The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate our state as children of God who are aware of personal and community shortfalls that may bring us to experience the Presence and care of God in our need.
Present to People
The reading from the Book of Genesis concludes that the Lord God sent Adam and Eve forth from the garden of Eden.
* [3:17–19] Cursed is the ground: the punishment affects the man’s relationship to the ground (’adam and ’adamah). You are dust: the punishment also affects the man directly insofar as he is now mortal.1
Psalm 90 declares God’s Eternity and human frailty.
* [Psalm 90] A communal lament that describes only in general terms the cause of the community’s distress. After confidently invoking God (Ps 90:1), the Psalm turns to a complaint contrasting God’s eternity with the brevity of human life (Ps 90:2–6) and sees in human suffering the punishment for sin (Ps 90:7–12). The Psalm concludes with a plea for God’s intervention (Ps 90:13–17).2
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus feeds the Four Thousand.
* [8:1–10] The two accounts of the multiplication of loaves and fishes (Mk 8:1–10; 6:31–44) have eucharistic significance. Their similarity of structure and themes but dissimilarity of detail are considered by many to refer to a single event that, however, developed in two distinct traditions, one Jewish Christian and the other Gentile Christian, since Jesus in Mark’s presentation (Mk 7:24–37) has extended his saving mission to the Gentiles.3
Amy Hoover hears the Genesis account in a new way. She hears not that God is angry and Adam is being punished but that the Lord is protecting Adam from living forever with the fear he now knows.
Our image of God is so important when reading scripture. The perspective/lens we bring brings life to the words on the page and influences what we hear in those words. I know that this is just one lens through which to read the this story but it brought me great consolation today to read it through the eyes of a loving God whom Jesus reveals to us, who has pity on us and desires us to be nourished and cared for. As we go about our day today and continue to walk through life during a pandemic, I wonder what other shifts in perspective we may be invited to? How are we being invited to remember our God as a God of Love? How are we being invited to reveal God to one another as Jesus reveals God to us?4
Don Schwager quotes “Breaking the bread of God's Word,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"In expounding to you the Holy Scriptures, I as it were break bread for you. If you hunger to receive it, your heart will sing out with the fullness of praise (Psalm 138:1). If you are thus made rich in your banquet, be not meager in good works and deeds. What I am distributing to you is not my own. What you eat, I eat; what you live upon, I live upon. We have in heaven a common store-house - from it comes the Word of God." (excerpt from SERMONS ON NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS 45.1)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Genesis 3:9-24 suggests God asks the question “Where are you” so that Adam can come out of hiding and stand before him as he once did. Adam had been deceived about the loving nature of God, and this was his chance to take a step back toward him, a step in the right direction.
This is cause for hope. The fearful hiding is not the end of the story. The brave choice to reach out to God is not the end of the story either. The end of the story is mercy and forgiveness. As God had promised Adam and Eve, the offspring of the woman truly has struck at the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). The one who tempts us to hide from our loving God has been overcome. Jesus has defeated Satan’s power over us. Not only can we admit to the Lord where we are, but we can be forgiven and freed from the weight of guilt and fear. So as Lent approaches, don’t be afraid to answer when you hear God calling out to you, “Where are you?” “God, sometimes my guilt makes me want to hide from you. Help me to answer your call and come to you so that I can receive forgiveness and life.”6
Friar Jude Winkler discusses blame, distancing, and interpretation in the passage from Genesis. An etiology is a story to explain mysteries we don’t understand. Friar Jude notes that the seven loaves and seven baskets in Jesus feeding of the Four Thousand symbolize the perfect meal for all people.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares a poetic prayer full of inclusive compassion from the Reverend Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr.
Greatest of the Greatest, you know just how much we can bear. We all come to commune with you:
The tireless champion;
The tired loser;
The retired forgotten ones;
We all come to be consistently corrected and comforted by you.
We come counting our lost.
We come confronting our crises.
We come as citizens of cities controlled by crime.
We come chilled by the cold of cowardice.
Great God Almighty:
Commune with us conscience clean.
Caress us with the cradle of compassion.
Consecrate us with outrageous convictions.
Control us with Christlike concerns.
Great Physician Powerful:
Pardon us with the conscience of peace.
Place us in paths of productivity.
Practice the perfection of healing upon those who are physically, emotionally, or spiritually sick.This is our humble plea, we present in the precious Name of the prince of peace, Jesus Christ, our priceless priest. Amen.7
Our journey with Christ contains missteps that can be opportunities to rediscover the Love of God present to us inviting us to reconciliation.
References
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