Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for all of us to shun and reject all sorts of evil in our lives, to keep ourselves free from the corruption of sin and evil, the darkness of this world as we continue living our lives worthily as Christians. Each and every one of us should always strive to do what is right and just in accordance to things which the Lord has shown and taught us. This is because we ourselves are the ones to be good inspirations and role models for our fellow brethren around us. All of us are reminded that we have been created all good, wonderful and perfect by God, but it was our disobedience and sins, our wicked desires and unholy temptations that had led to our downfall.

And in our Scripture passage today, we are reminded of this truth, of our original immaculate nature which has become tainted by sin that came from within us. In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis in which the account of the first day of the existence of mankind was told to us, when Adam and Eve were formed by God, to be the ones to take care of everything that He had created, and as they still wandered in the beautiful and most awesome Gardens of Eden, meant to enjoy forever the love and grace of God, in the state of grace and holy existence, made and formed perfect, in the very image and likeness of God. God made all things good and perfect, and this was highlighted in the earlier accounts of the Creation in our past two days of readings from the same Book of Genesis, from the earlier two chapters.

In that passage from the Book of Genesis today, we heard how the Lord created all things in the Gardens of Eden for us mankind to dwell in and to enjoy the wonders of His love for us. He also told them all about how they could eat of everything in the Garden except for that of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Everything were all created good and wonderful, and no corruption or sin yet existed at that time. However, it was our desires, which were not essentially malicious, in what later Satan would manipulate to his own ends, in tempting Adam and Eve to disobey God which led to our corruption by sin. And linking to what we are going to discuss in our Gospel passage today, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil itself is not something evil or wicked, as there can be nothing that God created which is flawed, imperfect or evil. God made all things good and perfect just as He intended.

Even Satan himself, who was known as Lucifer, the Lightbringer, was a wonderful, beautiful and excellent Angel of God, who was created as the most brilliant and mightiest among the Angels. He was created all good and wonderful just as all of us and all of Creation had been created. However, he became obsessed with that beauty and brilliance that he possessed, and became proud, leading to his rebellion against God in his desire to become the ruler over all things. That was how Satan fell from grace and was cast out of Heaven. In the same manner, by the temptations which Satan had given to Adam and Eve, our ancestors gave in to their desires for knowledge and power, that led them into sin, corruption and therefore their downfall.

In our Gospel passage today, we are then reminded from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist once again about the dangers of the corruption of sin which can easily afflict us if we are not careful in how we live our lives. We are also not defiled and corrupted by whatever we partake and eat, as the Lord Himself declared that every type of food which had been considered as unclean by the Jewish community to be clean and worthy. This is related to what we have heard in our first reading passage earlier on, which related to us how God created everything all good and wonderful for us, and hence, we should not think of any animals or things around us to be the source of our defilement and corruption. This is contrary to what the Jewish people had believed in.

Historically, there were some possible reasons explaining why the Law of God stipulated those rules as handed down to them through Moses, which happened during the time of the Exodus. The prohibition against eating pigs is scientifically and historically linked to the fact that it took more resources to sustain them than what the Israelites could have afforded while they were on the journey of the Exodus through the desert. Hence, this Law and commandment was given to them to help them to manage their lives as they were making their journey through the desert with limited resources, depending on the graces and miracles that God had given them such as the manna, the heavenly bread appearing to them every morning, as well as the water gushing out from the rocks for them to drink and share in the dry desert.

But the Lord showed the people that those commandments and laws which their ancestors had obeyed and followed were no longer relevant at that time, and He revealed to them all the true nature of the Law, and what they all needed to do in order to be truly faithful to God. He also warned them about maintaining only just external piety and purity while neglecting the purity of the soul, keeping oneself free from the corruption of our wicked desires, ambitions, greed and pride, all of which are the ones leading us astray from God and making us to fall into sin, just as our ancestors themselves had experienced. Just as it was not the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that were malicious, but the greed of mankind, therefore the Lord made it clear that what is corrupting us in our own interior disposition and desires.

And this is exemplified no better than those Pharisees and teachers of the Law themselves who often criticised the Lord and His disciples for not observing the Law in the manner that they had observed it. They were so obsessed and focused on the external application of the Law that they had forgotten its true purpose, intention and meaning. Not only that but many among them also allowed their pride and desire for worldly recognition and power to mislead them down the path of disobedience against God, as shown by their persistent refusal to listen to the Lord and their constant critique of the Lord and His disciples’ works, despite having listened to the Wisdom of God being spoken to them and to the miracles and wonders performed before their own eyes.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore remind ourselves to continue living our lives worthily in the Lord, placing Him at the very heart and centre of our existence. Let us all resist the temptations of the evil ones who are constantly trying to bring us to our downfall by disobedience against God. May the Lord be with us always and may He continue to empower and strengthen us all in our journey so that we may grow ever stronger in our commitment towards Him, in each and every moments of our lives, now and always, forevermore. Amen.