We Can Choose to Reject God

Deacon Michael looks at what happened in the Garden of Eden, and sees what is meant by Man being made in the image and likeness of God.

We the ability to think. We have free will to make choices. But unlike God we make mistakes.

Scripture days that because of the choice of Adam and Eve “creation was made subject to futility.” There was no real hope for anyone. No one could enter Heaven. Things had to change.

Deacon Michael shows us that Jesus reversed the condemnation of Eden through His cross, and replaced it will our ability to choose our own eternal destiny.

written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael

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One of the truly fascinating things to me about creation, the creation of man, is that men think. We are made in the image of God and incumbent on that is thinking.

There is a movie, that really wasn't a very good movie, called, "Short Circuit", years ago, about a little robot. And the little robot comes to life and he wants input. That reminds me of small children, but it is the same thing.

We could put a box right out there and say, "Inside that box... you can open it up and look at it…" And all of us would be going, "I wonder what's inside that box?" And when we got into the box we would go, "Ooo, I wonder how that works. I wonder this. I wonder that."

And we are always questing for knowledge. And we see this corollary to this is, Adam's got it made. He really does. You think about it. He is in the garden of Eden, with God, and God says, "Adam, you can stay here forever. It doesn't get any better than this, but..."

Now Adam isn't real bright. You have to understand. Eve, she's smart. She listens to the devil in the form of a snake and she does stupid things, but she's actually thought about it. Adam, he's the one that God made first. God says, "Don't do it Adam!" Eve comes along and says, "Adam, let's do it!"

That's the nature of being human. We are made in the image of God. He doesn't just simply go, "Pffft! You know everything." We have to quest for knowledge. We have to look to come to a greater understanding.

Christianity, Catholicism specifically, is very much of a thinking religion. And Jesus recognizes this fact very clearly when he says, "Evil does not come from outside." Unlike whoever that comedian [Flip Wilson] was, who was always blaming the Devil for this or that, that's not the way it works.

When we do the prayer to St. Michael, we're not saying that the devil is making us do everything, he is giving us the incentive to decide on our own to do something that is evil. It comes from within.

And what Jesus tells us is, "Guys… I relate to men more… guys, stop it! Use your ability to think, to understand that I am telling you the truth. And that when you, in your mind, say, "Well, I can think and, you know... Let's see, it would be nice to have a little more money. Actually it would be nice to have a whole lot more money… And, nah, I don't really like, I don't really like Robert. In fact, I hope something bad happens to Robert. He wasn't nice to me... Oh!, I'm good! You guys are bad. I'm better than you. I am arrogant!"

All of these things that are pernicious, that bring us to sin, do not come from outside. They come from within us. And they come from the fact that we are made in the image of God that gives us not only the ability to think but He gives us the freedom to think and to exercise our own judgement, failure as we are when we do it, our own judgement to determine how we act.

Yet, and here is the key, this is one of the things that Jesus brings to us. He comes to us, wholly human and wholly divine, and what does he say? All these things that are coming to defile you come from within. They come from the fact that you are a child of God and I love you so much that God gave Me to you to die on the cross. But I recognize your humanity and your ability to think and the wanting to have knowledge. And I am going to give you the answer to stop doing this! And the answer is not, "That's it. You're perfect now, Jeff." The answer is: I am going to give you these two commandments and if you think about them, acting in your image of God, and exercising your free will, you will be able to accomplish what Adam did not accomplish. You will find yourself in heaven if you follow the commandments of loving God and loving neighbor.

But notice that it goes to the very nature of being human. This is where we find our salvation. Because, as Jesus says, it is in the very nature of our humanity that we find the ability to sin. And it is in that exact nature that Jesus in his humanity has given us the ability to avoid sin and to work through him and his sacrifice on the cross to prepare us to spend all eternity in Heaven, not at any point denying our humanness, our humanity, in the form of being made in the image of God and having the ability to think and to exercise free will.

Jesus says, "Look what happened to Adam. He thought. He exercised his free will and he was kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Look at all your history of Judaism, Israel. They think, they understand, they have the information and they exercise their free will and they sin. Now here is a gift. I want you to understand. I want you to think. And I want you to exercise your free will so you can spend all eternity with me in Heaven."

That is as wonder of our faith. That is a wonder of what we are given by the holy Catholic Church of the means to bring ourselves to salvation through the crucifixion, the death on the cross of Christ, and the sacraments, and priests, and everything about the holy Catholic Church. It gives us the ability to exercise our humanity in the form of the image of God and our humanity of exercising our free will.

February 13, 2019