Genesis 3:9-24
The Lord God called to the man. “Where are you?” he asked. “I heard the sound of you in the garden,” he replied. “I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” “Who told you that you were naked?” he asked. “Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?” The man replied, “It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” The the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman replied, “The serpent tempted me and I ate.”
Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Be accursed beyond all cattle,
all wild beasts.
You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust
every day of your life.
I will make you enemies of each other:
you and the woman,
your offspring and her offspring.
It will crush your head
and you will strike its heel.”
To the woman he said:
“I will multiply your pains in childbearing,
you shall give birth to your children in pain.
Your yearning shall be for your husband,
yet he will lord it over you.”
To the man he said, “Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat
“Accursed be the soil because of you.
With suffering shall you get your food from it
every day of your life.
It shall yield you brambles and thistles,
and you shall eat wild plants.
With sweat on your brow
shall you eat your bread,
until you return to the soil,
as you were taken from it.
For dust you are
and to dust you shall return.”
The man named his wife “Eve” because she was the mother of all those who live. The Lord God made cloths out of skins for the man and his wife, and they put them on. Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, with his knowledge of good and evil. He must not be allowed to stretch his hand out and pick from the tree of life also, and eat some and live for ever.” So the Lord God expelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he had been taken. He banished the man, and in front of the garden of Eden he posted cherubs, and the flame of a flashing sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.
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Mark 8:1-10
A great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat. So Jesus called his disciples to him and said t them, “I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. If I send them off home hungry they will collapse on the way; some have come a great distance.” His disciples replied, “Where could anyone get bread to feed these people in a deserted place like this?” He asked them, “How many loaves have you?” “Seven,” they said. Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them among the crowd. They had a few small fish as well, and over these he said a blessing and ordered them to be distributed also. They ate as much as they wanted, and they collected seven basketfuls of the scraps left over. Now there had been about four thousand people. He sent them away and immediately, getting into the boat with his disciples, went to the region of Dalmanutha.
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In today’s readings, we see God asking funny questions. In the first reading, God was walking in the garden of Eden and he called out to the man, asking, “Where are you?” As if God didn’t know. But because God called out to the man, the man responded, although in fear. Then God asked another two questions, which obviously shows us that God knows the answer even before he asks. Still he asks the man, inviting him to respond honestly. Here, he is also giving the man a chance to say that he is sorry, to ask for forgiveness and to repair the break and betrayal that the man himself caused to his friendship with God.
Instead of that, the man chooses to deny the responsibility of his choice, and blames the woman instead for what was his own bad choice. God turns to the woman and offers her the same choice – to repair her friendship with God by admitting that she had done wrong, and to ask for forgiveness. But the woman responded in the same way as the man – she blamed another for her own bad choice.
To the serpent, God gives no choice to respond at all, because animals can’t choose. He simply pronounces the result to the serpent, for having led the man and the woman to sin. The result is a natural consequence of sin. Perhaps it is not the serpent’s fault, as it did not force the man and woman to sin, but because the man and woman had indeed sinned, their sin has consequences on other things, like the serpent and the soil. Yes, our sin has consequences, not just on us, but on other people and things around us as well.
In the gospel reading, we also see Jesus phrasing his question in a rather foolish way. He is essentially asking his disciples to feed the people, to which they responded, “How can we?” But Jesus already knows the answer to that question – it is he who will feed the hungry. All he did was to test his disciples, providing them a chance to respond, “We know that you can feed them, Lord.” But they don’t.
Whether we are saints or sinners, God will feed us. In the first reading, he clothed the naked man and woman, providing them with clothes far better than the ones they had made for themselves. Even in our sin, the Lord is providing us with all our needs. His grace is sufficient for us, regardless of how unworthy we feel to receive his gifts.
If today’s readings teach us one thing, it is that we frequently underestimate God’s generosity. Had the man and woman simply asked for God’s forgiveness, all would have been well. But they didn’t. Had the disciples simply asked for Jesus’ generosity to feed all the hungry people, he would have done it. But they didn’t. And yet, God is so generous that even if we don’t, he still goes ahead and forgives us, he still goes ahead and feeds us when we are hungry.
How is God calling you to respond today? What is your response? If there is one thing you can place your trust in, it is in the generosity of God, for Jesus has told us before,”If you ask for anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:14)
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Prayer:
Dear Lord, help us to trust more in your generosity, the generosity a father showers onto his children. Grant us your grace to ask for anything in Jesus’ name, and we believe that he will do it. Amen.
Give Thanks to the Lord for: His generosity.
Filed under: Daily Reflections, Discernment
