This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
“The moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.” The last words from today’s reading: Words replete with foreboding.
Not having fully imbibed from the cup of Christ’s Redemption until we reach heaven, it is natural for us still to wish we could turn back the clock on Adam’s sin. What a catastrophe. From that one act of disobedience stem the twisted inclinations we all experience to the evils of which Christ speaks in today’s gospel: “evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.”
It all traces back to that one act of disobedience. “Adam, you fool!”, we would like to say. “Think about what you are doing!”
What we sometimes fail to realize is that our own sin sends out equally powerful ripples. We sometimes think of Adam’s sin with a capital “s,” and our own with a small “s.” It is not so. Sin is sin. It is disobedience against God. We can say, “I sin because I am weakened by Adam’s original sin.” This is an excuse equally pathetic to Adam’s: ““The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.” (Gn. 3:12) When we sin, we ourselves are the fools.
Every day–every single day–we have the opportunity to put right Adam’s wrong, by choosing to obey God in all, rather than disobey; rather than cutting corners on His will for our own short-sighted motives.
Every day, we have the opportunity to put right Adam’s wrong through our whole-hearted “yes” to the Redemption from sin that Jesus Christ brought.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus that although sometimes you are insensitive to it, you accept the gravity of your own sin. Tell Him again your unconditional “yes,” that you never wish to be parted from Him or to sin again, and ask Him for His help in overturning Adam’s sin through your faithfulness this day.
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