ADAM, WHERE ARE YOU? The question that forms the topic of this reflection was the very question that confronted Adam, mankind’s first parent, after he disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. We know the story so well. Adam, prompted by greed, turned away from his Creator and Sole Provider. By abandoning the path mapped out for him and seeking his own designs, he walked into a mire of problems. Life became dull and drab. When the reality of his condition dawned on him, he became ashamed of himself and went into hiding. He was caught napping when the embarrassing query, where are you? resounded on the horizon. (Read Gen. 3) Does this question apply to all humanity? Let’s take a look at man’s history right from the time of Adam. One of the sober truths about man has been his failure to learn from history. Man commits the same sins and makes the same mistakes. Man is always hunted by his Adamic nature. This is the testimony of experience. History repeats itself. At a point, God disgusted by man’s penchant for sin, regretted that he created man. (Gen. 6) Man is always like Adam, eating the forbidden fruit and disobeying God. Man’s case is more ominous in the modern time. Modern man is worse than Adam. Adam hid himself when he sensed that he had offended God. Today that sense of shame is gone. Man no longer hides his skeletons in a cupboard. Modern man celebrates his nakedness and washes his dirty linens in public. He eats not only the forbidden food. He also drinks the forbidden blood and takes the forbidden life. We are now witnessing indiscriminate killings. There is widespread-armed robbery. Terrorists have multiplied their ranks. The atmosphere stinks with sin as there is a free for all reign of evil. The level of depravity is beyond scale and value. According to Fr. George Ehusani, society has desecrated the tree of love and violated the sanctuary of justice. If sin is pervasive in history, if it continues to assume new shapes and forms, if its stubborn persistence is a tragic reality and if its opposition to the values of the kingdom is constant, then the question that was thrown to Adam is a question for all times. In our day, God is renewing the old question in a new form. The question today is: Has anything taken the place of God in your life? Where are you when measured against the standard of our faith? Are you still on track or have you like Adam become a fugitive from the father’s house? Adam where are you, thus, is a question in search of an answer, an answer that is both individual and honest. It requires a personal answer for, according to Martin Luther King Jnr., each man must do two things alone: his own believing and his own dying. It also demands an honest answer. When the question came to Adam, he did not tell lies. Adam told God that he was covering himself because he was naked. Like Adam, we must be honest with God. We must tell him where we are. We must tell him that we are reveling in sin and swimming in the ocean of iniquity. This honesty is highly important for only the truth shall set us free (Jn. 8:32). Besides, the scripture shows clearly that it is futile to hide (cf. Prov. 28:13). It says that all things, including the ways of man, are naked and open before the Ultimate Judge (cf. Prov. 5:21, Heb. 4:13). The Lord, says Jeremiah, probes the loins and searches the heart to give each person what his conduct deserves (Jer. 17:10). We also read in the book of Proverbs that God’s eyes are everywhere keeping watch over the good and the bad (Prov. 15:3). Adam learned the folly of trying to hide his sin. The same applies to King Solomon’s parents, David and Bathsheba (cf. 2 Sam 11:2-12:25). As these people learned, so we must learn, there is no hiding place before God. While considering these issues, it will help us to ask a more fundamental question. What motivated God to ask the question in the first place? Surely, it was not simply that God was outraged by Adam’s sin and consequently wanted to vent his anger. There was an inner compulsion, a more fundamental reason, for God’s action. God, the bible says, is always thinking about man because he wants to help man with his great power (2 Chr. 16:9; 1 Pt. 5:7). His steadfastness, great and new every morning, never ceases. (cf. Lam. 3:22) This shows that God is a patient father. Because of his patience, he did not turn his back on Adam when he strayed from his house. Rather, he quickly found a way of calling Adam’s attention to his rebellion. Adam where are you, thus, shows a God who is in constant search for man, his creative masterpiece. It is an affirmation of the mercy of the creator who does not take delight in the death of the wicked man. God gave a definitive expression to his seeking love in our Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, who came to seek and save that which was lost. In Christ Jesus, according to St. Paul, God has reconciled fallen humanity to himself, making peace through his suffering at Calvary. Today with the salvific action of Christ, our question has acquired a new significance and a new urgency. Two thousand years after Christ, the reality is that many of us who profess belief in Christ are not really converted. Our selfish preoccupations have build barriers so thick and tall between us and God. Adam where are you is asking us to break the walls and open ourselves to the gospel of Christ. Ultimately, Adam where are you is a divine call to repentance. After all there is little sense in calling a person’s attention to his fault if he should not change. When God repeats the question today, he wants us to redirect our steps and walk with him. He wants us to give up our evil ways and develop new hearts. He wants us to mend our broken past and chart a better future. Adam where are you is, therefore, the question of the Good Shepherd searching for his lost sheep. It is the cry of the First Born looking for his brethren. In short, Adam where are you? is a call to return home, reminding us that to finish the heavenly race we must stay on track. Each of us has to formulate his own answer to it based on his own response to the gospel in his own situation. In the words of Kwame Nkruma, those who are asleep must wake up; those who are awake must walk. And those who are walking must run. Follow Paulinus Ike Ogara on paulinusogara ; Nigeria must survive is available for sale on amazon.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:39:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015