We are living in a world today where there is a great irony. We seek freedom, but we end up becoming a slave to this world, to ourselves and to the devil. Why? Because many seek freedom without depending on God. We seek full autonomy in the name of human rights, often at the expense of the common good.
There is no freedom without limits. We are free insofar as God gives us the freedom. There is no freedom without God. Our dependence on Him gives us the capacity to exercise our freedom wisely. When we seek freedom apart from God, giving in to the temptations of the world, we lose sight of our identity as children of God our Father.
The story of Adam and Eve precisely tells us how God has granted us this privilege of exercising our freed without denying our dependence on Him. The first reading reminds us of the fragility of the human condition. We are made of dust of the ground, the very stuff that represents death and decay (Gen. 3:19). We were reminded of this when ashes were used to sign us on Ash Wednesday, implying that the human creatures return to dust because it was from dust that we came. The reading confronts us with both our mortality and our sinfulness. At the beginning of Lent, we are invited to acknowledge our fundamental human weakness.
We need to learn to be like Jesus, always seeking to do our Father’s will, and to deepen and strengthen our faith through the reading and praying of the Holy Scriptures, so as to guard against the temptation that come our way.
At the beginning of Lent, we are invited to let God find us where we are. He has the same question to ask each of us: “Where are you?” During this Lent we can make time to look where we are in our lives and discover God’s presence anew. Let the word of God find us so that we can emerge from our hiding places into the peace of His presence.
Fr. Alex Osei
SSC-USA Spiritual Director