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 10^th Sunday, Year B: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima

Theme: What we shouldn’t do after falling into sin

Readings: Gen. 3:9-15; 2Cor. 4:13-5:1; Mk 3:20-25

Dear friends in Christ, on this 10^th Sunday, the Church wishes to call our attention to what a person who has committed a sin should not do. Often, when people commit sin, their reactions range from running away from God to refusing to acknowledge that they did anything wrong and to blaming others for their sins. Today, the Church is telling us that the proper response after committing a sin should not be refusal to admit our sins, nor blaming others for our sins, nor hiding from God, because these actions will not restore peace between us and God, nor between us and our fellow human beings.

Today’s first reading highlights some of the harms sin causes and some wrong reactions after committing sins. The first damage highlighted here is that sin wounds the nature of man. Man was innocent by nature before the fall, not knowing what is evil. But, as we saw in this reading, after the fall, man lost his innocence, realized that he was naked and covered himself with leaves; He became a slave to concupiscence, not only knowing evil but also yearning for it or suffering the attraction of it in everything he does. Sin steals our resemblance of God and gives us the nature of the devil.

The second damage mentioned in this reading is that sin ruptures our relationship with God because every sin is a violation of God’s commandment and, therefore, it distances us from God. In this reading, when Adam and Eve heard the sound of God's footsteps, they fled and hid themselves instead of running to embrace and kiss Him. They lost their friendship with God and, consequently, instead of receiving warm greetings and blessings from their Father, they received curses. Man’s loving relationship with God was destroyed by sin and has continued to be destroyed by sin.

The third damage is that sin weakens human solidarity by rupturing our relationship with one another and causing disharmony or disorder in the social realm. Sin causes a breach of peace, love and harmony, and breeds suspicion, hatred and discord. In this first reading, the relationship of mutual love between Adam and Eve was weakened. The snake that once had a conversation with human beings became the enemy of human beings and now inspires revulsion in them because enmity has been put between it and the offspring of Eve. There was also enmity between man and other animals. Let us say that creation lost its harmony with the entrance of sin.

This reading also highlighted the wrong reaction most people make when they fall into sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, their reaction after covering themselves was to hide from God out of shame and fear. When most people commit sins, they hide themselves from God and from anything that will remind them that what they did was wrong. In some cases, some people will stop coming to Church, so that they will not hear homilies that will condemn their actions, their choices or their lifestyles. Most times when people fall into error, they typically isolate themselves, refuse to listen to voices that prick their consciences and only open up to those that condone what they have done. Some people go to the extent of attacking those that tell them to repent.

In the gospel reading, the latter was the main point of contention between Jesus and the scribes. Rather than acknowledging their mistakes as exposed and corrected by Jesus, the scribes took to denying the authority of Jesus and rejecting his teachings and healings. Dear friends, we are reminded that hiding from God or from his words does not restore the relationship between us and God that has been weakened by our sins, it rather turns us into God’s enemies.   

The second wrong reaction we saw in this reading was the refusal of Adam and Eve to admit responsibility for what they did. Adam blamed Eve and God for what he did; Eve, on the other hand, blamed the serpent. There was no admission of the sin committed, there was no apology. Dear friends, refusing to admit our wrongdoings does not absolve us of our guilt before God and man, rather it causes us to refuse God’s freely offered forgiveness and restoration. 

Dear friends in Christ, the damages which sin causes to our nature, to our relationship with God and to solidarity among God’s creatures cannot be undone or restored by running away from God’s presence nor by denying our responsibilities for our wrong actions. Our healing and restoration can only come from sincere acceptance of our wrong actions, genuine repentance and confession in Christ.

Peace be with you

Fr Isaac Chima