Fr. Michael Osatofoh Eninlejie, MSP - Homily for Saturday Week 5 of Ordinary Time Year I - February 13, 2021

SATURDAY 13TH FEBRUARY 2021

FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR I

Genesis 3:9-24

Mark 8:1-10

WHY ARE WE AFRAID TO ADMIT OUR SINS?

As children growing up, we found it very difficult to admit the wrong things we have done. In fact we run away and hide from our parents when we commit an offence. We hardly accept that we are wrong even when we are caught red handed.

This is the same attitude we see in our first parents in the  first reading of today. They had sinned against God by disobeying his instructions. That disobedience landed them and the whole of humanity in trouble. It was after they had eaten the fruit that they had their full senses back. They began to hide from God, not because they were naked, but because they could not relate with God any longer. It is the same way that we hide from God and are not able to pray when we have sinned.

When God inquired from them why they disobeyed him, Adam shifted the blame to Eve and Eve shifted the blame to the serpent. I'm sure if the serpent was given a room to speak, it would also have shifted the blame to another object (there will be a joke at the end of this reflection about the response of the serpent)

Despite all these, one striking thing about God in the first reading, is the fact that though he was very angry with our first parents and the serpent and he cursed them, he started forgiving us from that same moment; he made them clothes out of skin and continued to care for them even outside the garden of Eden, he sent prophets to them until he sent his Son Jesus Christ to call us back to him.

Whatever the sin that has made us feel ashamed of God to the extent that we are hiding from him, let us be conscious that God is not aiming to condemn us, he wants us to come back to him.

God help us to shun the voices that are not of him. Amen.

Fr Michael Osatofoh Eninlejie, MSP

Joke: God asked the serpent, what is this that you have done, why did you give her the fruit? The serpent replied: I was just relaxing on the tree when Eve was passing by. She asked me, anything for the girls?