TEMPTING
INTRODUCTIONThe title of my homily is, “Tempting!”
Today’s readings are great readings to begin Lent with.
Today’s readings get at some good questions and deep issues. (1)Today I’d like to get at the issue of temptation. We’ve all said in our lifetime, “Tempting! Tempting! Tempting!” or “Tempt me! Tempt me! Tempt me!”
We’ve all prayed in ten thousand, “Our Fathers…,” “Lead us not into temptation.”
TODAY’S FIRST READING FROM GENESISWe’ve all been in Eve’s situation. We find ourselves face to face with forbidden fruit. Sometimes we fall. We take the forbidden fruit. And then we taste the aftertaste – the nasty aftertaste of sin. Sin can leave some yucky stuff stuck in between our teeth – and it doesn’t smell right on our breath – and down in our belly we hear a growl.
If we bite into evil – if we chew and digest it – yes, we might discover something rather juicy. For the moment, sin can taste so good. Then we sink a bit. We slink a bit. We want to slide away like a serpent or a snake – wanting to hide in the tall grass. We’ve taken on the image and likeness of the snake. We feel naked, shame, shouldn’t have gone there, shouldn’t have done it, uh oh! Oh no!
We’ve crossed a boundary. We find ourselves outside the gate of where we were. Uh oh. Now what?
And then sometimes we try to bring others into our mess – tempting them. Misery, evil, sin, seems to want company. There is something in us that wants communion with those on the same line as us. We want communion not just with bread.
Today’s first reading from Genesis is great story telling. It has stood the test of time. It’s telling a truth. It’s a mirror. It’s our story too.
These early readings from Genesis are remembered. They were written down for a reason. Of course they took lots of rewrites and variations to finally get into the form we have them today in our Bible.
These early readings from Genesis provide hints of answers to questions: why sin, why forbidden fruit, why death, why loss of innocence, why blame and shame and a dozen other good questions?
This reading gets us in touch with the question of freedom – choice. Life would be boring if we didn’t have freedom – and choice. Marriage would be boring if the other couldn’t say, “No!” March Madness would not be March Madness if there were no possibility of upsets and surprises. The People of Libya and the Middle East want freedom – after years and years of dictatorships – so too – all us children of Eve.
I would also assume that God would be bored with us if we had to worship and show up here on the Sabbath. Choice is key to what makes us human beings.
This reading also gets us in touch with raising children. There they are hopefully in the safety of the womb and then the safety of the home – and they are so cute and so wonderful – till they start to show and sound screams for independence. That high chair or playpen and that same old same old baby food must be so boring for kids. We humans are different from animals. We’re the slowest to get on the road to independence – and parents obviously want to keep kids away from the bad stuff – the forbidden fruit for as long as possible. But every kid comes to the day when they are in the same situation as Eve is in today’s first reading.
Notice the difference between men and women in today’s story. Eve deliberates. There is hesitation. There is dialogue with the devil. There are questions. She wanted to gain wisdom. (2) The guy just takes the fruit without question – immediately. There’s humor here. There’s sex here. There’s insight here. There’s wisdom here. The snake is phallic and those fallen end up with knowledge they didn’t have before – the knowledge of good and evil.
I don’t know Hebrew but I read in preparing this homily that the Hebrew words in this story are punny and funny – and those who heard the stories in that language get even more than we get – but in general, we too get the message – somewhat. Temptation stories are ever old and ever new.
Life has its catches. The devil – the personification of evil – snake or serpent or guy in red tights – lurks in what we think is perfect and paradise.
Find a copy of C.S. Lewis’ classic, The Screwtape Letters and read it this Lent. He writes the devil’s manual on how to tempt people.
People deny the devil and people deny God. I assume what they really are denying are images of the devil and images of God.
When getting into denial, I would think sin would be the place to begin. Does anyone deny the existence of sin and stupidity – hurt and dumb behavior – self destruction and people hurting people. If someone deny sin, tell them to turn on the TV!
We’re here in church today because we believe in one God.
We’re here in church today because we choose to believe that God is in our story – our memoirs – our autobiography – as indicated with these stories in the readings we hear at Mass.
We’re here in church because we believe God is in the mix of who we are and why we are.
We are here in church because we believe that we choose God so as to grasp grace and eternity – meaning and the mystery of life – and how to deal with temptations.
We are not God.
We are not angels.
We are not animals. They are naked. We are not.
We are different from animals – and males and females are different from each other. Thank God. "Viva la differance" as the French put it.
Genesis is telling us these obvious messages.
Take the end of today’s first reading when Adam and Eve have an eye opener. The first reading ends this way, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.”
Why do we wear clothes?
Don’t clothes make life so, so interesting and intriguing? T-shirts, Redskins jackets, Nike shoes.
Clothes…. It’s a whole industry – jobs, jobs, jobs.
It’s a whole way of life – style, fashion, starting with designer fig leaves.
Today’s story about Eve and Adam is filled with humor. Life is filled with humor. Check out the bathing suits in 1911 compared to 2011. Check out People’s Magazine to see what women wore at the recent Academy Awards and then remember in other parts of the world men are demanding that women wear burkas.
Today’s Adam and Eve story is every human being’s story. When was the first time you ate forbidden fruit?
Next time you’re in a situation with teenage girls and boys together – have a copy of today’s first reading in hand and say, “Oh my God it’s the same story. Oh my God, the author of Genesis must have chaperoned teen age dances.”
And once kids lose their innocence – parents like God in today’s first reading say, “I told them not to – but now they know good and evil. They’ve discovered love, lust, romances, breakups, being used, all the angst of youth and growing up – the seeds of future problems with men, women, lust, affairs, breakups, divorces, disasters.
Forbidden fruit is loaded with learning – especially that our decisions and our behavior that follows – has consequences.
Today’s first reading also announces that we are mortal. We are not God. We are going to die. When was the first time we discovered that piece of knowledge?
On Friday afternoon I was at a wake at Kallas’ funeral home. I went up to the casket to say a private prayer before getting back home. Standing there in front of the casket were three little girls. They were looking at death – in the form of a dead 52 year old woman. What were these 3 kids thinking and feeling and wondering about?
On Friday night we were watching on TV – Turner Classics – the 1930’s movie, “All Quiet On the Western Front”. It featured a whole generation of young men experiencing World War I first hand. Till they actually go into battle – when thousands are killed, war is romance. Then they see death, limbs blown off, and horror. They are exposed to the meaning of life and death. Bombs are bursting. Machine guns are spraying bullets. Bodies are falling and screaming. War is stripped naked in front of them and they are forced to eat its bitter fruit.
TODAY’S SECOND READING
Today’s second reading from Romans – gets immediately into the question of sin. Who and where and how did it start? Answer: Adam. One started it – Adam – and then there are the consequences. We too experience the consequences of other’s sins. Everybody does.
I can still hear two men screaming loud curses at each other. I was perhaps 7 years old. It was the first time I ever heard those words – and that much violence in my life. It was 4th Avenue – Brooklyn, New York. Screaming out from inside a big open door of a service station bay – I could see and hear two men fighting each other and trying to punch each other and throwing things at each other. I can still hear the ping on macadam of one of those 4 way tire irons used for removing lug nuts from tires – in the form of a plus sign or a cross - that came out and just missed me.
Bad example impacts us. Sin singes us. We have a memory.
We are Adam – and Eve – and can ruin it for those who follow us – but we can also be Christ – and become like him – and make it right for those who follow us.
As priest we all get whacked in the head every time a scandal hits the news
TODAY’S GOSPELToday’s gospel from Matthew has Jesus placed in just the opposite of a garden – the story teller places Jesus in a desert.
And just like the first reading Jesus the New Adam is given a choice – this time 3 choices – and all three times Jesus chooses good over evil.
This too is our story.
Life has it’s temptations. Every day has its temptations.
There is more to life than bread and food.
There are more hungers than hungers of the stomach – fasting in Lent – is there for a reason.
There’s more to life than crazy risks of not taking care of our health and then blaming God for consequences of poor life habits.
There’s more to life than thinking money and the power of stuff – are the stuff to pursue and make our gods.
CONCLUSIONLent is a good time to abstain from too much TV and computer and phone and what have you – and get in touch with the big questions.
We come to Mass – especially during Lent and we hear pointed out to us that the cross – the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – is right in the center of our everyday.
We come to Mass – and we hear Jesus say, “Take and eat. Take and drink. This is my body – from the wheat of the fields – this is my blood – from the grapes of the vine – given for you.”
And we don't like to eat alone. We love company – so we get on line together to receive the Lord in communion with each other. Amen.
NOTES:
Painting on top is entitled "Adam and Eve" [1529] by Lucas Cranach the Elder [1472-1553]
(1) If you want to know the sources I re-read for this homily here they are: Elizabeth Boyden Howes and Sheila Moon, Man The Choicemaker (The Westmnister Press, Philadelphia, 1973, pp. 17-49; Naomi H. Rosenblatt and Joshua Horwitz, Wrestling With Angels - What Genesis Teaches Us About Our Spiritual Identity, Sexuality, and Personal Relationships, Delta Trade Paperbacks, 1996, pp. 23-51; Bill Moyers, Genesis - A Living Conversation, Doubleday, New York, 1996, pp. 39-69; Arthur Miller, "The Story of Adam and Eve," pages 35-41 in Genesis, As It Is Written, David Rosenberg Editor, Harper SanFrancisco, 1996; Karen Armstrong, In The Beginning, A New Interpretation of Genesis, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1996, pp. 18-33; Norman J. Cohen, Self, Struggle & Change, Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, Vermon, 1995, pp. 17-33.
(2) Check out Luke 1: 26-45
