WANTING TO BE LIKE GOD -- SINFUL OR NOT?

1st Sunday of Lent
Lk 4:1-13

Once in a retreat I was giving, I asked a group of young people, “Why were Adam and Eve banished from the Garden of Eden?” “They disobeyed God,” came the reply. “And how did they disobey God?” I followed up. The answer came unanimously: “They ate the apple!” “The apple? What apple?” I asked. “The fruit that Eve gave Adam, Father, remember?” they said with much confidence. Immediately, I corrected their misguided knowledge of the Bible, quoting Gen 2:16-17: “And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” “So, you see,” I said, “there was no apple after all. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit, and the forbidden fruit was not from an apple tree but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Leading them deeper into our reflection, I threw another question to them: “Why did Adam and Eve disobey God?” “Because they wanted to be like God,” my retreatants replied. Thereupon, I gave them the question I meant for their reflection that day: Is it a sin to want to be like God?

Is it a sin to want to be like God?

Some may immediately say, “Yes! But of course! It is a sin to want to become like God.” Others may hesitate to answer the question.

But is it really a sin to want to be like God?

In Gen 1: 26-27, we read: “God said, ‘Let Us make man in our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

In I Jn 3:2, this is what is written: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we shall later be has not yet come to light. But we know that when it comes to light, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” And in chapter 4 verse 17 of the same book, we have: “Love is made perfect in us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him.”

I Cor 15:49 has this: “As we have been modeled in the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we be molded unto the likeness of the man from heaven.”

In II Cor 3:18, St. Paul teaches further: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

And, Jesus Himself has this to say in Mt 5:48: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”; and in Lk 6:36: “Be merciful as your Father is merciful.”

That we have in us the God’s own blueprint and that therefore we are destined to be like Him is a very evident claim and teaching of Sacred Scriptures. Thus, our prayers reflect this truth. In the Sacramentary, the book that contains the prayers for the Mass, the Third Eucharistic Prayer concludes with these words: “…on that day, we shall see You as You are; we shall become like You and praise You forever through Jesus Christ our Lord.” That we shall become like God is not only our desire but is also a teaching handed down to us by the Church. In fact, the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, for example, is a devotion that emphasizes our calling to strive to become more and more like Jesus who is truly God even as He is truly human. “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Thine” do we not pray?

So, let me return to my question: Is it a sin to want to be like God?

No, it is not a sin to want to be like God. Therefore, Adam and Even sinned not simply because they wanted to be like God but because they wanted to be like God even by disobeying God. God wanted to give our first parents the fullness of His life but they tried snatching it from Him by disobeying Him. Becoming like God was and is always meant to be a gift to be received and not a gift to be grabbed. Adam and Eve, by grabbing that gift, lost it. But God’s plan cannot be frustrated by human disobedience.

From the very first moment of creation, Jesus had already been part of the divine plan. Jesus was not an addendum to creation. He is the apex, the summit, and the goal of all creation. The Incarnation of Jesus is not God’s plan B that was caused by the sin of our first parents. No. God have always wanted us to receive the gift of sharing in His life, of becoming like Him, through Jesus Christ. Had there been no sin, Jesus would still come but there would be no cross. But because of sin, the coming of Jesus has now been marked with the cross. Jesus became man because God loves us and not originally because He had to die on the cross for us. The cross is not the cause of God’s love for us. The cross is the effect of His love.

Jesus came to share in our humanity so that we may come to share in His divinity. He redeemed our fallen race not through the cross in itself alone. He redeemed us through His obedience, the kind of obedience to God that led Him to the cross. In the movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, Jesus says it very distinctly to Mary, His mother, when they met on the way to Calvary: “Mother, see, I make all things new!” Jesus reversed the disobedience of our first parents through His obedience.

Sin is basically disobedience. Sin is wanting to be like God even by disobeying God. Sin says, “I am the center of everything!” Sin plays “god” in the lives of others. Sin is grabbing what is meant to be received. Sin is saying ‘no’ to God and ‘yes’ to Satan.

Jesus gives us today an example of saying ‘no’ to Satan and ‘yes’ to God. He is tempted in the desert and thrice Satan tempts him. The first temptation is to satisfy material needs against the will of God. The second is to have power without God. And the third is to gain popularity against the will of God. All three temptations are temptations against the will of God. There is nothing wrong about satisfying material needs. There is nothing evil with having power. There is nothing immoral with being popular. But when satisfying material needs, having power, and being popular are against the will of God, then they become sinful.

Lent is a time for us to do a serious soul-searching. Let us examine our lives carefully and, like Jesus, make all things new through our loving obedience to God. Remember: it was not because they wanted to be like God that Adam and Eve sinned. Rather, they sinned because they wanted to be like God even by disobeying God.

We are destined for greatness. God wants us to be like Him. Indeed, we shall be like Him. Do not grab the gift. Receive it.