"Where are you," God asks Adam

Today we celebrate the feast of our Blessed Mother as Mother of the Church. Today's first reading, Gen 3: 9-15, 20, gives us the story of Adam and Eve's disobedience to God's command not to eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden. After his disobedience, "the Lord God called to the man and asked him, 'Where are you?' [Adam] answered, 'I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.' Then [God] asked, 'Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I  had forbidden  you to eat?'"

"I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself."  How often do you and I not hide ourselves from God. Following a moment of disobeying the Spirit, we know that we have done wrong, feel ashamed, and, frequently, attempt to hide in shame of our wrongdoing!  Not only that, like Adam who blamed Eve and Eve who blamed the serpent, we look for someone or something to blame rather than accepting our responsibility upfront by saying "I sinned, Lord," or to another person confronting us "I'm guilty of what you are accusing me..

Note, too, that God came looking for Adam. God knew and cared! God also looks for us when we disobey, not to condemn us but to bring us to the truth, as the truth alone sets us free!  God desires our freedom. God wants us to come out of hiding!  We need our energy for doing good. Hiding zaps that energy!

Also, note that shame or feeling naked comes from doing wrong! It is not other people shaming us but the act of wrongdoing in itself shames us. The shame comes from within, not from without. What a gift put within us and calling us back to being upright with God, ourselves and others! Why? Because God loves us, redeems us and sanctifies us when we stray from the right path!

Acknowledging Evil and Seeking God's Mercy

In today's first reading, Daniel 9": 4b-10, the people of Israel acknowledge their sinful ways before the Lord, saying:  "We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. We have not obeyed your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land. Justice, O Lord, is on your side; we are shamefaced even to this day: we, the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel, near and far, in all the countries to which you have scattered them because of their treachery toward you."

This is our confession today, Lord.  We have sinned. We have been wicked and done evil: sold children into the slavery of human trafficking, drug trafficking, slave labor. We have sacrificed children, denying them the faith as we engaged in hedonistic pleasures and past times.  We have coveted our neighbor's wife and material possessions. We have cheated the poor and denied justice to the needy. We have destroyed Mother Earth by pouring toxic poisons into the universe, causing global warming and destruction of the environment.  We have turned to false gods for security and walked away from You in our churches and synagogues. Yes, Lord, "we the men and women of _______________, the residents of ____________________, and all of ______________________, near and far, in all the countries where your children are scattered have departed from and rebelled against your commandments and laws."  Lord, have mercy!  Christ, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!  Forgive me the times that I have contributed to the wickedness in the world, its corruption, its deception, its evil ways or denied the existence of evil or the truth that Satan is prowling the world seeking someone to devour.

Acknowledging our Wrongdoing

Today's first reading, Daniel 9: 4b-10, presents the following prayer:  Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments!  We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from our commandments and laws.  We have not obeyed your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, your [ancestors], and all the people of the land. Justice, O Lord, is on your side; we are shamefaced even to this day: we, the men  [and women] of Judah [of the U.S.A.], the residents of Jerusalem [citizens of the U.S.A.] ...."    

Without knowing it, perhaps, we are sinning by our choice to build walls between ourselves and other nations, by deporting undocumented immigrants, separating children from their parents, by increasing the wealth of the wealthy at the expense of the poor, possibly denying 10s of millions of people health insurance, by perpetuating lies in efforts to hide our own sinful behaviors, by pushing forth our own promises to assumedly  win accolades for keeping our promises when those violate the rights of others.

Daniel goes on to say in later verses of today's first reading:  O Lord, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our [ancestors], for having sinned against you! But yours, O Lord,  our God, are compassion and forgiveness! Yet we have rebelled against you and paid no heed to your command, O Lord, our God, to live the law you gave us through your servants the prophets.

Those laws still hold today! The lack of compassion on the part of those governing this nation and those who support their executive orders and legislation is a disgrace.  Have mercy on us and on them, Lord, for "they know not what they are doing" (Jesus' words from the cross)!

Be It Done unto Me according to Your Will, O God

Today we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation, the angel announces to Mary that she has been chosen by God to be the mother of the Son of God, sent  into the world, not to condemn it but to save it. Her womb will be opened by the Holy Spirit and will receive the Son of God, who will take on our humanity.  Mary, hearing of God’s plan, says:  “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your  word.”  What do you and I say when “an angel of the Lord” announces God’s plan for us? Are we willing, as Mary was, to have it done to us according to God’s word, or, like Adam and Eve, do we follow our own will and set God’s aside?

Only by God’s intervention would humankind be saved from eternal darkness, from separation from God that was caused by our disobedience. Jesus’  obedience and Mary’s’ would change that for us.  Paul says to us in Hebrews 10: 1-10, the second reading of today’s Mass, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats takes away sins. For this reason, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me” in Mary’s womb. “[I]n holocaust and sin offerings you took no delight. Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.”  Paul continues:  “By this ‘will,’ we have been consecrated [made holy, made whole, sanctified] through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.”  Nothing you and I do makes us right with God. Only Jesus can do that and He did by  being obedient to the Father unto death.

How obedient am I to God? Whose will am I following? God’s? or my own?  Do I want to know? If so, I need to sit at the feet of Jesus in solitude and let the Spirit open my mind to the will of God for me.

An Overflowing of Grace

St. Paul reminds us in today’s first reading, Romans 5: 12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21, that “…just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous.  Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Wow! What love God has for each one of us. No way, would a loving, compassionate, kind God allow Satan to take possession of us, to drag us down into a pit of sin and sorrow and death, to control our lives or deprive us of eternal life with the Lord.  No!  God sent His Son out of love for us, to  lift us out  of that pit of sin and sorrow and death, to save us from eternal  death, to teach us to love, not to hate; to be kind to ourselves and others , to return good for evil, to forgive rather than holding others and ourselves hostage in anger, resentment and revenge.  God sent His son to teach us obedience, to transform sin in us into holiness, to set us free to serve the Lord and one another.  Yes, where sin abounds, grace abounds even more because our God is a generous, loving, forgiving, reconciling God. “When I am lifted up from the earth,” Jesus said,  “I will draw everyone to myself”  (John 12:32). That means you and me and all peoples of all nations, all nationalities, all walks of life, those we love and those we hate, those of whom we approve and those of whom we disapprove. God is an inclusive God: all who repent  and believe and accept the free gift of salvation in Christ Jesus are saved by Jesus’ obedience to His Father, obedient to the point of death on the cross. I believe that because God’s love is infinite and unconditional.

Christ, our Mediator

The entrance antiphon to today’s liturgy reads:  “Christ is mediator of a New Covenant, so that by means of his death, those who are called may receive the promise of an eternal inheritance.”

Imagine that that which you created, cherished, to whom you gave life, blessed, nurtured, supported; that to which you have given a guarantee of an eternal inheritance rebelling against you, choosing death over life, choosing one’s own will, choosing self,  over God and God’s will.  That is what Adam, Eve, Cain, the myriad of people building the Tower of Babel, the people around Noah’s time, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Israelites did repeatedly on their journey to the Promised Land; that is, each time they engaged in pagan worship of created things, of man- made things, of  sex and pleasures, wealth and power.  That is what we are doing in erecting false gods out of accumulative wealth used for selfish ends, the use of power to control and do violence to each other and against other nations, and when we engage in pleasure to violate our own and others’ dignity and integrity as children of God.

 “Who will rescue [us]…doomed to death? God—thanks be to him—through Jesus Christ, our Lord”  (Rom 7: 14-25).

On Easter, we will celebrate that restoration of humankind to its Creator!  Jesus, the New Adam, the One who is obedient to God the Father even unto death and who trusts the Father’s plan of our redemption, His will to make us one with the Trinity, will crust Satan’s head from the cross.