The first reading from Genesis makes me think about freedom. We all like to be free to do what we want, but with freedom comes responsibility.  I like to drive but with a driver’s license comes the right to drive within certain guidelines. There are speed limits, rules of the road, stop signs, stop lights, roundabouts and right of ways that we need to know and obey.  When we drive too fast we can be stopped and get a ticket for speeding and have a fine to pay.  We have to be alert to situations where another driver may be distracted and fail to stop. Through no fault of our own we can be hit by another driver or even a deer or another creature. We may find it very important to have insurance. If we are not obeying the rules of the road, we will have our driver’s license taken away and be forbidden to drive. We then lose our freedom and have to depend on our two feet, a bicycle, a friend to give us a ride or public transportation, taxi or Uber.
Some people lose their freedom by becoming addicted to substances like vaping, cigarettes, alcohol or other drugs. The list goes on but the idea is to be free to live without being a slave to an addiction.
Adam and Eve were given a wonderful life in the Garden of Eden with one commandment – not to eat of the tree of good and evil. We know that they fell to the temptation and as a result they realized their nakedness and tried to hide from God.
Peter Kreeft writes: “The story in Genesis uses the image of bodily nakedness for two reasons. First, it’s a physical image for our spiritual nakedness, for the fact that God sees everything in us, and when that ‘everything’ includes sin, we no longer enjoy his look.  The second reason the story uses the image of nakedness is literal. Adam and Even needed no clothes to hide themselves from each other because they saw each other with the eyes of pure love, not selfish lust. The difference between lust and love is the difference between wanting to get and wanting to give. The three great historical facts are that God created mankind good,  that we became evil by our own sinful choice and that God saved us from our own sin by sending his Son to die for us. That is not symbolic. That is the literal, historical fact.”
It seems that we all need God’s forgiveness and we are blessed with the Sacrament of Reconciliation when we are contrite and confess our sins. 
Jesus says “all sins and blasphemes that people utter will be forgiven them.  But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.”
What is this everlasting sin? It’s all who interpret God’s action through Jesus as a manifestation of evil. Later Christian generations view this sin as a refusal to accept God’s mercy and forgiveness.  That is how I usually thought of this sin because I know that God doesn’t want to lose any of us and wants all to be saved but we are given the choice and we can choose what is wrong and evil.
When Jesus comes home to Nazareth with his disciples, a crowd gathers so they cannot even eat. His relatives think that Jesus is out of his mind but I am sure Mary, his mother, was not of that thinking. His relatives did not know what to make of Jesus’ newfound popularity and his ability to cast out demons and bring healing to people. Since some of the leaders of the Scribes and Pharisees were out to get Jesus, I am sure his relatives thought they would be implicated and wanted Jesus to be that quiet carpenter they knew in the past.
The second letter of Paul to the Corinthians gives us hope as Paul says we have the same spirit of faith. We, too, believe and speak knowing that God who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us in His presence. That is a comforting thought as I reflect on my relatives and friends who have died.
Paul goes on to point out that in sickness and/or aging we are not to be discouraged because as our body is wasting away our inner self is being renewed. When our earthly body, a tent, should be destroyed, we have a building from God, eternal in Heaven.  Alleluia!
Three questions for you to take home and share: How do you discern the will of God in your own life? How do you respond to God’s calling? How can you more fully embrace others in the church as your brothers and sisters in Christ?