"Why did you do such a thing?. . . The serpent tricked me . . ."
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060924.cfm
It is good to be back in the green of things. By that I mean in the long liturgical season of “Ordinary Time.” Now that Easter, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, the Confirmations, First Communions, etc of our busy lives have taken place, we offer a collective sigh that these high-powered liturgies are once again a personal part of our spiritual Catholic journey through life.
These “ordinary” days are
truly extraordinary despite the routine rhythm or the liturgies. The theme of Christian
discipleship now take its center stage
For these months ahead in which the color green is so plentiful in our
common liturgies, “we hear about the healings, teachings, and parables which
Jesus offers to us. And this Sunday’s
Gospel, though seemingly somewhat disjointed, basically reminds us of what it
means to live in the kingdom where human relationships will be seen differently
beyond our own family blood lines. Jesus
who speaks the message of God’s love is in league with God whose life we
follow. In that family all are welcome
and all are united with Christ as we collectively seek the will of God in
mutual love as beloved sons and daughters in Christ.
Yet, it is the first reading
from Genesis that may more draw our attention this Sunday. Here we see the
origin of sin through humankind’s free choice illustrated in the story of Adam
and Eve who now must confront God after their act of eating the fruit God
forbade them to eat. Of course, it isn’t
their fault is it – Adam hides, then blames Eve, Eve blames the snake when
confronted by God, and the snake is cursed by God: “. . . on your belly
shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat . . . I will put enmity between you and
the woman.” You can just hear the
Adam and Eve duet: “The Devil made me do it!”
Yet it is the old blame game
or passing the buck by the guilty formerly perfect humans which is telling for
us. Sin enters the world of humanity not
because God chose it but because we exercised our God-given free will in
opposition to God’s desire for us – the “original sin.” Sin separates us from
God and finds itself rooted in pride, where fundamentally, we want to be God
who decides what is good and what is evil. Adam felt shame before God. He
suddenly realized he was vulnerable - naked.
I once had a parishioner who
always in response to some human foible, some annoying person, some shocking
bad choice which challenged human goodness, would say to me: “Father, we’re all
children of Adam and Eve.” How
true. Yet the story of our first parents
also indicates what sin may do to us – we blame someone else rather than take
responsibility for our choices. It clearly was not meant to be this way.
But the tie in with our
Gospel and this reading about sin may be the words of Jesus about the
unforgiveable sin: “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never
have forgiveness.” That’s been a
confusing line for a long time. What is
Jesus saying here? I thought that God
forgave all sin for the truly repentant sinner.
Even Adam and Eve, though banished from the Garden, were offered
ultimate hope in the future coming of a Savior.
God wasn’t done with humanity.
The Gospel offers a scene of
accusation of Jesus by the Scribes. A
previous Sunday it was the Pharisees, then the Sadducees and now the
Scribes. He’s surrounded by opposition and
as always handles it masterfully. They now accuse him, as strange as it may
sound, of being in league with Satan.
That his power comes not from God but from the very demons he is casting
out! In some weird sort of scenario
maybe they felt Jesus was a sort of demonic deceiver appearing to be good but secretly
plotting something more sinister.
The unforgiveable sin
reveals its own self-righteousness; I will not accept the mercy of God nor seek
it. I stubbornly will remain unrepentant
of this sin. This kind of self-righteous
stubbornness on the part of religious leaders toward our Lord brought about Jesus’
comment on their “blasphemy.”
In other words, they are so justified in their
viewpoint so how can God forgive? It is
that obstinate resistance to the grace of salvation offered though God’s mercy
and fleshed out in the person of Christ Jesus. They outright reject the person
and mission of Christ in the world.
Well, where do we go with
this? Yet, it is more the attitude of
the Scribes that may be a good indicator.
I need to recognize my need to be forgiven – I need to see the sin I have
caused or that I hold on to.
But for the vast majority of
us isn’t our sin, our wayward choices for which we can only blame ourselves for
the most part, not the snake in the grass, rooted in our desire to look good? I
want to appear like God – perfect in every way. Yet, we are fighting an enemy
in this spiritual battle against the forces of evil which seek to undermine all
the good we seek to accomplish before God.
It is Jesus’ mercy that assures us we have a more powerful savior who
has conquered that dark power.
So, I think the door should
always be open to God’s desire to forgive us.
Not to be overly scrupulous but to pray for a healthy humility. God is God and I am not! Therefore, as God
desired with Adam and Eve, to walk in the garden with them in a relationship of
Creator with the created, his mercy invites us to walk again with him.
No blame game only God’s
mercy and grace offered in Christ to heal us from our brokenness. But we must ask for it.
May your healing work, O
Lord,
free us, we pray, from doing
evil
and lead us to what is
right.
Through Christ our Lord.
(Prayer after Communion)
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