Difficulties of the spiritual life.

Each of us in the spiritual life encounters our limitations and an inner inability to live with God. A person who does not know spiritual things finds it discouraging and humbling. Some people start with God and then leave Him. Some people lose their heads at obstacles and do not know how to proceed. Living with God is not difficult from a certain point of view. It is a response of love.

On the other hand, it is tough because we are incapable of that love. To understand the difficulties in our life with God, we must focus on the beginning of our being with God. The Holy Scriptures say that at the beginning of human history, there was sin, which God did not create and which, along with death, came into the world through the envy of the devil. God, when he created man limited, took on himself an enormous risk that one would abuse this free will. The essence of man is that God made him, that he is bounded, and this limitation is expressed by the fact that man came out of the earth. Man was made from clay. That is, dust that has been mixed with water. Water is a symbol of the spirit. When God created man. God breathed into the nostrils of man the breath of life. The Holy Spirit is from the essence. Man lives by the  Holy Spirit more than the whole creation. Even though the power of the Holy Spirit holds the entire creation. Thus, the Holy Spirit dwells personally only in man. Man carries a certain ambivalence. On the 1st side, the limited man is a creature; on the 2nd, it has an unbounded, indeterminate spirit. We all know this tension well. Especially after the fall into original sin, we all feel this double law St. Paul wrote within us. On the 1st side, the law of the flesh pulls me to the ground. On the 2nd side, the law of the spirit that draws it to God. God created man by giving Himself a call to live with God because God gave him a share in his life. God gave man his own life, which was man’s greatest gift. God gives man a space in which he can live. We call this space home. 1. A man called it paradise. From the beginning, God took care of man because He knew that a person needs an environment in which to live. It is touching to see how the father’s dream, the growth of God, is projected there. God cares for his creatures from the very beginning. The space in which a person lives is limited in a certain way. Sacred Scripture expresses this by mentioning the tree of knowledge. You can’t eat from the tree of knowledge. This is unlike when a mother tells her child, You can’t go to the pantry and there’s still jam. God said If you eat from this tree, you will die..  It’s a kind of guide on how to live. What is the essence of the Tree of Knowledge? We can guess. Through knowledge, man tries to influence. Knowledge is power. And all those esoteric teachings have their root here too. You know desire, but not in God’s way. Know to influence, to grab, to rape. Then it is related to the fact that the tree of knowledge was a tree of knowledge of good and evil—a snake, the devil, who eventually seduces a person. But you will not die. You will be like a god. You will know good and evil. Man does not want to ask God what good and evil are. Man does not want to accept the boundaries set by God. Man does not want to live depending on God. This is the root of original sin. Man wants to determine what is good for him and what is evil. Who will speak to my life? I will decide what’s best for me. Look at how much of the population follows this motto. These people say, we have our minds. It is about accepting dependence on God. From the very beginning, a person’s life is connected with obedience. This obedience is not what we sometimes exercise between superior and subordinate, or between father and son. And I told you, and we won’t talk about it. Biblical obedience is dependence on God. A person accepts that he is not able to live on his own. Obedience is tremendous freedom for life. When Paul speaks in his letter to the Romans about hereditary guilt, he mentions that Adam was guilty of his disobedience. Jesus saved us by his obedience and put the opposite point against Adam. From the very beginning, the devil is the one who disobeys. Who has stood up against God and will not serve? Man allows himself to be carried away, not to serve. That is why Jesus came, who says, not my will, but your Father’s. Jesus is ministry incarnate. To man’s disobedience came the answer of Jesus. Sin is a consequence of the fact that man has allowed himself to be seduced by the devil. And he allowed himself to be led by the resistance to God. The story of original sin has a few more moments. When talking to a snake, a woman lets a certain distrust of God into her heart.  It’s already a mistake that a person has started to argue with the devil. Demons are not discussed; demons are opposed. Man is expected to take a clear and uncompromising stand against the devil. Includes when talking to a snake, a woman reveals. God forbade you to eat from all the trees when the devil spoke. The woman seems to be defending God. Not all of them, only from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The women misinterpreted the divine conclusion. The boundaries set by God moved even further. God did not speak about touching the tree. The law must have its limits. A person who determines what is and is not allowed to him exposes himself to danger. Not able to withstand this inner pressure, a person will eventually sin.  If parents forbid their children from doing more than necessary. Eventually, the children rebel. Eva concluded that God would not give us what we need. As God had robbed us of something. Some people feel that way. If I’m a believer, I’m deprived of something. Eva does not notice the snake during the conversation with the snake and begins to lie. The serpent-devil deforms the image of God. Man begins to look at God differently. Here we see the root of sin. We will begin to criticize what seemed good to us until this time. Many, especially young people, refuse to believe in God. Because they have a distorted image of God. Sin is what distorts our image of God and sets us against God. A woman’s conversation with the devil distorted the image of god.