We have slipped back into ‘ordinary’ time, after the great festivals of our holy religion. The word ‘ordinary’ used here is something of a misuse of the Latin in the books; a better word is ‘ordered,’ to more accurately describe the sequenced Sundays that begin at Sunday X today and end just before Advent with Sunday XXXIV, when the liturgical colour used is green.
Our first reading today is from the story of the fall of mankind in the third chapter of Genesis. Notice how the deception of the serpent works out… The serpent had said to Eve our mother that if she were to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of right and wrong, she would become like God, have His own ability to judge. But, as our reading tells us, man and woman lost their innocence and became aware at once of lust and concupiscence.
“And now they heard the voice of the Lord God, as He walked in the garden in the cool of the evening; whereupon Adam and his wife hid themselves in the garden, among the trees. And the Lord God called to Adam; ‘Where art thou?’ He asked. ‘I heard Thy voice,’ Adam said, ‘in the garden, and I was afraid, because of my nakedness, so I hid myself.’ And the answer came, ‘Why, who told thee of thy nakedness? Or hadst thou eaten of the tree, whose fruit I forbade thee to eat?’ ‘The woman,’ said Adam, ‘whom Thou gavest me to be my companion, she it was who offered me fruit from the tree, and so I came to eat it.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What made thee do this?’ ‘The serpent,’ she said, ‘beguiled me, and so I came to eat.’ And the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘For this work of thine, thou, alone among all the cattle and all the wild beasts, shalt bear a curse; thou shalt crawl on thy belly and eat dust all thy life long. And I will establish a feud between thee and the woman, between thy offspring and hers; she is to crush thy head, while thou dost lie in ambush at her heels.”
Book of Genesis, 3: 8-15 [link]
This ending is marvellous in its prediction that salvation would come from a woman, and that it is her child that would finally end the domination of the serpent over the hearts of mankind – the domination that had been established here. The innocence and purity Adam and Eve had had was a gift that preserved peace and harmony with the will of God, without distractions. It was no use really for Adam or Eve to play a blame game in their sin of pride and disobedience – there are now consequences for everybody involved. Now they had been torn away from the will of God and, their peace destroyed, they sought to hide from Him. And we have hidden from him more-or-less, ever since.
Do you remember those pictures we sometimes see of Christ at the door, sometimes carrying a lamp, knocking at the door? There’s the famous Holman Hunt called the Light of the World in Oxford, for example. That’s a picture of God, now made visible in Christ, still calling from the Garden, ‘Where are you?’ When we, a sinful humanity, call back in desperation, ‘We are afraid because we are naked, so we are hiding,’ then as He clothed Adam and Eve with skins, so will He cover us by offering us the rituals of purity, which He gave to the Hebrews in the form of a complex of laws, and which He has given to us through the Church as a system of Sacraments. When we repent of our sins and seek in all sincerity the salvation promised to us by Christ, He clothes us over again and prepares us to traverse the wickedness of this world we still inhabit, which is a consequence of the sin of Adam and Eve. And He promises us that He will one day make all things new again, when we arrive at the fulness of redemption which we spoke about in the psalm today. S. Paul talks about this happy future also in the second reading, when He says that we shall be raised back to life from the sickness and death which were a result of the sin of Adam and Eve.
“I spoke my mind, says the scripture, with full confidence, and we too speak our minds with full confidence, sharing that same spirit of faith, and knowing that He Who raised Jesus from the dead will raise us too, and summon us, like you, before Him. It is all for your sakes, so that grace made manifold in many lives may increase the sum of gratitude which is offered to God’s glory. No, we do not play the coward; though the outward part of our nature is being worn down, our inner life is refreshed from day to day. This light and momentary affliction brings with it a reward multiplied every way, loading us with everlasting glory; if only we will fix our eyes on what is unseen, not on what we can see. What we can see, lasts but for a moment; what is unseen is eternal.”
The second letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians, 4: 13-18 [link]
Paul’s ‘inner man’ or ‘inner life’ is the heart we turn back towards God, who renews it daily, even as we renew our commitment to God and to our baptisms daily. Meanwhile, the ‘outer man’ – our mortal forms – falls into decay, through sickness and physical distress. Paul wishes us to keep our eyes fixed upon the glorious future – our eternal lives – when the consequences of human sin are ended and all is made new once more.
The gospel message takes us back to the villain of the whole story – the serpent in the garden – who seeks to end our good resolutions and to keep us mired in sin rather than soaring towards union with God. The serpent in the gospel story is master of Jewish authorities who refuse to acknowledge the work of Christ as divine acts. Remember that sickness and death are the result of sin. Well, here is Christ walking around bringing repentance from sin and actually ending sickness and death. This is an early phase of the work of regeneration that Paul talks about in the second reading. But the enemies of our Lord declare that He is on the side of the serpent, and healing by the power of the serpent. Christ is very restrained as He responds to this blasphemy, which calls the Holy Spirit of God an evil spirit.
“…now they came into a house, and once more the multitude gathered so that they had no room even to sit and eat. When word came to those who were nearest Him, they went out to restrain Him; they said, ‘He must be mad.’ And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebub; it is through the prince of the devils that He casts the devils out.’ So He called them to Him, and spoke to them in parables; ‘How can it be Satan who casts Satan out? Why, if a kingdom is at war with itself, that kingdom cannot stand firm, and if a household is at war with itself, that household cannot stand firm; if Satan, then, has risen up in arms against Satan, he is at war with himself; he cannot stand firm; his end has come. No one can enter into a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, without first making the strong man his prisoner; then he can plunder his house at will. Believe me, there is pardon for all the other sins of mankind and the blasphemies they utter; but if a man blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, there is no pardon for him in all eternity; he is guilty of a sin which is eternal.’ This was because they were saying, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’“
Gospel of S. Mark, 3: 20-30 [link]
An interesting feature of this story from S. Mark is that even those nearest to our Lord, perhaps even His near relations – his mother and cousins, who are mentioned later on – are attempting to restrain Him, perhaps thinking that He is carrying things too far in His opposition to the Jewish order. They have yet to see the greater picture: the Creator of all things was standing at the door knocking, not as a serpent attempting to destroy the destiny of mankind, but the very God Who first established that destiny and aims to restore it by His holy will. And with no distractions of this world, not even from family! His hearers try to derail His message even here, reminding Him of His humanity; for His Mother and His cousins are standing outside asking for Him. But there is something greater than a mere man here.
And everybody who responds in love and unites himself and herself to His will is His brother, and sister, and mother – part of His family. His body. His Church.
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 