Word to the Wise
Friday, February 9, 2007 - Fifth Friday in Ordinary Time
[Genesis 3:1-8 and Mark 7:31-37]Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?
This is another of those momentous lines from Genesis! The dialogue between the serpent and Eve is a masterpiece of psychological manipulation and rationalization. It is a process that most of us go through often in life. We are confronted with something that is forbidden and we begin to find a way to get around the prohibition because we want what is forbidden. We convince ourselves that we really need it and that the authority that says "No!" has no right to forbid us from having what we want. Our want is the highest law! The sad thing about this is not in taking what was forbidden. (Read Augustine's famous story about a peach he stole!) The sad thing is the belief that a human could be equal to God by acting like Prometheus (stealing fire from the Gods). The result was to learn that the human is NOT equal to God. Otherwise God could not have evicted man and woman from the garden! The sad thing is also that "they never had it so good, and they threw it away!" Human freedom is like that. We are free to make mistakes that alter our lives significantly. Adam and Eve simply gave us an example that we unfortunately have imitated over and over again. Remembering that we can make equally good choices is a true consolation only if we start making them! AMEN
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