Matthew 7:7-12
Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to
you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For
everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who
knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when
he asked for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asked for a fish? If you then,
who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him. “Do to others whatever you would have them do
to you. This is the law and the prophets.”
Pope John
Paul II gave me a whole new way of understanding the Adam and Eve story, especially
the sin of eating the apple. Most commentators say the first couple committed
an act of disobedience, and that’s true, they violated God’s express
prohibition not to eat of the forbidden fruit.
Other commentators say it was pride and arrogance, wanting to be like
God themselves. After all, wasn’t this
precisely what the Serpent promised them?
Scott Hahn suggested that it was a sexual sin. He joked, “The problem was not the apple on
the tree, but the pair on the ground.”
Get it: not an apple but a pear!
John Paul II, however, said what lay at the root of their sin was a lack
of trust. You see, God had built the whole Garden of Eden saying in effect: “I have
provided all this for your happiness. You can trust me to take care of you.” But
Adam and Eve said, “Thanks but no thanks.
We’ll trust someone else to make us happy; we’ll trust the
Serpent.” And the rest is history: the
history of a humanity that fails again and again to trust in the Father’s
love. All of human history can be seen
through this lens: a timeless tale of committing the same sin of Adam and Eve:
failure to trust God for our happiness.
We are truly children of our first parents; you could say “the apple
didn’t fall far from the tree.”
This is
how we should understand today’s gospel: in the context of reestablishing that
broken trust in the Father. Jesus says,
“Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish? If you then, who are wicked know how to
give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly Father give
good things to those who ask him.” Every
mother and father’s heart beats with one overriding impulse: to give their
children the best. In fact, most parents
want their children to have far better than they had themselves. Every mother
and father says in effect to their children: “Trust me, I’ll take care of
you. I truly want your happiness.” But sooner or later most children repeat the
fatal words of Adam and Eve, “Thanks but no thanks. I’ll trust someone else to make me
happy.” But Jesus shows us another way:
the road of total trust in God. Jesus
not only taught us how to trust the Father, he modeled how to do it, all the
way to the Cross. That’s what Adam and
Eve should have done: total trust in God.
Let me ask
you something: do you truly trust God? I
really believe this is the most important thing we have to do. Here’s another way to look at it: every sin
is at root a statement of lack of trust in God.
If we truly trusted God, we would pull the rug out from under every
desire to sin; we would be exactly like Jesus, who trusted totally. Behind every sin is a lack of trust in
God. Behind every adulterous affair,
behind every South American drug cartel, behind every mother's gambling
addiction, behind every priest's excessive drinking, behind every student who
cheats on a test, behind every masked bank robber, behind every Mass we skip on
Sunday, behind every word of gossip, behind every white or black lie, behind
every ruthless dictator lies one final and fundamental fact: we don’t trust God
for our happiness. Even our money
reminds us: “In God we trust.” But do
we? You see, Adam and Eve’s sin had
little to do with apples and pairs, but everything to do with a lack of trust. It’s the same for each of our sins: ultimately
it’s a failure to trust in the Father’s love.
If we totally trusted God, we wouldn’t sin.
That, by the
way, is why Adam and Eve’s mistake has traditionally been called “The Original
Sin,” because every sin since them has just been a knock off. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
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