Word to the Wise
Saturday, February 12, 2011 - Saturday in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gen 3:9-24 and Mark 8:1-10]Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!
We all know the scene - not just from the Bible, but from our own experience of being caught doing something we're not supposed to be doing! Needless to say, the encounter is not a happy one, and it gets unhappier the more important the offense is! In this case, the offense is VERY important. All of humanity is involved! Our relationship to God is forever altered. The bad news is the loss of all the original benefits. The good news is that God gave us free will and God also is infinitely merciful - even if this scene doesn't look too merciful! Each time we fall, we must take responsibility for it but we do not have to stay fallen. A way back has been given.
At the Easter Vigil, when the hymn of praise - the "Exultet" - is sung, we hear the words, "O happy fault! O necessary sin of Adam..." that brought us so great a redeemer! The Christian community began to interpret the Old Testament in the light of the New. The fall of our first parents is seen as part of God's plan of salvation!
Catholic tradition does not consider the human person as ultimately "depraved." We remember that God saw all of creation as "good." The gift of free was abused but it remains a gift. Humanity's continual abuse of that gift is what unites us in our need of a Redeemer. That Redeemer is Jesus Christ. AMEN