{"id":17910,"date":"2015-02-19T22:28:32","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T04:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=17910"},"modified":"2017-04-17T21:58:47","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T01:58:47","slug":"healing-the-wound-of-eden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/healing-the-wound-of-eden\/","title":{"rendered":"Healing the Wound of Eden","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Friday after Ash Wednesday, February 20th, 2015<\/p>\n

Liturgical texts here<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"thewound_Fotor_000.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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THE <\/strong>animal kingdom is essentially content. Birds are content. Fish are content. But the human heart is not. We are restless and unsatisfied, constantly searching for fulfillment in myriad forms. We are in an endless pursuit of pleasure as the world spins its advertisements promising happiness, but delivering only pleasure\u2014fleeting pleasure, as if that were an end in itself. Why then, after buying the lie, do we inevitably continue seeking, searching, hunting for meaning and worth?<\/p>\n

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It is the wound <\/em>of Eden. It is the lingering pain of an ancient broken trust. It is the contusion of lost communion with God and each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways… “Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?” (First reading)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Lord does not see our fasting if it is an end in itself, as if we are adding to a score. Does God really care if you give up chocolate for Lent? Rather, true fasting is the act of turning one’s eyes from the temporal to the eternal. Fasting, rituals, symbols, prayers… all of it is a means to help us turn our hearts to God. Nearly every religion in the world is simply an expression of this innate longing for communion with God (and in truth, a remarkable truth at that, God is longing for us):<\/p>\n

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Prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.<\/span><\/strong> \u2013Catechism of the Catholic Church, <\/em> n. 2560<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And so we are wounded, and we cry out in prayer… but to whom? Jesus Christ is the answer to this wound: By His wounds we are healed. <\/em>[1]<\/sup><\/a>cf. 1 Pet 2:24<\/span><\/span>