d learn their lesson from it, from spending time like Prodigals away from home so they could gain the wisdom to run back to the Father as He calls them from their lost condition. Now, all the wiser, they may commune with and partake of Him as is the right and just order of things for man. “Apart from Me you can do nothing” John 15:5

Apparently man could never stay neutral when it comes to good and evil. It’s a choice it seems; this tree -or that one.
 
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I think its a reference to God, Himself.

Psalms 34:9 Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the stalwart one who takes refuge in him.
 
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