Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 9, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060924.cfm

After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,
the LORD God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself.”
Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then,
from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”
The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—
she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”
The LORD God then asked the woman,
“Why did you do such a thing?”
The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”
Genesis 3: 9-12

In the Creation story, we are invited to find ourselves in the excuses of Adam and Eve. They choose, but do not immediately accept responsibility for their choices. They hide in their personal reinterpretations of what happened.

But God wants to find them, release them, from hiding in their “coverups” by asking, “Where are you?” —

• the you I created
• the you I love
• the you I invite to eternal relationship

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We listen to God’s question, “Where are you?”. We open to Mercy any place where we may be hiding from God’s invitation to fullness of life.

Poetry: from Paradise Lost by John Milton

In this small snippet from the very long poem, the poet invokes the “Heavenly Muse” to instruct him about the Fall of Adam and Eve.

Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view
Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause
Mov'd our Grand Parents in that happy State,
Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off
From thir Creator, and transgress his Will
For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?
Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt?
Th' infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile
Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv'd
The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride
Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He trusted to have equal'd the most High,
If he oppos'd; and with ambitious aim
Against the Throne and Monarchy of God
Rais'd impious War in Heav'n and Battel proud
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th' Ethereal Skie
With hideous ruine and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
Who durst defie th' Omnipotent to Arms.

Music: Adam and Eve Duet from The Creation by Joseph Haydn

This Adagio tells of the couple’s early bliss before their fall and attempt to hide from the Creator.

By thee with bliss, O bounteous Lord,
the heav’n and earth are stor’d.
This world, so great, so wonderful,
thy mighty hand has fram’d.