Claim. The commandment to Adam and Eve protected the timing of love: conjugal love was to begin only after mature responsibility.
Elaboration. SMM reads “not to eat of the fruit” as a command to wait because “it was not the time for them to love” (CSG 4.1 §5, Blessed Family 310). Adam and Eve were still in their growth period; only after physical and spiritual maturity were they to become husband and wife and have children. The section makes the responsibility explicit: they should have acted according to their “Heavenly Father’s time table” and considered “with what attitude they would share the love permitted by God.” The Fall, then, was not merely a violation of a rule but the premature seizure of love before it could unify creation. Mature love requires both capacity and timing.