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There is no earthly reward to be claimed for following Christ in this world. Our reward if you want to think of it this way lies in the future for us, an eternity of service and praise. The Lord showers many blessings upon us as we travel through time to our destination. But these are  small compared to that which awaits us in the day of joyful union. During our sojourn on this earth the Lord will provide us with what we need for our journey. Even down to a loaf of bread he will care for us as any loving Father cares for his children. Living in our state of disobedience He still cares for us, in giving us freedom we are free to make a mess of things, yet He is always ready to comfort and care for us as soon as we turn to Him.

I heard a very gentle explanation of original sin in a homily given by a newly ordained Priest. Let me share it with you.

Don’t touch the stove the parent commands a child it is hot you will burn yourself. It will hurt. If you are a parent you will be well aware that despite all these warnings nine times out of ten the child will disobey and pay no heed to such admonitions. The little hand goes out to see what happens, to touch what is so fascinating. Pain follows and loud wails fill the kitchen. What does the kindly loving Father or Mother do. They immediately run to care for the infant, running the hot burning hand under cold water and dealing with the consequences of the disobedience no matter how severe. So God deals with us in our dumbness and idiocy as we stumble through life. The rules He has given us are designed to bring us good things in life and to keep us safe. It is only when we abuse such rules as individuals or as a society do we come to real harm.

The disobedient child in the kitchen is as valid a way of reading the story of Adam and Eve as any other. Consequences follow but a loving God gives a pathway to comfort as well.

We can often fall into the sin of pride in our adult thinking as though we, mere specks of dust in a vast universe, can truly question God. Many try  to place their intellect on par with the mind of God as they proclaim His existence, non existence or try to tell us what He thinks or wants. I am often dismayed by their actions by their failure to grasp anything beyond themselves and their limited understanding, limitations they fail to see or acknowledge. They remind me of the child warned not to touch the hot surface who nevertheless goes ahead convinced in his limited understanding that all will be well.

I look around at our hedonistic materialism and consumerism indeed our whole post Christian way of life and I want to cry. For me it is a rending of garments. I weep for those who blindly continue on the road to nowhere. Jesus looked at his generation and in particular at the jewel of Jerusalem and wept for He would have gathered them all to his bosom, wrapped them in his love if they would have let him. He was filled with sadness.

We may feel a similar sadness about those around us and our society and our world and we may condemn it all as foolishness and self destructive, but never ever forget we may rail against the sin but never the sinner. We are all sinners. To stick with the imagery of the child in the kitchen we have permission as it were to despair at the inevitability of disobedience and the touching of the hot surface but we are never to direct that at the child who will soon burst into tears and need all of our love and compassion.