Which Adam will you be? (Sunday homily)

 What Jesus asks in this Gospel seems impossible.

And, at a certain level, it IS impossible.

The wrong someone causes you can be devastating.

Blackening your good name.

Betraying trust.

Damaging your relationships with others.

Causing you to lose your job.

The other day I saw a story about a man 

released from prison after many years. 

He’d been convicted of murder, 

but eventually the truth came out that his brother had done it. 

Imagine that: your own brother lets that happen to you.

You and I can also be in situations – like David’s in the first reading – 

where the right thing to do seems utterly inexplicable to everyone. 

As his right-hand man said, 

“God has delivered your enemy into your grasp!”

But what David understood was that 

this wasn’t primarily his fight, but God’s. 

The King was the Lord’s anointed; David left Saul to God.

How could David do this? The people around him, following him, 

not only found it confusing; they may have found it threatening, 

because their lives were in danger from Saul as well. 

So, I reiterate what I just said: at a certain level, this is impossible. 

How do you and I find the grace to do this?

Here’s where the second reading fits in.

This ability to forgive, this calm in the midst of a storm – 

both from your enemies, but also from your friends who are baffled –

Can only come from the Lord.

When Paul talks about two Adams, 

he means Adam at the beginning of the human race, 

and the second Adam is Jesus.

What he’s also saying to the Corinthians is:

Which Adam will you be?

The one who said, I don’t know if God is there or not. I’m on my own.

Or the one who said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

When you and I become a Christian, when we live as Christians, 

it means choosing that second Adam.

And when it seems especially difficult, 

ask yourself whether you’re acting more out of that first Adam 

point of view: I’m on my own.

If David had thought that way, he’d have killed King Saul.

This last week I was on retreat, 

and we were looking at the life and teachings 

of St. John Henry Newman.

Newman made a point about faith:

That, contrary to how people describe it, faith is NOT blind.

There can be times of darkness, but it’s not about being blind.

Rather, what faith does is enable you and me to see more fully.

If I take off my glasses, everything is fuzzier, 

especially way back there!

I put my glasses back on, and the weakness of my vision is corrected. Things are now clear. 

That’s what faith does.

One way to deal with people who have harmed you, and are harming you, 

is to follow David’s example.

David was not passive when King Saul was unjust and threatened him. 

David acted to protect himself and to escape danger.

Yet at a certain point he said, Saul is God’s problem.

So, whoever that is in your life, acting like Saul to you,

you can protect yourself and others.

But, if you have a chance to strike out, but maybe you don’t have to?

That’s what Jesus means by saying, “turn the other cheek.”

This person, this situation, is God’s problem. God’s battle.

Look at David’s life. 

He wasn’t off somewhere, away from the action – 

he was in the thick of battle, 

he’s living off the land, he’s on the run from danger.

But with all that, he’s talking to God. 

We have his psalms in the Bible:

“I was in battle, and you saved my life.”

“Wild animals were all around me, and you, God delivered me.”

“My sins are so loathsome, yet you forgive me!”

David would have loved being out in the woods in camo, hunting deer.

And he would have loved the sacrament of confession.

So, what St. Paul said to the Corinthians, he says to us:

Which Adam will you and I be? 

The worldly Adam who says, I’m alone, I don’t know where God is?

Or the Spirit-filled Adam who will be at the altar in a few minutes, 

offering himself to the Father for us, 

to give us his Body and Blood, cleansing us of sins, 

giving us eternal life, and making us life for others?

Which Adam?