Joke: Over coffee and donuts after Mass one Sunday, an engineer, a physician, and a politician were arguing over whose profession was the oldest. Not surprisingly, they ended up discussing God, creation, and the Garden of Eden. The doctor boasted that medicine was the oldest profession, citing the creation of Eve in the Garden of Eden. “Taking a rib from Adam’s side was a major surgery,” he said. “There’s no profession older than mine.” The engineer didn’t give up easily. “Before Adam and Eve were created,” he said, “the chaos had to be organized and set in good order. That’s an engineer’s job. My profession is even older than the Garden of Eden.” The politician just smirked and asked, “Guess who created the chaos?”

In today’s first reading, after Adam had eaten of the tree, as reported in the book of Genesis, the Lord God called and asked him, “Where are you?” Why did God ask Adam where he was? Didn’t he create Adam, and he knew exactly where he was? Also, why did Adam hide himself after eating the forbidden fruit? Was he naked before he ate the forbidden fruit? Was the serpent the only creature that could trick people?

I don’t like fishing that much, but I had a chance to go fishing with my brother-in-law a few times before. I learned from my brother-in-law that in fishing, one has to know what kind of hook to use for what kind of fish, and what kind of bait to use for what kind of fish. My kind of fish is to go to HEB to get it. Why do they use different hooks for different fish and different bate for different fish? In other words, the fish learns to stay away from the tricks that people play to catch them. Monkeys can play tricks on people and so other animals as well. So, serpents played tricks on Adam and Eve because God created them with this kind of intelligence just like any other animal to survive.

Unlike animals, human beings were given the gift of free will to choose or not to choose against God. Adam and Eve chose to go against God to eat what he forbade them to eat. The moment that they chose to go against God, they distort the image and likeness of God in them that God asked them, “Where are you?” The moment that they went against God, they distanced themselves from God by hiding themselves. This is very true to us today. At the moment of temptation, don’t we tend to hide ourselves away from God and others to sin against God and one another? No one wants to steal what belongs to another in front of his or her face. No one wants to covet the neighbor’s wife in front of her husband. No one wants to talk badly about the person in front of his or her face which causes the sin of gossiping and criticizing. Make no mistake that we have a DNA from our first parents called original sin that through the Sacrament of Baptism, we are washed away our original sin to vest on Christ a new person. How is it so that through our baptism, we become a new person in Christ?

In today’s second reading, Saint Paul reminds the Corinthian community and perhaps to us also saying, “Brothers and sisters: Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we too believe and therefore we speak, knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us with you in his presence.” What is it the same spirit of faith if it’s not the same Sacrament of Baptism that we are all baptized to call us to be brothers and sisters in Christ? We are all brothers and sisters in Christ because we believe in the same faith, and we speak the same faith. What is it that we believe and speak the same faith if it’s not that through our Baptism, we are all called to live out our Baptismal call to be priest, prophet, and king? The moment that we fail to live out our baptismal call, the moment that we distort the image and likeness of God in us God might ask us just as he asked Adam, “Where are you?”

In today’s Gospel, when they told Jesus that his mother, his brothers, and his sisters were outside of the crowd asking for him, he replied “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” What is the will of God for us if it’s not our baptismal call to be priest, prophet, and king? Recalling our baptism, when were we called to be priests, prophets, and kings? At the moment that we are anointed with Sacred Chrism Oil blessed by the Bishop at Easter Vigil, we become Christians incorporated into Christ who is anointed priest, prophet, and king (CCC 1241). What does it mean to be a priest, prophet, and king? How do we learn to be priests, prophets, and kings? The decision is yours.