Tuesday of the sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s reading challenges us to examine both the sources of our sinfulness and our inability to remember the goodness of God.
The first reading, from James, attends to the origin and consequences of sin and temptation. On one hand, temptation is neither a creation of God nor an action of God towards His creation. It is our human desires that give rise to temptation. This desire gives birth to sin. In turn, sin gives birth to death. On the other hand, all good things are gift from God. God does not will either sin or temptation. Instead, God wills only the good for humanity, the “word of truth.” It is God’s will that we might be the first fruits of God’s creatures.
The second reading, from the Gospel of Mark, attends to the inability to remember this goodness. The disciples had set adrift with only a single loaf of bread between them. Bringing this to Christ’s attention, Jesus warns them against the “leaven” of the Pharisees and Herod. In response, the disciples come to precisely the wrong conclusion because they had forgotten the miracle of the loaves and fishes. They had forgotten the abundance of God’s grace right after witnessing it in person.
Many points from these passages are worth contemplating. The idea that sin gives birth to death is striking, especially when contrasted with God’s will that we live in accordance with goodness. The creator gives us birth. Our sinfulness gives birth to death. Forgetting the unfailing goodness of God is fundamental to this progeny of sin. When we forget God’s goodness, we are tempted to focus on our own desire to be immediately gratified. Often looking only at the immediate circumstances, we fail to see the potential for God’s goodness to graciously exceed our apparent limitations. Desire and temptation beget sin, which begets death. God’s gift and grace begets life. It seems we must decide which will leaven our lives.
Today let us ponder in our hearts how we might remember the abundant goodness of God’s gifts.
- Adam Sheridan