I'm Naked and I'm Going To Die!

I thought I would discuss some stories today being Sunday, the first Sunday of Lent. When are we supposed to give it back? I don't know and I don't know who lent it to us either. I get the Gospel (or the Good News) emailed to me everyday. I read that today. Normally, I would just leave it sit there in my inbox and not even look at it. I've got 331 e-mails there in that section unread, by the way. 

     I had been going to Mass every day back about 2 years ago. The Church I was going to had the readings in Spanish "only" several times so I was missing out a lot on the experience until I got the readings e-mailed to me. If you go to Mass every day you will have gotten the entire Bible read to you in three years. So I had gone a total of 18 months every day until my wife had quit her job and was home with me. Then getting up early and heading out of the house for 8am Mass became troublesome.  I'm not sure if I miss the experience.
     Today's readings were Genesis 2:7-9.3:1-7, Romans 5:12-19, Matthew 4:1-11 just in case you have the sudden urge to look them over. Please use the New American Bible which is the Catholic version to avoid any confusion.
     There is two very separate and distinct stories involved. The first that comes up is the garden of Eden story. Now, the gist of the story is a theme I like to call original sin. Basically the belief that we know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil and will die as a result of knowing. Yet not knowing things can kill you. This creates a paradox. It isn't really thinking we know the difference between good and evil that is deadly dangerous as attempting to control the two.
      Last year around this time I watched my Dad die. It is really something to see as strong a spirit as his is pass into the next world. He was also very strong physically. His death was not pretty or graceful in any way.  It sort of tore at me to watch as all we knew scientifically got reduced to mere voodoo. Nothing could help. The atrophy that occurs as a result of three solid years of living with emphysema had ravaged his body beyond anything the team of doctors could fix.  Although he was not in the waiting room with us I felt I could tell when he was gone and not coming back.
      Now humans are hard wired for survival. If someone or something tries to kill you, you will do whatever it takes to stay alive longer.  Instinct takes over, we cannot control it. Even though most of us understand and accept that we are all going to die. But that isn't by any stretch of the imagination the original sin mentioned in the letter to the Romans. That is where the second story comes in. What specifically is the original sin? Here let me quote the letter to the Romans,"For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous."Through our savior we've been released.
     The second story is about Jesus fasting in the desert for forty days, the very thing we are kind of emulating during Lent. It is a term of reflecting upon who we are and our significance in the whole scheme of things. Take special note of the dynamics of the three questions posed to Jesus and His responses. These are the release that gives us our freedom as believers to believe. Even though common sense should dictate that there is no archaeological proof that either one of these events ever happened. Jesus' final response forced the Devil to give it up and leave. Who does it serve to have to prove these things? Attempting to prove the challenges given up here in this story is the original sin we are all born with and the original sin Jesus relieves us of. Give up all control to Love.
     Here is an example of people who are reverting back to original sin. The control issue per Se.There is going to be people saying it, I know, just wait for it and you'll see. You'll hear,"The Japanese are not Christians so God is punishing them." An alarm should go off in your head and you'll remember this article. Remember me saying they are trying to control God. Any Christian who would say that is not allowing God to control them.  Any Christian who would say my Dad deserved to suffer so and die because he smoked is also not allowing God to control them. We all die and only God knows why.