GOD'S COMPASSIONATE SENTENCE

SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Gen 3:1-8; Ps 32:1-2,5-7; Mk 7:31-37

You are Dust and shall return to Dust

With the fall of the man and woman, Yahweh lost the companionship of the man and woman he made for himself and spent so many resources to tend and care for. Let us recall that they are the sole work of his hand; he created the whole material heaven and earth for the sake of them. He planted the Garden Eden with all the beautiful trees and their fruits, the animals and birds, and the interpersonal relationship through which he introduced them to communion with him. Given these, what was in the mind of God when his own disobeyed his word and doubted his eternal goodwill? He came to his own, but they were no longer eager to receive him; they hid from his divine presence. “The Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’” The man and woman hid themselves from God because of shame and guilt coming from their choice of action, which separated them from God and united them to the source of sin and darkness, which is now resident in them. Sin is the source of shame and guilt due to the lack of God’s word, his presence, within what we desire and within us. In other words, sin is disobedience to God’s word. Since his word is life, departure from the word of God is death.

The infinite mercy of our God immediately came to the aid of the man and woman he made but for their game of hide and seek with Yahweh that delayed the operation of his mercy on them. We have inherited this game of hide and seek from our first parents. We flee before God whenever we sin by avoiding everything that will bring us back to our interior to face the divinity within. We get ourselves absorbed in external activities, noise, and sensual pleasures. When his presence catches up with us, we shift blame from one person to another, refusing to acknowledge our mistakes and sins and owning them. God’s imposition of punishments, within and without, is aimed at bringing us to own up to our sins and ask for mercy and forgiveness, which his loving mercy is ever ready to give. Even the death penalty on the man is that he may stretch out his hands for the everlasting life that God wills to give him. “Accursed by the soil because of you. With suffering shall you get your food from it every day of your life. It shall yield you brambles and thistles, and you shall eat wild plants. With sweat on your brow shall you eat your bread, until you return to the soil, as you were taken from it. For dust you are and to dust you shall return.’” The sentence teaches us to know good and evil and understand that we are gods of nothing without God. “See, the man has become like one of us, with his knowledge of good and evil. He must not be allowed to stretch his hand out next and pick from the tree of life also and eat some and live forever.”

God imposed suffering and toil on us to free us from the deception of the serpent. God’s infinite mercy and love would not want to perpetuate this terrible state of man unless we choose otherwise. Therefore, he promises us salvation immediately through the woman and her offspring when he says to the serpent: “I will make you enemies of each other: you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. It will crush your head and you will strike its heel.” Through the woman and her offspring, the fruit of the tree of life and knowledge of God is offered to us who repent of our sins and acknowledge our nothingness before God. Jesus’ feeding of the tired and desolate crowd of people with him for three days demonstrates God’s loving concern for the suffering humanity; he sent salvation to us through the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Son. “Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them among the crowd. They had a few fish as well, and over these, he said a blessing and ordered them to be distributed also. They ate as much as they wanted, and they collected seven basketfuls of the scraps left over.” In Jesus Christ, God has given us not only the tree of life but also the knowledge of God that we may live forever.

Let us pray: Keep your people safe from the snares of the serpent, O Lord, with unfailing care, that, relying solely on the light of your word and hope of heavenly grace, they may be defended always by your protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.