Homily Notes First Sunday of Lent
1st Sunday of Lent 2017
Eating from the Tree of Life
Sometimes if we tell a familiar Bible Story in a new way it makes us look at the story in a differently.
Once there was a woman named Eve. She was shopping in a department store where she ran across a racy dress. As she looked at the $500 price tag she knew that her husband Adam had been laid off. She knew money was short at home, but she also knew that some of her friends had similar dresses. She could not resist the dress so she bought it. When her husband Adam was sitting at the kitchen table opening bills he went through the roof when he saw the bill for the dress. He asked his wife why she had made such a purchase. She said, “I just could not resist, the devil made me do it.” Adam said, “Well, why didn’t you say, get behind me Satan.” Eve said, “I did.” Adam said, “What happened then?” Satan said, “That dress looks pretty good from back here too.”
When we hear the story of our first parents in the garden of Eden we tend to think that this is a story about how sin entered the world. We believe that our human tendency is to be evil. But maybe this story is not so much about how sin entered the world as it is a story about how the need for moral choices entered the world.
If we read the story of Adam and Eve closely we hear that there two trees in the middle of the Garden of Paradise. One is the tree of life. The other tree is the tree of knowledge of good and bad. Now, we must wonder what is wrong with knowing about good and bad. As sense of morality would seem to be a good thing. Don’t we all try to teach children what right and wrong are?
But the knowledge that humans gained upset the ideal state of the Garden of Paradise. Before the forbidden fruit was eaten Adam and Eve had no need for a knowledge of morality because they just naturally did the right thing, but after they gained the knowledge of good and bad they began to make judgements.
What happens when we decide that certain things are good while other things are bad? A moral life results, hopefully. But we could say that leads to a host of sinful attitudes. We begin to have certain prejudices like….. My ethnic group is better than yours. We begin to compare ourselves to others which can make us feel bad about ourselves. Envy and jealousy enter our lives. We gossip about others which involves criticizing others who do not measure up. The world becomes full of people who are the good guys because they believe what the bad guys don’t. In the present climate in our society is there any doubt that all this judging causes hatred, distrust, fights, and anger as well as a myriad of other issues that tear us apart. We are certainly not living in paradise.
We seem to concentrate on personal morality. Did I lie? Did I steal? Did I fornicate? Did I fail to pray? Is it any wonder that some people come into the Reconciliation room with the same laundry list of sins, leaving without any real sense of relief? How many of us do pass judgement? Do we ever consider the fact that the sin that Jesus criticizes most often… is that of judging others harshly?
How do we attempt to recapture the goodness we once had at the beginning of creation? Spiritual masters throughout the centuries have given advice on how to do this. St. Anthony of the desert talked about achieving a state of apathia which basically means that we do not desire to be the most important, to be better than everyone else, to compete all the time. St. Ignatius speaks of a holy indifference, stepping back from bias to see that all things are of God, not immediately assuming something is good or bad. Jesus speaks of becoming like little children-seeing goodness around us.
Satan was unable to tempt Jesus. Why? Because Jesus did not hunger for the things that drive so many human beings like power, popularity, wealth, security. Jesus was like the first parents before the fall. He was unified with the creator, completely trusting. He realized the tranquility lies in seeing the good all around us, especially in the sinner who sought forgiveness. Jesus sees the good in us. The question for Lent is whether we can have a great trust in the Lord’s mercy seeing the good in ourselves the way Jesus does.
Please note this is a rough draft, grammar may not be perfect.