10th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
Fr. Mark Gatto
Preached: June 10, 2018
Whoever does the will of God is my mother, my brother, my sister. You and I can be a brother or sister of Jesus. A family like relationship with Jesus. By doing the will of God. Every time we pray the Our Father, we pray that the will of God be done. How do we know that we are truly doing the will of God?
Well, we see what it is like when human beings are not doing the will of God in the story of Adam and Eve. They have gone against the will of God, disobeyed the will of God when they ate from the fruit of the forbidden tree. What do we see happen next?
They are hiding from the presence of God. They are covering up, because deep inside they realize that what they have done is wrong. The first sign of the reality of sin, the reality of evil in our lives, is when we are hiding, covering up, secrets, lying. When we have to lie, keep secrets, cover up and hide our actions, this is usually a sign that we are not doing the will of God.
Next we see Adam blaming Eve and Eve blaming the serpent. A second sign of the reality of sin is that we begin blaming someone else, we do not accept responsibility for what we have done. We rationalize, it was not really my fault.
Adam and Eve knew inside that what they did was wrong, that it was not the will of God. For this reason that we see them hiding, keeping secrets, lying. Then they begin blaming others instead of accepting responsibility for what they had done.
The reality of sin and evil, is usually seen in lies, hiding, secrets. There is a saying in Alcoholics Anonymous, “you are only as sick as your secrets.”
Good advice for any married person. Do not do anything if you could not tell your spouse about it. If you are planning to do something but you would not be comfortable telling your spouse, then probably a good sign you should not do it. Secrets, lies, hiding are always signs that we are moving in the direction of evil and away from the will of God.
By doing the will of God, we live as a family member of Jesus. When doing what is right, the will of God, there is no need to hide, no need for secrets, no need to lie, no need to blame others.
Sin and evil is always rooted in lies. Why we can say, “you are only as sick as your secrets.”
We are to live in such a way that we never need to hide, to cover up, to keep secrets, to lie. Doing the will of God, this way of living is to live as a brother or sister of Jesus. This is the way of living that leads to true peace in our lives.
