Homily from Daily Mass - Friday Feb 13 - 6:30a Christ the King

Today's Mass readings:  http://usccb.org/bible/readings/021315.cfm

We continue our readings through the first few chapters of the bible - what a rich passage from Genesis, huh?  Adam and Eve and the original sin, the sin by which sin entered the world, by which death entered the world. 

If we examine ourselves, we see so much in this story that rings true to our own experience –temptation and questioning God’s law, as if it were ridiculous. The tempter lying and pitting the couple against God.  Rationalization – “she saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.”  How could that be wrong?

Then, once the couple realizes they had sinned, they were ashamed and they hid from God. Their sin was a wound in what had been a perfect relationship with God.

I don’t know about you, but as a sinner it sure rings true for me – temptation, rationalization, feeling the shame of having sinned, feeling the distance the sin has caused in my relationship with God, and feeling, frankly, like hiding from Him.

But what really caught my attention as I read and prayed on this passage were these words of the serpent – “your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods and you will know what is good and what is evil.”

Which raises the question – how do we know what is good and what is evil?  Aquinas taught that God places that knowledge deep in our hearts, in what we call natural law – the ability to reason good from evil. 

But our passions, our desires, our self-interest often get in the way and confuse us. We so often reject what we know deep down is the right thing!   And, like Adam and Eve, we sinners have a human tendency to rationalize evil and call it good.  So, by ourselves, we cannot know for sure good from evil!  We need to be taught, we need to learn. 

The Church teaches of the primacy of our conscience, but our consciences need to be well-formed!  We Catholics are so blessed to have the three-legged stool of holy scripture, sacred tradition, and the teaching authority of the Church as ordained by Our Lord to teach us, to guide us, to form our consciences.

But so often we reject what we are taught! While this reading presents the first example of humankind rejecting God’s authority, we live in a time, I suppose it's always been a time, since Adam and Eve, in which rejection of authority has more or less become the norm.

So with the holy season of lent upon us, let us use these days to examine our consciences, our beliefs, and our conduct.  To ask ourselves – what does God and His Church teach that I reject, that I rationalize?  Why do I have so much trouble accepting what God and His Church are teaching me?

And through prayer, fasting, almsgiving, works of charity, and frequent participation in the sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation, may we by God’s grace come more and more to do the good and reject evil.