Remembering, returning to Eden

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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 12 February 2025
Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17     ><000'> + ><000'> + ><000'>     Mark 7:14-23

Bring me back, Lord
to Eden
to Paradise 
where everything started;
bring me back inside my heart,
inside you, Lord, 
the beginning of your creation,
the center of your attention:

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east and he placed there the man whom he had formed… to cultivate and care for it. The Lord God gave man this order: “You are free to eat from any of the trees in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die” (Genesis 2:8, 15, 16-17).

Take me back inside my heart,
Jesus, to be clean and free again 
to choose you,
to be faithful,
to be loving;
indeed, "what comes out
of a person is what defiles him"
(Mark 7:20) even from the very start
when the Father created us;
until now, even inside you
our "home" we still could not
understand it like the disciples
(Mark 7:17-18) because
we would always choose 
our own selves,
our own desires,
our limited knowledge.

Let me remember Eden
and let me return to Eden, 
Jesus,
to be one with you again -
me the creture,
you my Lord and my God;
take me back in your presence,
Jesus and let me realize
that though man is the
master of his world,
God is man's Master
and Lord for He is the
Creator, we are the creature.
Amen.