The biggest and most serious challenge for Judeo-Christian religion does not come from without. On the opposite, it comes from within. Under many persecutions, the Church rapidly spread and grew and significantly matured. In contrast, with the freedom of religion, many members of the Church turned tepid and lukewarm in faith and even abused their faith for selfish quests and interests.

Western countries used to be called Christendom. But these Christian nations spearheaded all anti-biblical and anti-Christian legislation in the world. Did it happen because small groups of anti-religious leaders took power and control? I think it happened because we baptized Christians fell short of the authentic Christian faith. Still, more than half of the population of this country identifies themselves as Christians. But this Christian majority keeps silent every time their lawmakers and governments legislate laws and policies against Christ’s teaching. Are they silent because of government oppression? First, today’s Christians do not know their faith enough. How many adult Catholics know their faith better than Confirmation-class children? Second, many secular philosophies and ideologies have confused Christians. And these ideas take a deep root in the minds and hearts of many Christians through mass media and social media. Anyone, who reads, watches, and listens to these media without an open and critical mind, subscribes to these ideas and grows hatred against Christ, his Church, and his teaching. Third, as a result of negligence and malformed conscience, Christians believe and behave worse than non-believers. Furthermore, many Christians think now they can and should change the Christian doctrines and morals.

The voice and message of the prophet Isaiah are not for Israel of the past only. His message for the return to faithfulness to God’s commandment should resound in our ears today. Our Lenten observances are helpful for our spiritual growth. However, if we are not faithful to Christ Jesus, abstinence and fast will not nourish our souls. We want to know the groom first and well. Only then, our wedding gifts will be meaningful.

Penance, abstinence, fast, almsgiving, self-denial, obedience, detachment, offering, sacrifice, and so on.

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

Why do we do all those? Why does Jesus ask us to bear our daily cross?

Do we practice all those because we are good people? Or do we take up our daily cross because we want to develop our better selves? Or just because we are Catholic?

Our faith has a specific goal and purpose. We do not practice faith and sacrifice because we are better people than others or because our faith is a custom and heritage. We walk the narrow path to enter eternal life with Christ Jesus. “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.”

Do we think about this life eternal every day? Do we renew our vision of this eternal happiness with Christ Jesus every day? Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily and follow him. Jesus does not want to distress us every day with pain and suffering. What he wants is to clear our vision of eternal happiness daily. Jesus wants our daily cross to feel easier and lighter. That is what he means by “My yoke is easy and my burden, light.”

Too often, we go to bed with all sorts of worldly cares and worries. That is why we feel our life is burdensome. Even if we pray, fast, give alms, unless we have a clear vision of our goal, our faith journey gets easily lost. How often do I meditate on heaven and eternal life with Jesus? Only those who see their destinations arrive at them.

In the middle of the pandemic, we experience uncertainties. We ask many questions but do not receive satisfactory answers. When will I get vaccinated? Will the vaccines be effective? When will this partial shut-down end? When can we freely travel? Will our life ever become like before after the pandemic? And so on.

Even under the pandemic, life goes on. Babies are born. Children grow. Couples get married. And the Elderly pass away. Shut-downs and lockdowns may freeze the economy but cannot stop life.

And here Lent comes again.

Lent reminds us of a much more important question. It is about life. The question asks not only about this life but also the life to come after this life.

‘Am I prepared to die and be raised with Christ Jesus?’

Practices of penance and reconciliation in this Lent will be in vain if we do not try to answer this question. Even if we find answers to all our questions regarding the pandemic, we will have wasted our time, unless we have worked on this question. Successful survival from this pandemic does not open the door to heaven. The purpose of our life does not lie in survival. Life is already lost unless it is heading toward life eternal.

Do death, judgment, heaven and hell sound remote and unreal? If they sound unfamiliar or irrelevant to us, we are likely not to be on the Way of Christ. Even if we pray, fast, and give alms, our faith is superficial and unsubstantial, unless we are constantly alert of those four things.

Let us awaken our spirits. It is time to be with Jesus.

“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.” It is what Jesus mentioned of Noah and his ark in the gospel of Matthew.

Most understand the coming of the Son of man as the day of judgment at the end of the world. However, we often forget we are already living with the presence of the Son of Man. In a sense, the last stage of the world has begun with the first coming of the Son of Man on earth because he promised his disciples that he would be with them until the end of time. By the sacrament of the Eucharist, we are still with him on earth. But what about judgment and condemnation? Are they on hold? Once again as Jesus said, those who do not believe in the Son of Man are already condemned. Then, those who believe in the Son of Man have already been saved? Not yet. God receives souls into heaven only when they become like children – completely trusting God and obedient to him with humility and purity. Have I reached that humility, purity, and faith? Not yet. It is God’s mercy that allows me to perfect myself in virtues on earth before death. And it is also God’s mercy if I must spend time in purgatory after death because I still have hope then.

However, we are very slow in understanding Jesus and his goodness. Instead, we are distracted by all kinds of worldly concerns and interests. In today’s gospel, Jesus laments over his disciples’ slowness in understanding and faith. Even after the miraculous feeding of thousands, the disciples were again worried because they did not have enough bread. Even living with the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist, many Catholic people worry about the same things the world does. 

I wish not our Lord finds us occupied with worldly concerns when he comes again. What are we doing? Where are we heading? Lent is near at hand. Are we prepared?

Often, I am surprised at the realism of the Bible. As we read the Book of Genesis, we might think the creation stories, the fall of Adam and Eve, the fratricide of Cain and Abel, and so on are anything but real stories. They are certainly not historical or scientific accounts of the origins of the universe and man. However, these stories expose theological and philosophical truths of the universe and man.

As for the fall of Adam and Eve, some may question how taking the fruit of a tree can be sinful. Just because God forbade it? Is not this too arbitrary? Nobody got hurt. How can we call it sinful? To answer these questions, we should examine why Adam and Eve took and ate the fruit. They wanted to be like God. They wanted to own the knowledge of good and evil as God did. They wanted to act as they wish, even against the order of creation and God’s commandment. This reveals the essence of sin: to do whatever I want disregarding God’s will and ignoring the order of creation. Sin is essentially against God. Some might think a man alone on an island could not sin because all his acts could not affect anyone. It is not true. Even when we are alone, we are to respect and follow the order of creation and the purposes of creation. If I would destroy lives or abuse myself for pleasure, even if I were the only human being in the whole world, I would still sin against God. Sin is not a situational by-product. Nor is it essentially social or structural. It comes within man’s heart as Jesus taught, “Nothing that enters man defiles him, but what comes out of man’s heart defiles.” Every time we commit sins, we first take the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, saying to ourselves, ‘I want to be like God. I want to do what I want. I can ignore what God commands. But I will not die.’ Is not this happening to every sinner? Is not this truly real?

Regarding the story of Cain and Abel, some may raise the question of why God did not accept the sacrifices of Cain. It seems God was partial to Abel. Some might even think God’s favouritism indirectly caused the fratricide. To answer this question, we should examine the meaning of the sacrifices Cain and Able offered. God did not ask for sacrifices. Somehow, the two brothers offered sacrifices from what they laboured on. It shows that man already had a sense of duty to offer thanksgiving to God even before an established religion prescribed it. Those sacrifices were man’s expression of his thanks to God. In other words, the man was offering his thankful heart to God with burnt offerings. Now, what God did not accept from Cain was his greedy heart because God saw Cain’s inner heart. I do not think Cain offered something defective or worthless. While offering his harvest, Cain was not happy because he loved his possessions more than God. That was why God, who sees man’s heart, rejected his offerings. His act of offering sacrifices was, then, hypocrisy.

We might have an impression that God was responsible for the fratricide because of his favouritism. Not at all. Before committing the murder, Cain sinned against God first. When God reminded him of his sinfulness, Cain did not repent. Instead, he became sad that God accepted his brother Abel. Cain became envious – spiritual sadness about other’s good. Then, he murdered his brother.

Who commits sins? Those who are not happy with God commits sins. Or those who are sincerely happy with God does not sin. Those, who are not content with what God gives, look for other consolations and pleasures – fame, money, power, sex, speed, drugs, and the like. Is not this real?

These stories of the Bible might sound unsophisticated. But their profundity is not easy to measure. They always surprise me with an unfathomable depth of truth.

There were many lepers in Israel at the time of Jesus. But Jesus did not heal all of them. Why not? Jesus healed only those who approached him. Because the Jews separated and segregated lepers and greatly feared them for infection, lepers had to go to Jesus by themselves. We can find many episodes in the gospel where people brought the sick to Jesus. On the other hand, there is no passage saying that people brought lepers to Jesus.

However, when lepers came to Jesus, he did not hesitate to heal them. Moreover, strikingly, he stretched out his hand and even touched them. The Jews separated lepers from their communities, but Jesus was not even afraid to touch them.

It was not easy for lepers to leave their places because they were so ashamed of themselves. The Jews considered leprosy as a curse due to sin. The disease seriously threatened life. But not only that, the deformed and mutilated body caused extreme abhorrence and shame. When the leper in this Sunday’s gospel left his place to see Jesus, he must have taken so much courage.

Sins deform our soul and spirit. Sins sometimes disfigure even our bodies, particularly, our faces. However, it is usually not easy to detect and perceive the horrible deformation by sin. Essentially, sins are lies. And these lies also cover up the self-damages on the perpetrators. Most often, sinners do not notice the harm they bring about to themselves.

Moreover, the world has been preaching the innocence of all people – nobody is wrong, and everybody is right. Under the guise of liberation and rights, the world declares vices as virtues. It calls murder merciful. It praises perversion as a right.

In the early Church, there was a practice of public penance. Church communities ordered those who committed grave sins to carry out their penance visible to other members. And these penitents were separated during the worship and not allowed for Communion until they finish a period of penitence.

We do not practise public penance anymore as in the early Church. In our times, instead, Satan organizes his order of sinners. Of course, he does not call it an order of penitents. On the opposite, he desensitizes people’s conscience and assures them of entry to heaven. He constantly tells us the same words the snake whispered to Eve: “You will not die.” ‘There is nothing seriously sinful. And God is infinitely merciful.’ As a result, we see a much smaller number of people in the confessional.

This time, we also need lots of courage to approach Jesus to be healed of our soul and spirit. Unless we fight the world and reject false prophets, we will remain in the company of sinners. And it takes a long time and much effort to recover a desensitized heart.

Nevertheless, let us not forget this: when we approach Jesus, he does not hesitate to stretch out his hand and touch our deformed souls.

After the man and the woman committed the first transgression at the snake’s trick, they did not die right away. Instead, God imposes punishments on each of them. Life was no longer pleasant. Life is full of pains, sufferings, and struggles for survival. Now, some contemporary people may wonder: Why did God punish them with life? Did he not have an easier option? Why did he not take their lives with death? Indeed, in our country Canada, we made euthanasia a legal right. And we try to expand it so that more people can choose death with ease. As we practise euthanasia, God did not have to cause violent deaths for the first man and woman. He could have simply taken their breath so that they did not have to suffer at all. Did he enjoy watching his creation suffering in pain?

For some people, pleasure and pain are the standards of life. Therefore, a life full of pain, or a life expecting lots of pain, is not worth living for them.

On the other hand, God wanted to restore the goodness of creation. His punishments were medicinal, not vindictive. Sins deserve death immediately. But God is merciful to us that he allows us to continue living. Struggles and pains remind us of our sinfulness. Although we live a life of suffering, we still live a life of opportunities to enter heaven, the restored creation. Therefore, life is a merciful blessing of the Lord, not a vengeful curse.

Criminal psychologists say criminals do not expect themselves to be caught. Not only that, but they also believe that they can get away from police search and investigation. Indeed, some criminal cases are left unsolved.

When a man commits immorality, he does not expect painful consequences, either. Even when he knowingly violates moral norms, he believes that he will not be accountable for his perpetration. Indeed, we see many immoral people live unpunished.

When the snake tempted the woman of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he said, “You will not die.” Indeed, she or her husband did not die right away. It seems they lived a long life after God drove them out of Eden.

Nevertheless, the Book of Genesis tells us the irreversible consequences of the trespass. The sin broke the trustful relationship between the man and the woman. Sin dominated relationships now among men. They could not stand before each other naked. They had to defend themselves from each other.

Moreover, man cannot stand before God, either. He became fearful of God. Why? It is because his conscience is no longer clear. His hands are not clean, and his heart is not pure. He does not remain in God’s grace anymore. Sin also shattered man’s relationship with God. And, unfortunately, man does not have any way to restore the relationship by his power.

Would you say the snake was telling the truth because the man and the woman did not immediately die when they trespassed God’s commandment?

When our relationships turn into doubt, suspicion, grudge, bitterness, or hatred, we feel worse than having no relationships. By sin, we deform our relationships into unbearable tortures. It is not a metaphor. Sins change our relationships into a living hell.

Now, cast out from God’s grace, the man walks in the darkness of sin. He is no longer happy as God intended at his creation. He must live with permanent confusion in his mind and heart. He is dead before God.

I wonder whether mankind has experienced distrust between the two sexes as much as our generation goes through now. There has always been a certain degree of mistrust and suspicion between man and woman. In the previous generations, this suspicion was a part of practical wisdom from experiences. On the other hand, this generation now learns distrust and hatred against the opposite sexes from mass media, social media, and higher educational institutions. It seems that this distrust, suspicion, and hatred are promoted in an orchestrated fashion.

The Book of Genesis surprises us with a story of the creation of man and woman. It tells us that the first man and woman were both naked but were not ashamed. Men and women of the 21st century cannot think of this ‘being naked but not ashamed’, for they see each other as opponents and enemies. However, the Bible teaches that God created man and woman in a relationship of trust.

When the man woke up from his deep sleep and found the woman, he exclaimed, “This is, at last, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” This cry implies that God created man and woman with the same nature and destined them to unite to each other in body and spirit. Since man and woman belong to each other in body and spirit, fundamental trust and love exist between them. That is how God created man and woman and destined them to relate to each other.

What we witness in our world is not normal. It is a twisted reality by our sinfulness. And we cannot overlook this reality because the loving relationship between man and woman is one primal purpose of creation. Left untreated this wounded relationship will torture man and woman to a most unbearable degree. Without the health of this fundamental relationship, our civilization, our world cannot stand upright.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What is this tree? Even many non-Christians have heard about this tree. Did God forbid the man from its fruit because it was poisonous? Then, why did God expose such evil in his paradise? Why did God allow such a danger to exist among his creation? We may continue asking.

But my question is this. Why did God call the tree by that name? A tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

Have you ever regretted? If you have lived a life without any regret, I sincerely admire you. I have many regrets about what I have done. When I have a regret, I now know what is good and what is evil. I now know what I should have chosen and what I should have avoided. But I chose what was evil and what I should have avoided. At the time of my choice, I did not perfectly know what it would be like if I chose what was evil. But it will be a lie if I say I did not know any warning.

We can not regret when we did not have any warning. There is a man with a burn scar. When he was very young, he tipped over a boiling kettle. The baby did not know any warning. It just happened to him. Of course, he is not happy with his scar but does not regret it because he was not responsible for his action. It is his parents who regret it. His parents knew the danger of a boiling kettle and could have prevented the accident.

Although we warn people of the danger of street drugs, some people still choose them. And they regret it later when they know the harm that they have done to themselves. When we know good and evil, most often, it is when we already regret it.

Even in the paradise at the time of creation, man had a limit. And God did not leave him without wisdom. Next to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God planted the tree of life. The fruit of this tree was not a chemical medication that could extend the man’s biological life. It was wisdom with which the man did not have to live the life of regret. With the wisdom of God, man does not have to suffer evil. But when he wants to know what it is like to be beyond his limit of freedom, he suffers and dies.