EVERYTHING WENT HAYWIRE IN EDEN GARDEN
February 26, 2023
First Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Our first parents were so blessed by you as you prepared the perfect home for them in the perfect garden. All that was beautiful and good, all creatures great and small were at their fingertips. I like to remind myself that you were all about bestowing original blessings upon Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

How can I this Lent get a little in touch with my inner goodness, God’s gift to me?

• The story of the Garden of Eden is also my story and about my pride, my desire to be in control, and my arrogance about choosing what is right and wrong.

• My first parents, Adam and Eve, were tricked into thinking that they could be like you, and not have to depend upon you. Here, then, is the original sin. Sin, on the bottom line, is selfishness.

• I am a sinner. I also hide. I give the appearance that I have my act together but really don’t. I try to keep secrets from you but you know me better than I know myself. And, on top of that, you still love me unconditionally. You walk with me no matter what!

• Selfishness and stubbornness change things. Not only were Adam and Eve distanced from you, Lord, but they were distanced from each other and from all of creation by blaming each other rather than acknowledging their sin. I go nowhere fast if I get mired down in the muck of blaming.

• Ask Jesus for the grace to identify any distance that may have cropped up between you and Him; to look at those relationships in your life where reconciliation is needed; to find peace with all of the people in your life; to fast from bitterness or anger or resentment.

• Your love for me is always a gift for me to freely receive or not. It is my choice. Yet you never give up on us! You chose to become one us so that you might have a better chance of showing all of us how much you love us!

What is one thing I can do to begin to reconcile myself and grow closer to Jesus and the people in my life?