Today, in the Gospel we are as astonished as the disciples to hear that salvation is not possible for humanity. This is how serious the damage was, done by the “disruption” in the beginning. The images put forward in Genesis are eloquent.

Our first parents, from being naked without being embarrassed (original innocence), suddenly need to cover up, hide themselves, be afraid and blame each other. What has happened to cause this shift is original sin; they fell for the illusion of self sufficiency that is impossible: to believe that they would be as powerful as God if they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is a moral perversion that has its origin in human autonomy. We are free to act with love, but not to invent love. This is how, by caricaturing the moral law, the "Evil One" managed to make humanity closed to the love of God.

—Lord, you are the Way, the Truth and the Life: Allow me to live off you, you who are Love.