Homily for Friday, Week 5 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Friday
Week 5 of Ordinary Time

February 15, 2019

Gen 3: 1-8
Don Bosco Cristo Rey Staff Retreat, Washington Retreat House

The Greek myth of Pandora’s box explains how all the evils known to humanity got loosed upon us, perhaps in spite of the intentions of the gods.  That unleashing of evil was the result of a deliberate human choice.

Genesis ch. 3, the infamous story of “the Fall,” presents a similar myth—this one faulting members of both sexes, again by a deliberate choice.  Unlike the Greek myth, the story in Genesis is divine revelation—not merely a human explanation for the presence of evil, both natural evils and moral evils, but also a truth that the Holy Spirit lays before us concerning the presence of evil in the world.

The Fall of Humanity (Michelangelo)

The Book of Wisdom says:  “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.  For he fashioned all things that they might have being” (1:13-14).  Genesis shows us a perfectly ordered universe, with men and beasts and all the created world in harmony—until humans invite evil by, literally, tasting the fruit of the tree of knowing good and evil.  They sample this knowledge, symbolized by fruit “good for food, pleasing to the eyes, desirable for gaining wisdom” (Gen 3:6).  And both the man and the woman bite, like a computer user clicking on a link he knows he shouldn’t open.  Not all knowledge is genuine wisdom.

And the eyes of both are opened (3:7).  Unlike the ears and the mouth of the man Jesus cures in the gospel (Mark 7:31-37), opening his ears to the wisdom of God’s word, his mouth for the praise of the good things Christ does for us, the eyes of the man and the woman in the garden are opened to their own shame, i.e., to their sin, and by implication, to a new world of disorder, chaos, and ruin in creation—which will be spoken of in the following verses of ch. 3 and, indeed, in subsequent chapters of Genesis until God begins his saving intervention by calling Abraham out of Chaldea and into the Promised Land (Gen 12:1)—Abraham, the man of faith who believes in God’s promise, acts in obedience to God’s word, and cooperates in God’s plan to begin our redemption.

Some of us—I won’t call anyone out—are old enuf to remember Flip Wilson, a comedian whose famous line about his failings was, “The devil made me do it.”  In the next verses of Genesis, which we’ll read at Mass tomorrow, that’s mankind’s excuse when God confronts them in the garden:  the snake tricked me into eating the fruit (3:13).  God, of course, doesn’t bite—doesn’t fall for the excuse but holds them responsible for their free choice.

On a day of recollection like ours, one of our tasks—it’s a challenge—is to look into our choices; or, more specifically, into our relationship with God as revealed in our choices.  There are words, actions, and omissions that shame us, or ought to.  We may be tempted into bad choices by other people:  pressure from family, friends, TV ads, or poll numbers, which is the oldest excuse known to humanity:  “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it” (Gen 3:12); or tempted by those passions we all know well—pride, sloth, lust, gluttony, envy, anger, and avarice; or tempted by the devil speaking to our hearts as he tempted Jesus himself.  The choice of doing good or evil, of speaking good or evil, of failing to speak or act when we ought to—this is our choice.  We can’t use Flip Wilson’s excuse that the devil made us do it.  When I do wrong, it’s because I choose to, like the woman and the man in Eden.

But I can also choose good.  I can be a person of faith like Abraham, who set in motion more good for the universe than he could ever have dreamed of.  More than Abraham, Christian teaching has always held up to our gaze the woman called the “new Eve,” the woman who said to God’s messenger, “I’m the Lord’s humble servant.  Let it be done to me as you say.” (Luke 1:38)  That was a redeeming moment for the human race, as the 1st Eve’s choice to seek knowledge of evil was a damning moment.  Each of us has the power to imitate the obedience and humility of the Virgin Mary as a servant of the Lord.  And when we do that as people of faith, we allow Jesus into our hearts as surely as she allowed him into her womb, and we can give birth to Jesus, in a manner of speaking—more than a manner of speaking, for it’s a mystery of our faith too—by making him present in our attitudes, words, and deeds.  The choice is ours.

God bless you.