“Who told you that you were naked?”

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B); June 9, 2024

Gn 3:9-15.  Ps 130.  2 Cor 4:13-5:1.   Mk 3:20-35

Deacon Jim McFadden

            There was once a young boy sitting on the bench during a Little League baseball game just itching to play. Feeling a bit forlorn,  he spoke to his manager and wondered, “Coach, why  is it when Tommy makes an error, I feel better?”  Why indeed?!

This anecdote shows that we don’t have to live too long before we realize that we are participants in a constant struggle between good and evil.  Extrapolating from that game we see it in the world writ large:  people at war with one another—often of same Christian faith, which we see in Ukraine v. Russia; unjust economic systems that should promote the common good  but now  work to the advantage of the privileged few and exploit the vulnerable; groups committed to various ideologies demean those who disagree with them.  In our families we may confront infidelity, abuse, and alienation.  Personally, we may find ourselves wrestling with addiction, resentment, frustration, cynicism, and despair.  How did we get here?  Well, our first reading offers an explanation: we are the offspring of the woman in the garden and we are in constant struggle with the offspring of the serpent. 

            When Adam and Eve listened  to the serpent—their first mistake!—and chose to believe him over God, they basically wanted to place themselves over God; rather than worship God, they wanted to be God.  They thought they could attain happiness without God, which is a metaphysical impossibility since God is the source of Life. Their rebellion led to the world that we now live in.  G.K. Chesterton once wrote that the only theological truth that can be empirically confirmed is Original Sin.  We just have to look around to see its consequences.

The world we now live in, marked by grasping, acquiring, and having seems like it’s real because it is the only world we know, but it is not real to God.

 That is why God began a rescue operation to get us back to the Garden.  When he began this process by looking for Adam and Eve after their transgression, they hid because they were now afraid because they were naked.   Nakedness in itself is not the problem because that term (‘arom’ in the original Greek) meant that they were uncovered; that is, there were no barriers between themselves and God and each other.  However, after they had sinned the term used to describe their sin indicates that they are exposed  (‘erom’).   This term only appears 10 times in the entire Bible and connotes some kind of spiritual deprivation. 

After their sin the woman and man are not only naked (spiritually exposed), they are unwilling to take responsibility for their fault as they blame each other, blame the serpent, and subtly imply that if God hadn’t put the snake in the Garden, none of this would have happened.  Now, they are stuck in their sin, which explains the world we live in which contains   its inevitable consequence: Death. 

Our sin is now embedded in our human experience and the Responsorial Psalm (130) acknowledges the helplessness of sinful human beings in the presence of the one true God:  “Out of the depths I call to you, Lord; Lord hear my cry!  May your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.  If you, Lord, mark our sins, Lord, who can stand?  But with you is forgiveness and so you are revered” (Ps 130:2-4).

Fortunately, God does listen to our plea for forgiveness and his power can overcome our sin and death.  In the exorcisms performed by Jesus and his disciples in today’s gospel reading from Mark, shows that God’s power is supreme and can cast out the demons themselves.  But, before Jesus can vanquish Satan’s domination—“to enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property” (Mk 3:27a), the attacker, namely Jesus, has to incapacitate the householder by tying up the strong man. Then he can plunder the house” (v. 27b). 

That is why the Word of God, the 2^nd Person of the Trinity, became a human being.  Left to ourselves in our nakedness (‘erom’, spiritually exposed) we cannot overcome  our Adversary.  But, God can because he is all-powerful and can overcome anything, including sin and death, which He did through the  death and Resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus. 

Though the Prince of Darkness has been vanquished through the salvific work of Jesus, we are still in a struggle with the forces of evil.  Nonetheless, we are SO empowered.  By virtue of our Baptism, we have been initiated into Jesus very mystical Body, the Church, in which we are nurtured by the Eucharist and Confirmed in the Holy Spirit.  We live out our baptismal call through our vocation either Holy Orders, matrimony, or the single life.  And, as we move towards our destiny we have the sacraments of healing—Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick—which salves our wounds. 

Let us call upon our Blessed Mother Mary who said “Yes” to God’s power by permitting the Word of God to become human and thereby casting out Satan and his evil spirits who seek the ruin of souls.  Amen.

Reflection Questions:

1.  How do you experience the struggle between good and evil? 
2.  How have you experienced ‘erom’, spiritual deprivation ?
3. Do you feel empowered to realize your destiny through Christ our Lord? Does that bring you confidence and joy?