Out of love God created Adam and Eve in his image and likeness. He asked them to obey a simple commandment as a sign of their trusting love in return:
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
The serpent then tempted Eve to look and lust over the forbidden fruit, telling her that “You will not die… [but] will be like God, knowing good and evil” (ibid. 3:4-5). Then she disobeyed God and gave the fruit to Adam who also disobeyed.
Their disobedience that sent God a very definitive message: “I trust myself and the pleasure the fruit gives to my eyes… I trust the woman you gave me to be my partner and who gives me delight… I don’t trust in your love for me, O God.”
Loss of the sense of sin
Why did Adam and Eve make such an obvious and serious sin against their beloved Creator and Father? Satan got Eve to think: “How can it be a sin if it doesn’t hurt anybody? That fruit was made for you, that is why it is so attractive. It’s foolish to resist your biology!” So she ate it. Then she convinced Adam: “Look, I ate the fruit and did not die, you can too. It is so good and tasty! God is not even here to see us. If we keep this private everything will be alright.” So Adam ate it too.
In fact, their disobedience didn’t kill or hurt God, but their refusal to trust in God’s love did “kill” the covenant relationship between God and all mankind. Adam and Eve (and all humanity) lost their innocence, were thrown out of the Garden, and were cursed with the consequence of sin.
Recent popes have identified lost the sense of sin as the greatest sin of our day: Pope Pius XII said this in the wake of the horrors of World War II and Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis have all repeated it.
It is common to think: “How can something be a sin if it doesn’t hurt anybody?” Or: “How can it be a sin if it is done in the privacy of my own bedroom?” Or: “Everyone does it!” What makes something a sin is not the physical damage it does or because others see it or do the same. What makes something a sin is how it affects our relationship with God and with others. If I miss Sunday Mass because of illness, it doesn’t impact my relationship with him; if I do so out of laziness or to watch or play sports, then I tell God: “You and our covenant of love is not that important.” This can “kill” our relationship with him.
We must repent of our sins to restore our relationships. Instead, many go to therapy to qualm our conscience, as Eve did with Adam. Therapy can be good to help heal emotional wounds—such as uncontrollable anger, fear of commitment, etc.—but it can also become a crutch to escape any personal responsibility for one’s actions.
For example, an adulterous person may say that he is no longer “in love” with his spouse but now “loves” another: if morality is only about “chemistry” or feelings how can he be responsible for the pain and hurt inflicted on spouse and children (and extended family) by breaking a covenant commitment. How can “living together” or alternative lifestyles, or doing drugs, birth control, having an abortion, etc. be sinful if “we don’t hurt anybody” or if “we were born that way” or if “everyone does it.” While these excuses ease our feelings of guilt they don’t make these actions OK or take away our moral responsibility for the choices we’ve made. We will have to answer to God for them. Our consciences need to recover the “sense of sin” so that we can take responsibility for our moral decisions, seeking God’s mercy in the confessional rather than waiting to face his justice on the Day of Judgment.