Preached on Sunday, March 5, 2017.

I have a question for you! In our First Reading tonight from the Book of Genesis, we heard  the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden and how they were tempted by the Serpent to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. What would you say was their biggest mistake in that whole experience? Certainly eating the fruit was a big mistake. God had specifically told them not to eat the fruit of that tree. But was that their biggest mistake? Consider how they acted right after they ate the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. What’s the first thing they did? Hide from God!

We read on in Genesis, “When they heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the garden ... the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God.” And when the Lord God called out to Adam, “Where are you?” Adam replied, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.” How amazing that in just a few words, Adam manages to express … fear, shame, defensiveness and self-pity … but not sorrow and regret. So God asks Adam, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten, then, of the tree of which I had forbidden you not to eat?” Adam doesn’t hesitate to place the blame on both God and his wife ... saying, “The woman you put here with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”

And so God asks Eve, “Why did you do such a thing?” And Eve, too, doesn’t hesitate to place the blame elsewhere, saying “The serpent tricked me into it, and so I ate it.” In just four short verses, Almighty God asked four questions. Do you think that He asked those questions because He didn’t know the answer? Of course not! God knows everything! Then why do you think He asked those questions of Adam & Eve?

What was God looking for? God was looking for them to say, “I’m sorry!” Instead, what did they say? Adam says, it wasn’t my fault, you put that woman here and she gave me the fruit to eat. Eve says, It wasn’t my fault, the serpent tricked me into eating the fruit. Neither one took the opportunity to claim accountability for their actions and say the two words that God most wanted to hear … the words, “I’m sorry!”

The God that we know and love today …the God revealed through the Scriptures …is a God of Mercy. Now God didn’t become merciful over time … for God is unchanging. So that means that God was a God of Mercy back when He created Adam and Eve. And therefore, He would’ve gladly forgiven them for their sin. But they never asked! They never said those 2 little words that mean so much … the words, “I’m sorry!” God gave them four opportunities to beg for His forgiveness. But instead they remained obstinate in their sin. And as a result, God drove them out of the Garden of Eden to till the soil, bear children in pain and eventually die. So you see, the biggest mistake that Adam and Eve ever made wasn’t eating the forbidden fruit. The biggest mistake they ever made was failing to call upon God’s mercy.

Our God is a God of mercy. He can forgive anything and everything. How do we know? Because He forgave the human race for committing the gravest sin ever, … killing His only begotten Son ... 2000 years ago! Yes, we killed The Son of God … and God forgave us. He forgave us because His Son, acting on our behalf, asked for our forgiveness. Jesus said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And God did! God is madly in love with us and He is only too anxious to forgive us when we sin… but we have to ask for His forgiveness.

Remember the two criminals who were crucified with Christ? One of them remained obstinate to the end … saying to Jesus, “Are you not the Messiah? (Then,) save yourself and us (too).” While the other criminal admitted responsibility for his sins and asked Jesus for mercy saying, “Remember me Lord when you come into your kingdom.” To which of the two criminals did Jesus respond?         To the one who was obstinate and arrogant ... or the one filled with regret who asked for mercy? To him Jesus said, “This day you will be with me in Paradise!” Yes, Jesus forgave the criminal who asked for forgiveness ... in fact He didn’t hesitate a moment to issue forgiveness. Then why would anyone hesitate or delay to ask for God’s forgiveness?

I hear people say quite regularly … “Oh I don’t like to go to Confession.” It makes no sense at all! Here we have the assurance of God that He will forgive our sins if we confess them and then people don’t go to confession! On any given weekend there are people who come forward to receive a Blessing instead of Holy Communion. I commend everyone for following the Guidelines of the Church. Some who receive blessings are Non-Catholics who are visiting. Some are Non-Catholics taking the RCIA classes; waiting to become Catholic.

Some are Catholics who find themselves unprepared to receive …

• perhaps they didn’t keep the 1-hour fast before receiving Communion,
• or perhaps they’re waiting for an annulment to have their marriage blessed in the Church.

 And then there are Catholics who don’t receive Holy Communion because:

• they’ve gone over a year since their last Confession,
• or they missed a Sunday Mass or a recent Holy Day of Obligation,
• or they’re mindful of some serious sin in their life.

What makes no sense at all is for Catholics to remain unable to receive the Eucharistic Jesus in Holy Communion … week after week! The People in RCIA are yearning for what you can receive, The Body and Blood of Jesus, and you don’t do what you need to do to come back to the table of the Lord! If that’s you, you should be running to a Priest to receive the mercy of God that will bring you back into a graced relationship with Him. There are Catholics, who need an annulment to have their Marriage blessed in the Church … and they don’t start the process … year after year. As Catholics ... they have the opportunity to have Holy Communion with Jesus and they don’t do what it takes to make that happen. They don’t go to Confession or secure an Annulment … it makes no sense at all!

Two situations that prevent a Catholic from receiving Confession is “cohabiting”, that’s living with someone without being validly married in the Catholic Church; getting married outside the Catholic Church (places them outside the Sacraments) People who are cohabiting must separate themselves from that sin before they enter or come back to the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. Yes, sin separates us from God … and our biggest mistake is to remain in sin and not seek God’s forgiveness. All of us are sinners. So all of us need to turn to God and say “I’m sorry”.

We just did that together in our Responsorial Psalm when we prayed, “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.” Psalm 51, that we just prayed is the Psalm that King David wrote after Nathan accused him of committing adultery with Bathsheba. When David recognized how offensive his sin was to God, he cries out to God for God’s mercy, saying, Have mercy on me, O God, in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. For I acknowledge my offense and my sin is always before me Against you alone I have sinned, what is evil in your sight I have done. This is what we must do when we sin … we must admit our fault and say I’m sorry. Unless we repent of our sins, we risk being separated from God forever!

Listen to the warning and the guidance of the Prophet Joel that we heard proclaimed at Mass on Ash Wed. “For great is the day of the LORD, and exceedingly terrible; who can bear it? Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.”

So what are you going to do … run and hide from God like Adam did? It didn’t help Adam and it won’t help you. God sees everything. He knows our every sin. Yet in His great love for us, His eternal desire is to forgive us for our sins so that we can stay in the Garden … the Garden of His Love. But to receive His forgiveness, we have to ask for His forgiveness. Many people do this ... and many people don’t! Sadly, many make up their minds that they will not come to God or come back to God ... thereby setting themselves up for the same destiny as Adam & Eve ... out of the Garden!

We know what God is looking for ... He’s looking for us to say those two words ... “I’m sorry.”  So, why not say them to Him every night in a perfect Act of Contrition? And why not say them to Him every month in Confession ... the Sacrament Jesus left us as the reliable channel of God’s mercy.  This is the main reminder of Lent ... to repent and turn back to God. And there’s an urgency to this ... for we don’t know when the day will come … that great & terrible day when God will call us before Him in judgment. This could be our last Lent. So, it’s to our advantage to be in the state of grace every day.

Remember, it’s a big mistake to sin. But the biggest mistake of all is to sin and not tell God you’re sorry! Don’t die in your sins ... that will only bring eternal separation and sadness. Confess your sins and ask for forgiveness ... that will bring you the healing balm of His mercy ... and enable you to live with him forever in the Garden of His Love.