READINGS: Gen 3:9-15; Psalm 129; 2 Cor 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35
THEME: MAY MY SINS NOT KEEP ME HIDDEN FROM GOD!
Dearest friends, today, the readings invite us to reflect on our reactions when we find out that we have gone astray from the way God set for us.
a. WHERE ARE YOU?
The question, “where are you?” which God placed to Adam is not a question that seeks for information. It is not as if God does not know that Adam and Eve where hiding from him. It was rather an invitation to come out from hiding. It is like when we know that we left a visitor in the sitting room, and then went into the bedroom may be to get an album for the visitor, on coming out we do not find him/her where he/she was sitting, then we asked “keduzi gi?”(where you are?) Such a question becomes an invitation to come to the light so that the person can be seen. God was literally telling Adam, “Stop hiding, come out let me see you.”
Our sins and mistakes fill us with shame that forces us to avoid coming in contact with the presence of God. But it is at this moment that God needs us the most to come and stand before him. The worst is not when we offend God, but when we try to hide from him because of our sin. Just like a little child, who, even after using the oil kept by his mum to bath himself, still comes out running to greet his mum upon hearing her voice, so also God wants us to stand always before him even after bathing ourselves in sin. Like a mother never lacks water to wash her child from dirt, so is God’s mercy always available to wash us clean, and his love always available to keep us warmth.
b. WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU ARE NAKED?
In Gen 2:25, the Scripture tells us that the man and the woman created by God were naked, but they were not ashamed. The original innocence they have enjoyed in being at peace with God, prevented them from having a sense of shame about their nothingness. God covers man’s nakedness, making man not to realize how poor he is and in what nothingness his life consists of. But once man moves away from this divine shield, he realizes his nothingness and shame, and that terrifies man. Hence, when we choose not to live with God, it is not that God punishes us with nakedness and emptiness, but that we move away from what gives us worth (God) and then be left with our nothingness. Right from the time of his creation, man has been naked.
But he did not realize it because, living with and in the presence of God his Creator, the glory of God covers him, and his sense of shame and triviality is replaced by the sense of honor. Man realizes his nakedness, not because he was told, but through his action. It is never the intention of God to reveal to man his nothingness. And it pains God when man has to face his nothingness because God created man to live in him, for he is man’s glory.
The truth, dear brothers and sisters, is that God never judges us. When we speak of the Judgment day, it is not like going to Court where the lawyers have to argue if we are guilty or not. We are always our own Judges. Once we are naked of God’s glory, our senses immediately tell us that. Man realizes his nakedness because he ate of the tree which God forbade him to eat. Our sins and our unfaithfulness to God’s commands stripe us off of God’s glory, and clothes us with nakedness and shame.
c. THE SERPENT TEMPTED ME AND I ATE.
This was the response of the woman in speaking of the cause of their disobedience to the voice (waokel hisshiani hannachash) (BHS 3:13 .Gen (הַ נָּחָּ ָׁ֥ש הִ שִ יאַ ַ֖נִי וָּאֹכ ֵֽל says text Hebrew The .God of which translates as: the serpent deceived me, and I ate. However, our attention is to the vavconsecutive in לֵֽ כֹאָ ו) waokel/vaokel). The response of Eve has two parts:
i) The serpent deceived me; (ii) I ate
These two parts or two sentences or even two actions, are joined together by what we call vav
(ָ ו(. However, the vav-consecutive here is not to be seen as resultative of consequential but simply as a normal conjunction. That is to say, “I ate” is not to be seen as a necessary outcome or a necessary follow-up of “the serpent deceived me.” In other words, it is not, “the serpent deceived me, therefore, I ate,” thereby taking “I ate” as a necessary consequence of the deception of the serpent. The vav here serves as a normal conjunction that joins together two different actions that occurred differently. Hence, it is, “the serpent deceived me, and I ate”.
In this way, the action of Eve is not necessarily compelled by the deception of the serpent but a decision of Eve to eat of the tree. However, there was a temptation or deception from the serpent which made the woman to decide to eat of the tree. This analysis is important so that it does not seem that in the face of temptation, one has no other option but to give in to the seduction of the evil one. The temptation notwithstanding, man has the capacity to resist the seduction of the serpent.
d. THE ONLY WAY TO BURGLE INTO A STRONG MAN’S HOUSE.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus said: “no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.” (Mk. 3:27 NAS). It is true that Jesus uses this statement to speak of his power against the evil one, we can also see the statement advising us about our fight with the evil one just as we have in the case of Adam and Eve.
Yes, Adam and Eve lost their place before God, and their original innocence and integrity, but it is not as if the devil came and just took it away. Before the evil one could take their glory away, he first of all tied them up, making them weak, by drawing them into admiring superiority and fake independence. We are made by God to be strong and to decide freely.
No matter the forcefulness of the temptation; no matter the sweetness of the seduction, no matter the height of the attraction, if we do not give our ‘fiat’, if we do not hold unto our strength, but allow the evil one to tie us up in the fantasies of this world, then we will always overcome the temptation.
May God give us the strength to always guard ourselves against the seductions of the evil one. But when we fall out of our weakness, may we find his grace to stand up in our nakedness and dirtiness for him to clean us and clothe us, AGAIN and AGAIN.
Fr. Nnamah Henry C.
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri