Commentary
Sunday, 6/10/2018, Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The New Eve, Our Mother in Heaven
First Reading Commentary: Genesis 3:9-15
When God called Adam asking where he was, Adam answered that he was hiding because he was naked. So, God asked, “Who told you that you were naked?” And God said, “You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat.”
Who did Adam think that he was fooling? Did he not realize that God is all knowing? God knew where Adam was when He called for Adam and God knew what Adam had done before Adam answered. God already knew when it happened in the same way that God knows when we sin the instant that we make the decision to commit the sin. So, when God told Adam that he had eaten from the forbidden tree, Adam did not deny the sin. He realized that it was futile trying to fool God; or did he?
Adam blamed it on the woman who in turn blamed it on the serpent saying, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.” Both Adam and Eve tried to fool God by placing the blame on someone else. We often see guilty people pointing the finger at someone else instead of taking ownership of their guilt. Little kids almost always do that and some of us never grow up.
Would God have been any less angry with Adam and Eve if they had taken ownership for their sin? No, but if they had confessed and repented, God would have shown His mercy. Instead, they were punished and all of mankind was stained with original sin.
God took His wrath out on the serpent first because if he had not tempted Adam and Eve, they would have never committed the sin. God has disdain for sin but even more so for those who are the cause of sin. Jesus gave us that message in Luke 17:1 by saying, "Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur."
God told the serpent that he would be banned from all the wild creatures, crawl on his belly and eat dirt for the rest of his life. In other words, the serpent was to be the scum of the earth. God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” This is another part of God’s wrath on the serpent, who we all know is Satan—the evil one. But this event is also good news for all of us. What God said to the devil is a demonstration of His love and infinite mercy for us.
The woman is Mary, and we know that her offspring is Jesus Christ, the Son. From the moment that Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, the devil’s defeat and our salvation were both promised by God.
When we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of Mary, we celebrate the first part of God’s plan being fulfilled. We celebrate the conception of the woman who would bring the Father’s Son into the world. Her conception is Immaculate because Mary was blessed by God with the grace of being born without the stain of original sin. She had to be immaculate because of the Son that she would give birth to.
Adam called his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. But sin begets death and therefore, once she sinned, Eve was no longer the mother of all the living. There had to be a new Eve who would be the mother of all the living. That Eve is the mother of the One who defeated death and made eternal life possible for all mankind. That is why for Catholics, one of Mary’s many titles is the New Eve.
There is usually a common theme within the liturgy of the day. The theme today is to prepare ourselves for our eternal home in heaven. Heaven is a home that cannot be conquered and one of the reasons why is because the Matriarch—Mary—the “woman” and our mother in heaven cannot be conquered.
Prepare for what Is Unseen
Second Reading Commentary: 2 Corinthians 4:13—5:1
What St. Paul tells us in this excerpt of his second letter to the Corinthians prepares us for one of the lessons that Jesus teaches us in today’s Gospel which is that His house is eternal. In this life, we are indeed on a journey which is designed to prepare us for and lead us to eternal life in heaven. To that end, Paul tells us that our inner self is being renewed day by day.
We are renewed by the choices that we make each and every day as we are confronted with the challenges of the day. Our challenges are often times obstacles which are thrown in front of us by the devil as he attempts to keep us from reaching our eternal home in heaven. But know this: every challenge in life is also an opportunity to seek God through Jesus and His mother, Mary.
There is no way to explain how to seek God through Jesus and Mary. We must rely on the faith that God gave us. We must know because we believe that God loves us and wants us to be with Him in His eternal home of heaven. God did not put us into this life to go astray. God put us into this life so that we might choose Him. That is why the renewal that Paul speaks of is the light that prepares us for what is eternal.
Which do you prefer? To live in a tent or to live in a building? There is no comparison. Consider this: The strongest building made here on earth is no comparison to the building that God has made in heaven. That building is truly indestructible and will last forever. We may not be able to see it but, that building is eternal and we should be preparing ourselves to live there.
How Strong Is Your House?
Gospel Commentary: Mark 3:20-35
In today’s Gospel, we learn that a divided house cannot stand but that a strong house cannot be conquered. This is actually a lesson about good versus evil and the fact that evil is a divisive force which is why it can never overcome the goodness of the Lord.
With that thought in mind, stop and think of all of the tragedies and chaos in the world today. I’m not talking about the recent natural disasters. I believe that they are God telling us to pay attention and that is a whole different commentary.
I’m talking about the divisiveness among people. It is on all levels. On our streets and around the world. In all levels of government here in the United States and around the world. Even in religion; there is divisiveness. Why don’t people realize that God does not want us to argue, fuss and fight about how we choose to worship Him and give Him praise? Today’s gospel does indeed teach us a lesson we need to learn.
The first line in this Gospel tells us that Jesus went home with His disciples. But as the Gospel continues, we find that “home” is very divided. There were those who gathered around Jesus and there were those who said that Jesus was out of His mind. Take note that the Gospel says, “When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’”
If we get into the interpretation of words and what they mean in relation during the time that Jesus lived, we can define the word “relative” in more than one way. But I want to consider the idea that when we look at the word “relative” today, it insinuates family. The idea that Jesus’ family set out to seize Him suggests that His family was divided. Say what you will about that statement but there is no doubt that too many of our families today are divided. They are full of in-fighting and many are at war with each other.
Have you ever stopped to consider the fact that bigotry and racism, which are rooted in evil, make no sense? When someone takes a stand, which is deeply rooted in bigotry and racism, they take a stand which is completely without any sense of logic or good reason. No wonder their positions only serve to foster chaos and mayhem.
Such was the case with the scribes who had come from Jerusalem and accused Jesus of being possessed by Beelzebul and that by the prince of demons, he drove out demons. Jesus exposed their stupidity by asking, “How can Satan drive out Satan?” Jesus then went on to teach the lesson that a strong house cannot fall but that a house divided against itself, will fall.
The reason why is because a strong house is made up of family members who stand by each other because of their love for each other. They respect each other because they love each other. But most of all, their strength comes from their faith in God and love for God. A house—family which is rooted in faith and love cannot be conquered because God is love!
We can extend that lesson beyond our immediate households into every walk of life. We can point to many reasons and causes for the problems which exist in our society and around the world today. None of them matter where today’s lesson is concerned because if the world were not filled with so much divisiveness, we would live in a world without crime, hatred and war. We would live in a world of peace.
We all need to take note of today’s lesson. No matter what our position in society, government or church may be; we are all responsible for striving to live in a world of peace. That is because God expects each of us to obey the Greatest Commandment—Love God and love neighbor!
We are all children of God and therefore, we are all family. That is one of the points that Jesus wants us to pay attention to and live by when He looked around at those seated in the circle and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
In other words, whoever obeys the Greatest Commandment does the will of God and is a member of His family and cannot be conquered by the blasphemy and lies of the evil one.
