5th Week in OT 2019 - Wednesday - The choice

Monday and Tuesday, we heard of how God brought creation into existence out of nothing. Unlike many pagan creation myths, material creation in the book of Genesis is ordered according to the divine plan and pronounced very good. And that goes especially for human beings—created in the image and likeness of God.

And today, we read the more detailed account of the creation of man and woman in the second chapter of Genesis.  God forms man from the dust, and settles him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and care for it.  God breathes into the man, the breath of life, and immediately gives him a job: to work the garden, to care for it, to guard and protect it—to maintain the Order God has created.

Along with this job, God also issues a command:  “You may eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you will not eat, for on the day you eat of it, you will die.”  So what’s at stake at the very beginning?  Life or Death.  Obedience brings life, disobedience brings death.  God’s not lying about this—He’s not just trying to scare Adam.  Obedience brings life, disobedience brings death.  Here’s the choice given to every human being.  What’ll it be?  Will you exercise your will according to the knowledge given you by God? Will you trust God? Or will you turn your will and mind against God? 

These theme will play out over and over again throughout the Scriptures.  Adam and Eve are given a choice. Noah, Moses, the Israelite people, the judges, the kings, the prophets and those who hear the prophets. Obedience—trusting in God—brings life; disobedience—trusting in yourself or the cunning lies of serpents—brings death.

In the Gospel today, Jesus lists actions which cause defilement and death: unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.  He says all these evils come from within, not from without.  Meaning, you can’t claim the “devil made me do it” or “the culture made me do it”, these are actions that people choose freely, they are contrary to the divine will, and they bring death. Moral choices have eternal ramifications.

May we use the breath of life that comes from God, to choose the good. May we trust him when we are tempted. May we repent of the evil we have done through our own fault. And, through our obedience to the Divine Will, may the Holy Spirit renew the face of the Earth, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the Holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her.
For the peoples of all the world, that the Lord may graciously preserve harmony among them.
For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief.
For ourselves and our parish, that the Lord may graciously receive us as a sacrifice acceptable to himself.
For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered.
O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you are the source of all goodness, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith, we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.