Homily for the First Sunday of Lent

            “Is the water in the creek safe for my cattle to drink?”
            “Will customers buy tomatoes at my roadside stand?”
            “Why are my chickens laying purple eggs?”
            These are question that folks in East Palestine, Ohio are asking after a train accident released toxic chemicals into the air. The incident has garnered media attention and has become something of a political issue. Like most issues covered in the media, however, the spiritual dimension is overlooked.
            What’s spiritual about a train wreck?
            Well, today’s first reading opens in the Garden of Eden. In doing so, it reminds us that the places where we live are reflections of that wondrous place created by God at the beginning of the world: a sacred region of flowing water, fragrant flowers and plentiful food.
            But, as we know, Eden was also the place where trust was destroyed. With its destruction, fear and uncertainty entered the world. And so it is that examples of unnerving, underlying, omnipresent fear now abound: Will Putin drop the bomb? Will Covid strike again? Is it safe to eat tomatoes from my garden?
            Today is the First Sunday of Lent. In East Palestine, Ohio, air monitors hang beneath stop lights and dangle from signs on residential streets that  depict
children at play. These same monitors register the harsh fact that fallout from Adam’s Sin is not limited to isolated deeds. Rather, its toxicity lingers in the very air that we breathe, making it hard to know whom to trust and whether or not the coming night will bring peaceful rest or anxious insomnia.
            We need a new Adam. We need a new Eve.
            This is why Lent opens with a stroll through Eden. Soon, it will steer us toward the Garden of Gethsemane. Then, after encounters outside a garden Tomb and a respite in the Upper Room, we’ll set off again.
            With the Spirit’s wind at our back we’ll head for yet another garden, the one called Paradise. A glorious place! There Christ, the New Adam, will hand us a crown. And Mary, the New Eve, will welcome us home.