We are not of this world, we are in this world. The Lord has a great plan for each and every one of us, and that plan is far greater than any of us can ever imagine, and we must never forget that. In the garden Adam and Eve actually lived in the perfection of what God had planned for their lives. They had glorified bodies. They were strong, and happy. They had infused knowledge about all things. They could create many things with their own hands, they were at peace with all of the animals of their world. Their preoccupation was to explore the gifts of the world that God had given them. They willed the good, desired the truth, and they enjoyed the beautiful.
This was the plan God had for all mankind. But free will led to temptation, temptation led to sin, and sin separated us from God. St Paul says in his epistle, ‘that nothing unclean can enter heaven.’ The full glory of God is a fire that burns away only one thing… sin! Thus the pain of being in the direct presence of God, while in a state of attachment to sin, would be pain so unbearable that we cannot even imagine it. It would be like being burned alive. Thus, Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden of eden by their own actions. But their expulsion and the eventual death was not a punishment per se, but instead a gift from God, a mercy because eternity in this unbearable state of pain would truly be hell.
But God did not abandon us after being expelled into the world, But instead He created a new path for us to walk. This path is the path of redemption. The story of salvation that was completed with Jesus’ great sacrifice on the cross. Our job is to walk that path, to reconcile our sin with God in confession, and then hopefully, at the end of our lives to die in a state of friendship with God. If we do, then after we are purged and purified of all of our final attachment to sin, in purgatory, then, and only then will we be able to enter into the beatific vision and finally take up our place in His kingdom that was lost in the garden because of sin.
If adam and eve had not allowed their concupicense to over-power their joy in the Lord, we would not have to suffer the way we do, and we would be in the garden, right now, with God. But instead, they rejected Him, like we all do in our own way, every day. And so we walk through this crucible in order to find our way back into the garden. We walk this journey because it is only by this path that we come to realize that this world is not the destiny of our souls, and that the world will always let you down. We have to learn to detach ourselves from this world and its lures and temptations. And when we finally realize that an eternity of joy in heaven with God is our true destiny, then that is when the world will begin to hate you. And when we dare to tell others that this destiny awaits them as well, that is when the world will go crazy to stop us.
This is the message that Jesus wants you to know in this reading. We must not let fear keep us from storming the gates of hell and trying to save as many souls as we can from the clutches of evil, and the snares of the world. Jesus told us that ‘the gates of hell will not prevail against His church,’ so we must not be afraid, and we must pray our rosaries, and we must never give up trying to save our brothers and sisters. Gods plan was for every one of His children to be with Him in the garden, like voices singing in unison in church, each one of them has an important role to play in His kingdom and we cannot allow any of them to be lost. Amen.
