It Didn’t Take Long to Fall

Today is only the fifth day of Great Lent, and I for one have already fallen short. I didn’t say all the prayers I wanted to say. I didn’t fast quite like I planned to fast. I failed to pick up the Holy Scriptures like I wanted to this week. Well….that didn’t take long, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Sin has been a long-term problem with humanity, and today’s reading from Genesis reminds us just how ancient our struggle is.

Today’s reading from Genesis (you can read the entire passage below) quickly reminds us that the battle against sin has been a burden for humanity from the very beginning. I even found myself, when it came to the fast, using similar logic to convince myself it was ok to eat what I had already committed to not eating just moments earlier.

As I eluded to yesterday, I personally need the fast. If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that I struggle with overeating as one of my passions. For years I have ridden the weight rollercoaster only to continually find myself starting over again. Great Lent, for me, is the incentive to kickstart again my journey down the rollercoaster. I pray this will be the year the rides finally comes to an end, but already I found myself falling short.

Of course it isn’t that eating is a sin. Eating nourishes our bodies, and fasting should NEVER cause us physical illness. That being said, as I mentioned yesterday, there is a special union between our body and soul that fasting assists to heal. One way to look at it, is to consider the struggle of Eve. Eating caused her to sin, not because the fruit was rotten, but because God has commanded her not to eat the fruit of that particular tree. She didn’t know why. She didn’t have to know why. She only needed to trust that God knew what He was doing.

During Great Lent, we fast, not because eating food is sinful, but so that we can learn to trust the Church to know what she is doing in our spiritual journey. Our Lord Jesus Christ promised that the Holy Spirit would guide the Church “into all truth” and He has never broken His promises. When we willingly follow the fast of the Church, we begin to heal the wound between our body and soul. The wound that began when we used our free will to disobey God, begins to heal when we use our free will to obey God and His Church. It doesn’t heal overnight, as I can personally attest to, but it does heal. Each year by the grace of God, I make more progress than the previous year.

As the first week of Great Lent comes to an end, I pray you were stronger than I was, but in the event you were not as strong as you had hoped. Don’t fear. Don’t panic. Don’t overreact. There are still five more weeks until Holy Week, to get it right. Remember, Great Lent is a journey. Good strength!

The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 2.20-3.20