In tonight's Canon, Saint Andrew returns to the expulsion from Paradise (Gen 3), and offers us this Troparion (after Ode 2 of the Canon): "Sin, which has stripped me of my former God-woven clothing, has also sewn on me coats of skin." This is followed by the following Troparion: "I am wrapped in a garment of shame as with fig leaves, in reproof of my selfish passions."
Saint Irenaeus writes of this event in his writings "Against Heresies". He begins by looking at Cain and Able first, concluding that "God subjected the just to the unjust, that the former might be proved as just by the things he suffered, and the later as unjust by the things he perpetrated." Cain compounds his sin of murder by then lying to God, when God comes to him and asks, "Where is your brother?", from which we get the now famous, "Am I my brother's keeper?" God, Who is all-knowing, needs no answer. Cain, who is filled with rage, cannot even see God's supreme authority, offering sin upon sin.
Returning to Adam, Saint Irenaeus says that there is no analogy in this return to sin after the first. Adam, when he was found out by God, was seized with terror over his sin, hiding himself, as if it were possible to escape God's vision. He shows himself indeed having acquired knowledge of good and evil, because in so hiding himself he shows an understanding of being unworthy to appear before God. This understanding of sin leads to repentance. How does Adam show this repentant state? By forming for himself a covering of fig leaves, not to cover his sin, but to show his understanding of the evil done, and to show honor, love, and respect to God who should not be forced to see what has been uncovered - that sinfulness which was chosen over the love of God!
God then interrogates, asking Adam what happened. And we know, Adam blames Eve. Then God interrogates Eve, who in turn blames the serpent. But there is no equivalent interrogation of the serpent. God knew "the prime mover" in the sin, and He immediately pronounces judgment on the serpent, then upon Eve, and finally upon Adam.
Like Adam, we have lost that original covering, the one in which Adam and Eve walked naked and yet were not ashamed (Gen 2:25), for there is no reason to be ashamed when there is nothing to cover!
God drives Adam and Eve from Paradise as He says, "'Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever,' therefore God sent them from the garden." (Gen 3:22-23)
On this, Irenaeus teaches that the expulsion was not to withhold the Tree of Life forever, but rather because He showed compassion and pity upon Adam, for if he were to partake of the Tree of Life in this sinful state, he would live forever in sin. In His mercy and love for us, He drove Adam out, setting a boundary to his sin by interposing death, which causes sin to cease, dying so that we might begin to live again to God.
This returns us to Saint Andrew. "Sin, which has stripped me of my former God-woven clothing..." Our sins have removed the purity of nakedness, they have exposed us to the separation between us and God - a separation instituted by our free-will, our choice to not follow His commandments. Saint Andrew continues, saying that this "has also sewn on me coats of skin." Not only do a few sins, which might be covered by fig leaves, plague me. But I need to cover myself with "coats of skin" - heavy garments, due to the magnitude, the 'weight' of my sin. And so, "I am wrapped in a garment of shame," unlike Adam and Eve in the pre-Fall time, my sins are so obtrusive that even the heaviest of coats cannot cover them.
As we ponder the words and the depths of our souls that Saint Andrew plumbs, let us offer prayers for his intercession - "Holy Father Andrew, pray to God for us!"
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