Hidden from His Face: Adam and Cain, and the Life Hid with Christ
Old Testament: Genesis 3:8
And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise at the afternoon air, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise.
Old Testament, also: Genesis 4:14
Behold thou dost cast me out this day from the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden from thy face, and I shall be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth: every one, therefore, that findeth me, shall kill me.
New Testament: Colossians 3:3-4; Apocalypse 22:4
For you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you also shall appear with him in glory. ... And they shall see his face: and his name shall be on their foreheads.
The connection
The first thing sin did was to make man hide. "Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise", and when God called, "Where art thou?", Adam answered, "I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself" (Genesis 3:8-10). His son went further. Cast out for his brother's blood, Cain said, "I shall be hidden from thy face, and I shall be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth" (Genesis 4:14). St Augustine sets the two side by side: "Adam hid himself from the face of God", and "Cain, too, said to God, 'From Thy face I will hide myself.'" In Christ the hiding is turned around. Man no longer hides from God; God hides man in Himself: "you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you also shall appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:3-4). The Psalmist had prayed for it: "Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face" (Psalms 30:21). And the face Adam fled is shown to us at last, "the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus" (2 Corinthians 4:6). St Gregory of Nyssa, preaching on the Baptism of Christ, says the flight from the garden is over: "No longer shall Adam be confounded when called by Thee, nor hide himself, convicted by his conscience, cowering in the thicket of Paradise." The Catechism teaches that after the first sin Adam and Eve became afraid of God, having formed a false picture of Him (CCC 399).
Moral sense
Hiding is still the first thing sin wants. We avoid prayer, put off confession, and keep away from the One who is calling, "Where art thou?" But God does not ask in order to condemn: He asks so that Adam will come out. Moses at the bush shows the other way to hide: he "hid his face: for he durst not look at God" (Exodus 3:6), out of reverence, not guilt. St Augustine teaches the prayer of the sinner who comes back: "'Turn Thou away Thy face,' not from me, but 'from my sins.'" So do not hide yourself from Him; ask Him to hide your sins from His face, and to hide you in Christ. "Come ye to him and be enlightened: and your faces shall not be confounded" (Psalms 33:6).
Anagogical sense
At the end there are only two hidings left. Those who refused Him will beg the mountains, "hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne" (Apocalypse 6:16). Those whose life was hid with Christ will appear with Him, and hide no longer: "they shall see his face: and his name shall be on their foreheads" (Apocalypse 22:4). St John tells us how to be found among them: "abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be confounded by him at his coming" (1 John 2:28).
The Fathers
St Gregory of Nyssa, On the Baptism of Christ: "Thou didst strip off the fig-tree leaves, an unseemly covering, and put upon us a costly garment ... No longer shall Adam be confounded when called by Thee, nor hide himself, convicted by his conscience, cowering in the thicket of Paradise." St Augustine, On the Trinity II, sets Cain's From Thy face I will hide myself beside Adam's hiding, and says Adam "feared to be himself seen by Him whose voice he had heard, and had felt His presence as he walked." St Augustine, on Psalm 50 (Schaff's 51): "He that would not that God's face be turned away from himself, would that God's face be turned away from his sins."
Warrant
Patristic. St Gregory of Nyssa, On the Baptism of Christ, says that in Christ Adam shall no longer hide himself in the thicket of Paradise. St Gregory does not cite Colossians 3:3, but St Paul's hidden life is the same baptismal life: you are dead follows from buried with him in baptism, in whom also you are risen again (Colossians 2:12), so the saint and the Apostle speak of one mystery. St Augustine (On the Trinity II) joins Adam's hiding from the face of God to Cain's, and in his exposition of Psalm 50 (Schaff's 51) reads Turn away thy face from my sins as God turning from the sins and not from the sinner. Checked in the languages: the Septuagint has kryptein apo prosopou, to hide from the face, at Genesis 3:8 and 4:14, and the same verb and phrase stand at Isaias 2:10 and Apocalypse 6:16; St Paul's is hid with Christ at Colossians 3:3 is kekryptai, the same verb, and Psalms 30:21 has katakrypseis, thou shalt hide them, in the secret of thy face. In the Hebrew, Cain's I shall be hidden, essater, and Moses hid his face, vayyaster, at Exodus 3:6 are one root, satar. St John's not be confounded by him at 1 John 2:28 is aischynthomen ap autou, ashamed away from him. Moses sheltered in the rock and the kings hiding in the rocks are in Shew Me Thy Glory. The lead was Dunk's, from Genesis 4:14 read beside Matthew 13:35 and Apocalypse 6:15-16.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 399.
The verses
Genesis 3:8 · Genesis 4:14 · Colossians 3:3 · Colossians 3:4 · Apocalypse 22:4
