The plot thickened. Why were they even near that tree, which God prohibited them from eating, cautioning that they would die if they did? (See Gen 2:17) The devil waited to bait them only after their curiosity was stirred and they possessed a fascination.

Temptation Trials in the Middle of the Garden, by Margit McCarthy, is inspired by Lou Occhi’s theological reflection on the Two Trees in the Garden of Eden.

Reflecting upon the tragic Fall of Man can nurture essential appreciation for the rugged path of salvation won for us in Christ alone. Here in this great season of post-resurrection glory, paving the gateway for Pentecost, is the perpetual birthing of the Church, that Baptism in the Spirit which only Jesus Christ can grant. The Holy Spirit sanctifies with transforming power, abounding with pure LIFE itself. Why, then, after each liturgical celebration of Pentecost, scores of individual believers and large swatches of the institutional Church seem muted by the mundane?

Nothing is withheld in the Spirit’s immense graces, but such lavish outpouring of Divine Love demands reciprocity from men. Individuals and ecclesial platforms are saddled with distractions and idolatrous obstacles, hindering both human receptivity and cooperative implementation of the graces offered.

The Middle of the Garden can be seen as a metaphor for the inner chamber of each man’s soul, the battleground of temptation. In Eden, there was the tree of life in the center of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:9, NAB)—two trees that signify divergent paths of human freedom to choose. Contemplation on the Genesis account yields questions designed to thrust us toward sober self-examination. It’s not another mythic story exploring the ground-zero moment of how mankind became a fallen creature in need of redemption. It profoundly expresses temporal reality and the ongoing trials of temptation each person faces.

In accumulative daily choices, both the subtle and those more significant, does one trod in the knowledge of good and evil like Adam and Eve? Or are we going to pick up our cross and follow the Way of Life, the trailblazed path by Our Lord Jesus Christ, in unity with the Holy Spirit?

Comparing these two Edenic trees illuminates our first parents’ Fall and our ratification of their poor choices. As St. Paul proclaims, “All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Let us admit that somehow the tree of knowledge of good and evil appeared more attractive than the tree of life!

Jesus warned, “Narrow is the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few” (Mt 7:14). Critical to the action of this narrative is the raw fact that our first parents (Hebrew versions state Adam was with Eve) gravitated close enough to experiential knowledge of good and evil that they could hear the seductive whispers of the Prince of Rebellion. They were tricked by Satan’s arrogant lies in the form of twisted truths. Satan, motivated by envy (Wis 2:24), snared our parents through their misuse of human freedom as he promoted false claims of Life’s supreme good.

The plot thickened. Why were they even near that tree, which God prohibited them from eating, cautioning that they would die if they did? (See Gen 2:17) The devil waited to bait them only after their curiosity was stirred and they possessed a fascination.

Two trees in the middle of the garden, each offering divergent paths of pursuit. Picture both trees bearing one solitary fruit, unlike the rest of the trees in Eden laden with an abundance to eat. Seeking the splendid goods of creation in ways that prioritize self-promotion negates our primary vocation to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mt 22:37-39). Isn’t the core issue of Man’s Fall always a form of self-exaltation? Every sin is a failure to love. Stark contrasts between Eden’s dual central trees known to God and to Satan come into high relief for man’s understanding through the unfolding of Salvation History and in our personal life journeys.

The climactic child in Creation’s grand sequence (Gen 1:26-31), man remains an evolving being who needs time to mature and to learn. Adam and Eve proved that we typically learn best in the school of hard knocks. We too reach for the wrong tree, lured by Satan’s lies and empty promises, until hammered by the horrific consequences of sin, which beckon a corrective straining for the tree of life (repentance and conversion). We too listen to slithery deception, “your eyes will be opened and you shall be like gods” (Gen 3:5).

The tragedy of suffering, sin and death brought into the world through Man’s Fall won for us the greatest display of self-giving love fueled by God’s pursuit of us as His adopted children beloved in Christ: the outpouring of Divine Merciful Compassion (Latin origins of com-passion mean “to suffer together with”) for the sake of man’s redemption and sanctification. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).

Human sin radiates shades of ignorance, but as attributed to St. Ambrose, “Oh happy fault that won for us so great, so glorious, a savior!” The Sending of the Holy Spirit empowers man to conquer our mortal enemies of Temptation, Sin, Death, and Satan. The Holy Spirit carries us forward to Life with the seal of Christ along the adventurous paths and infinite riches of Divine Love.

Approach these great Mysteries of Salvation in Christ with joyful humility, which breaks the shackles of sin and death and transforms us into people who love generously as does Our Lord Jesus. The perpetual birthing of the Church, life in Christ with post-resurrection glory, and the gateway to everlasting Pentecost reveal why we desperately need to receive Jesus both in Holy Communion and seek Life in the Holy Spirit with gratitude and praise. Possession of the Tree of Life is impossible for fallen man apart from unity with God.

Consider an action plan, where you identify obvious distractions and obstacles in your life that keep you from a fuller reception of God’s Holy Spirit. Know that holiness and virtue remain His Great Work in us, for those who daily seek the Tree of Life. Expect great and mighty things to unfold this blessed season of Pentecostal graces in you, for you, and for others through you.

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By MHB-M

“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come” Mark 4:26-34.

The unspoken marvel of farming is that only those who labor in the earth’s crust comprehend how dependent one remains upon factors beyond oneself. The farmer proceeds while not knowing how their work will turn out. Or if they will see any fruits at all.

Clearly, Jesus chose the agrarian imagery to reveal the Christological framework — how all disciples will collaborate with Him.

A man scatters seed, which Jesus pointed out is the “Word of God.” The man sleeps and rises, a nourishing night and a toiling day. He submits to the life-giving process, beginning with the battle of dirt, physically vanquished and totally dependent. The land and seed possess an innate intelligibility, a symbiotic relationship. They are oriented to growth.

Later, a tense and often fraught series of weeks and months rapidly shifts into a stunning, now hurried, production of grain. The farmer, we, the disciples, must be ready in a demanding short window of time for the final harvest.

Jesus’ imagery of the farmer’s process isn’t just an analogy of discipleship. It shows us a complex orchestration of many exercises in chemistry. Growth involves invisible toxins and microorganisms, both attacked and assisted by small creatures and every imaginable weather event.

Could this also refer to the arduous proclamation and labor of discipleship? The longing to experience fruit production sooner rather than later? Aren’t we eager to wield the sickle of an abundant harvest of souls won for God?

A mysterious patience is implied, left to acknowledge that what is seen is not the whole reality of the greatness that is unfolding. We must place matters in His providential timing. Buried with Jesus and trusting His innate intelligibility to work the miracle of life in and through our humble unity with the soil.

We know not how and when and even if, yet worship in awe.

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By MHB-M

He went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed twelve [whom he also named apostles] that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons (Mk 3:14)

Ascending the mountain and summoning, Jesus fashions a scene reminiscent of Moses at Mt Sinai, a theophany moment, a visible manifestation of deity — a holy encounter with the One who summons.

Moses receives the tablets, the law, the seeds to form a holy Israel (The People of God) into twelve tribes. Jesus summons the seeds of a restored Israel for the eschatological gathering of the tribes, also the People of God, with twelve appointed men. The men are seeded with the Spirit of God, the law already written on their hearts.

This moment of Jesus’ summoning disturbs us for its seemingly ordinary and deceptively uneventful gathering.

Unlike Mt Sinai, the appointment of the apostles lacks vivid, cosmic displays. Rocks are not split asunder. There aren’t any lightning bolts, peals of thunder, or smoking fireballs. 

In quiet wonder, the seed germinates through Jesus’ desire that “they might be with him” and that “he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” 

Likewise, each one of us experience holy encounters with the One who summons. Our call is a blossoming of the Holy Spirit from His seeded desire that we “might” be with Him and allow ourselves to also be “sent,” in blessed communion with the appointed Twelve.  

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By MHB-M

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. (Mk 1:45)

Desperation drives the leprous outcast. “If you wish, you can make me clean.”

“Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, ‘I do will it. Be made clean.’” Self-giving love propels the Christ — moved, stretched touched, and spoken.

The leper’s plea doesn’t revolve around Jesus’ abilities. He had seen Jesus, and clearly the Holy One can heal the sick. The core issue of this intimate encounter where a leper kneels to beg, tests the waters of Jesus’ resolve. “If you wish, you can make me clean.”

“If you wish,” raw flesh will be made whole. Pity moved Jesus to reverse the disease through only a touch. An act sealed by divine commitment, “I do will it. Be made clean.”

Immediately. “The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.”

In this instant, the outcast becomes free to enter towns openly. But this is a costly transfer. Jesus now wears the outcast mantle, bound to deserted places.

A new pattern is forged for the one who heals, made an outcast because the freed man has publicized “the whole matter,” spreading the report so broadly that it was “impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.”

The addled arrive laden with dysfunction, addiction and disease, feverish, frantic, and hopeful. Jesus’ resolve grants life in those deserted places.

“I do will it. Be made clean.”

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By MHB-M

About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. He meant to pass them by. (Mk 6:48)

It feels like a slap in the face. Intending to pass by the disciples when they have the wind against them, tossed about, rowing and exhausted?

Jesus’ planned avoidance, as reported by Mark, describes the historical manner of God’s ministry and outreach within a culture hostile to him. Abandonment by the Most High God as we continue to “row” forward, yet held back from moving forward and gaining ground. 

Most of us do not read this line correctly.

God’s goodness “passed by” Moses in Exodus 33: 18-23. Moses needed to see the glory of God in the midst of his strenuous rowing in the seas of Israelite rebellion.

God “passed by” Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-12 when Elijah desired to see God’s face during the storm of Jezebel’s ferocious attempt to have the holy prophet assassinated. 

Neither Moses nor Elijah was granted what they requested. They would have to await Jesus’ Transfiguration on Mt Tabor. As the Lord told Moses, “No one can see my face and live” (Exod 33:20).

Jesus granted the disciples and us what was withheld from Moses and Elijah for their own benefit. Jesus intended to pass by them as well, yet the Holy Spirit compelled Him to enter their boat. Through the fissures of His vulnerable humanity, the rays of God’s glory and goodness shine forth.

Our fears are eased, and our collective rowing continues, regardless of how limited our narrow vision is.

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