Word to the Wise
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 - Wednesday in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gen 2:4b-9, 15-17 and Mark 7:14-23]Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for good, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. The Lord God gave man this order: "You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die." [Genesis]
Every parent or school teacher knows that one of the best ways to get a child to do something is to tell them they aren't allowed to do it. The stage is being set for the drama of good and evil to be enacted. God's generosity and God's command are highlighted, and the warning is clear. What can be missed in this is that God has given the man the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE TO DISOBEY. The gift of FREE WILL is included in all the bounty of animals and crops to sustain the life of the human person. All the human has to do is cultivate and enjoy and avoid that one tree. But, what could be wrong about knowing the difference between good and evil as long as one doesn't actually DO evil? That part of the drama is just ahead of us.
Regardless of the future outcome, the GIFT of free will remains. Are we to "blame" God for giving us that gift which would lead to destruction? Why did God give us the ability to CHOOSE? Time after time in my pastoral experience in campus ministry I have heard a distraught student say, "I wish God would tell me what to do!" That's what God did to Adam and Adam chose differently. How could Adam have possibly CHOSEN to do otherwise than what God commanded if the gift of free will didn't exist? What do WE do with that gift? AMEN