Year A
Galatians 4:22-24.26-27.31-5:1
Psalm 113:1b-2.3-4.5a and 6-7 (R. See 2)
Luke 11:29-32
AN EVIL GENERATION
Yesterday we were invited to a Banquet where we are to eat that which belongs to God alone, fat and blood (cf. Leviticus 3:17). Jesus Christ came to offer us his body and blood for our Salvation. Today we continue with this theme, and the stress is on the fact that there is only one flesh we must rely on and become part of. Our own flesh can lead us to damnation if it is not transformed into a pleasing Smoke which can face all times and places. A transformed body is free from the bandage of the flesh;
John 8:35-36A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
With this let's reflect on today's readings under the theme of an evil generation.
In the first Reading, St. Paul shows the difference those who are free and those who are in slavery in this world. After his argument on Faith and the Law, and saying that Abraham is our father of faith, today he looks at the sons of Abraham and shows that the one born according to the flesh is the son of the slave woman while the one born through promise is the son of a free woman.
In his Typology, St. Paul sees the two women as two covenants. The slave woman Hagar he says is from Mount Sinai and bears children for slavery. Mount Sinai is where God gave the Israelites the 10 Commandments or the Laws. St. Paul goes on to say that this woman who stands for the first covenant where her children are born into slavery is the earthly Jerusalem, while the woman whose children are born into freedom is the heavenly Jerusalem, because since the New Covenant makes us Children of God, if we are part of this covenant, we are set free and are part of those born into freedom through the promise of redemption in Christ Jesus.
This is exactly St. Paul still on his argument on works of Faith and works of the Law. With this argument, he gradually enters into the distinction between those born of the flesh and those born of the Spirit.
This two distinctions of life in the flesh and life in the Spirit is made clear also in the gospel today when Jesus said this generation is an Evil Generation. The Greek Word used for Evil here is "poneros." Another Greek Word for Evil is "Kakos." They are both adjectives. The difference between the two words is that, when poneros is used it describes been in a deprived or corrupted state while kakos is used to described been in a morally bad state.
For instance, in the case of Kakos we have Mark 7:20-23)
"That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil (kakos) thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."
Thus kakos is about been morally evil. While as is today's gospel reading, poneros is having a corrupted nature. The interesting thing is that the word pornography has its origin from the Greek word "poneros." In fact the parallel text of today's gospel in Matthew stresses on it very much, Matthew 16:4 states that "an evil and adulterous generation...."
Pornography is the marketiazation of sex and sexual related activities. This shows why it is a corrupted understanding of sex that God created sacred for the purpose of procreation.
In our world today Lust abounds because of the influence of pornography. A lot of us are addicted to pornography and it is really destroying us. This corrupted view of the flesh is truly what is selling and those who by into it ends up suffering. It has been the cause of teenage pregnancy, rapes, problems in marriages, corrupted social relationships like homosexuality, and so on.
In short all sexual corrupted behaviors and problems somewhat have the distorted view of the flesh as their cause and pornography promotes them. The youths are those who are in great danger because while infants mainly seek to satisfy their desire for attention, and the old mainly seek to satisfy their desire for power, the youth seeks to satisfy their desire for sexual relations. This is what psychologists teach, but that doesn't mean there are not some anomalies. It is not an exact science, the point is that what the various groups; infants, teenagers or youth and the elderly desires are attention, sexual desires, and power or authority respectively.
However this is why John in his first letter said;
1 John 2:16"For all that is in the world, the Lust of the flesh, the Lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn't the Father's but is the world's.
The infants desire can be associated with the lust of the eyes, the youth can be associated with the Lust of the flesh and the elderly can be associated with the pride of life. All these are as a result of our corrupted nature and so John says they are not of the Father but the world. 
In Dante's Divine Comedy, at the section where he talks about the cycles of hell which is popular called Dante's Inferno, after the first cycle which is Limbo, which comprises of the souls that did not know God and are hence longing for God as they are dead and that is their punishment, Dante describes the second cycle to be Lust, and the punishment for those there is that a violent wind is just tossing them around.
There are people who are been tossed around by this wind in our world because of lust. In fact the Bible says in Ephesians 2:2 that Satan is the prince of the powers of the air. Thus he tossed around those who are under the bondage of the flesh.
As Jesus told them that the sign of Jonah in what will be shown them. We should know that as Jonah who prayed in the belly of the fish as if praying from Shoel or the dead indeed died to something. These two names mentioned is not a coincidence. Solomon's may have been the wisest king, but his greatest achievement which he fulfilled base on a promise was building the temple of God.
Our corrupted temple must be destroyed and a new and transformed temple must resurrect, us Jonah resurrected from the belly of the fish and Jesus Christ resurrected from the tomb with a glorfied body. Somethings and some behaviors must become a thing of the past.
Jesus Christ is greater than Jonah because his resurrection was not for himself but for us all, Jesus is greater than Solomon because he as God's knowledge of himself is God's wisdom and he is the builder of the very temple God's Spirit dwells in, Man.
The only way to overcome the evil of our corrupted nature is transformation, and this can be achieved when we feed both on the word of God through reading of Scriptures and prayers and when we receive him in the blessed Sacrament where he offer us his body and blood, soul and Divinity, under the appearance of bread and wine, for our transformation.
By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson
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