Reading 1
Gn 3:9-24
The LORD God called to Adam and asked him, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself.”
Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then,
from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”
The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with meB
she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”
The LORD God then asked the woman,
“Why did you do such a thing?”
The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”
Then the LORD God said to the serpent:
“Because you have done this, you shall be banned
from all the animals
and from all the wild creatures;
On your belly shall you crawl,
and dirt shall you eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
He will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel.”
To the woman he said:
“I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing;
in pain shall you bring forth children.
Yet your urge shall be for your husband,
and he shall be your master.”
To the man he said: “Because you listened to your wife
and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat,
“Cursed be the ground because of you!
In toil shall you eat its yield
all the days of your life.
Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you,
as you eat of the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
shall you get bread to eat,
Until you return to the ground,
from which you were taken;
For you are dirt,
and to dirt you shall return.”
The man called his wife Eve,
because she became the mother of all the living.
For the man and his wife the LORD God made leather garments,
with which he clothed them.
Then the LORD God said: “See! The man has become like one of us,
knowing what is good and what is evil!
Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand
to take fruit from the tree of life also,
and thus eat of it and live forever.”
The LORD God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden,
to till the ground from which he had been taken.
When he expelled the man,
he settled him east of the garden of Eden;
and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword,
to guard the way to the tree of life.
Ps 90:2, 3-4abc, 5-6, 12-13
Responsorial PsalmR. (1)
In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Before the mountains were begotten
and the earth and the world were brought forth,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You turn man back to dust,
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You make an end of them in their sleep;
the next morning they are like the changing grass,
Which at dawn springs up anew,
but by evening wilts and fades.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Gospel
Mk 8:1-10
In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat,
Jesus summoned the disciples and said,
“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
because they have been with me now for three days
and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes,
they will collapse on the way,
and some of them have come a great distance.”
His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread
to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”
Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
They replied, “Seven.”
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them,
and gave them to his disciples to distribute,
and they distributed them to the crowd.
They also had a few fish.
He said the blessing over them
and ordered them distributed also.
They ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets.
There were about four thousand people.
He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples
and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
Meditation: Genesis 3:9-24
“The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.” (Genesis 3:12)
“She made me do it!” “I was tricked!” “It’s not my fault!” Does this sound familiar? We find it so much easier to blame someone else, to make excuses for ourselves, and to lie rather than to own up to what we’ve done. Perhaps it’s because we don’t want to face our own weaknesses or deal head-on with the mess that our sin has caused.
Don’t you find it ironic that even though Jesus told us “the truth will set you free,” it can be excruciating to face the truth (John 8:32)? Perhaps the freedom we are looking for is not the freedom of love and surrender but the freedom to do whatever we want with no regard for the people we may hurt.
In today’s first reading, Adam and Eve’s disobedience—their “freedom”—cost them dearly. Overcome by fear and shame, they hid themselves from the One who loved them the most. Who knows? Perhaps they could have asked for mercy. But instead they hurled accusations at each other and at the serpent. And so, having broken their covenant with God, they were banished from the garden, and had to live with the sad consequences of their loss of faith.
But God didn’t give them up to their sin. They may not have asked for mercy, but he gave it to them anyway. He clothed them, cursed the serpent, and promised that one of their offspring would deliver them.
This is how merciful God is! Even when we aren’t looking for it, he gives it to us. Imagine how much more mercy, grace, and love we will find if we take the way of humility and not accusation. Like the young man in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, all we have to do is begin the journey back to God. If he spots us taking just one or two steps toward him, he will run to meet us, throw his arms around us, and welcome us home. He won’t even wait for us to recite all of our sins. His grace will already be flowing, healing our wounds and changing our hearts!
“Father, I am in awe of your mercy and your commitment to me. Help me look to you to receive grace and love today!”
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