June 7, 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Genesis 3:8-15

As an adolescent, I had a recurring anxiety. It often hit me at night, as I lay in bed thinking about who I was and what God thought about me.

Depending how the day had gone, my self-assessment could be quite negative. My list of inadvertent sins was longer than it ought to have been. Worse, the list of sins I was tempted to commit was even longer. It contained all of those things I’d been told were sins yet seemed awfully attractive to me. Perusing those two lists could make for a fitful night.

The second list was especially troublesome. I’d been taught that Jesus was always watching me, that God was everywhere, that the Holy Spirit knew my innermost thoughts. I was surrounded. This meant a high degree of likelihood that, were I tempted into some forbidden territory, God would catch me in the act.