10th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Naked and Afraid)
“Where are you?” God asked Adam. To be clear, God is not saying, “I can’t find you”. Instead, it’s a rhetorical question meant for Adam’s benefit. “Adam, now that you have separated yourself from me, that pride has given you this newfound independence, where are you? You were my planet in orbit around me, and now you have left this solar system, drifting into the emptiness of outer space. Adam, you have lost your point of reference and no longer know where you are.”[1]
Adam replied: “I heard you in the garden, but I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.” Believe it or not, that kind of fear is healthy. We might call it filial fear, in contrast to servile fear. Filial fear is the awe and wonder, the respect a trusting child feels for a wise and loving parent. On the other hand, servile fear is the fear of a slave for a cruel and wicked master. When Adam chose to disobey, his relationship to God changed from filial to servile. The loving Father now seemed to Adam to be an angry slave master.[2]
For all the ways we can describe the effects of sin, one way is to describe how it changes our relationship with God from being a source of joy to being a threat, from filial fear to servile fear, from trust to mistrust. To be clear, God didn't change. He is eternal love. What changed is Adam’s view of the Father.[3]
Adam hid himself, because he was naked. One of the ways of understanding this is as spiritual nakedness. God, who created us, sees everything in us, despite our desire to hide and our feeble attempts to do so. “I hid myself”. From the disobedience that distorted Adam’s way of seeing, came also the realization that he had strayed from the Father’s will, followed by shame. It gave way to the impulse to hide from God.
Think about the things we do in secret for fear of others knowing about it. That's different, by the way, than simply wanting to exercise one’s right to privacy. For sure, not everyone is entitled to know everything about your life or mine. But let’s be honest, there are some things that we keep hidden for fear of creating scandal or being embarrassed by our choices. It leads us to lurk in the shadows, isolated and sometimes wallowing in the mud, which is where the devil wants us to be. Let’s also be honest, technology and our devices are a well-spring of temptations that have us hiding in the shroud of secrecy and lurking in the shadows. I've learned in my adult years that if there’s something I fear others knowing about, it tends to be something that deep within, I know it is not truly good for me.
Sin compels us to hide from God, from his light, just as criminals prefer to do their work in the nighttime rather than the day.[4] And although we can't actually stop God's light from shining, we still pretend that our actions have escaped His notice, like a baby who closes their eyes, believing they are invisible to others.
I’m sure I’m not alone in having found myself off-course and eventually wondering: What am I doing? And how do I get back to where I belong? Whatever had seemed so tempting proves, time and time again, only to have separated me from the light and love of my Creator. I invite you to prayerfully consider what has you hiding and functioning in the shadows, what has you displaced and lost.
It is of course, in the New Adam, Jesus, that we become found, as he whispers to us to cast aside our servile fear along with whatever it is that has distorted our identity and our perspective of the goodness the Father has always held out to us. No longer naked, he wants to clothe us in mercy and grace, into his light.
[1] Kreeft, Peter. Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings (Cycle B). Word on Fire. Kindle Edition.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.