Immaculate Conception

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 2017 – Cycle ABC Genesis 3:9-15,20; Psalm 98; Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12; Luke 1:26-38

“The Lord God gave the human this order:“You are free to eat from any of the trees in the gardenexcept the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.” From that tree you shall not eat; for when you eat from it you shall die.”” [Genesis 216-17]

Why wouldn’t God want us to know the difference between good and evil?  Isn’t that what sets us apart from every other creature that God created?  To know the difference between Good and Evil is to have a sense of morality.  We instill this in our children when we correct them.  We are taken aback when an adult does not know the difference between Good and Evil as we are experiencing in the present sexual harassment crisis in Congress and the media; as we have in our church.

So why didn’t God want us to know the difference?  Might it be that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is not about morality?

Good and Evil are polar opposites.  Consider the tenor of our society.  We even use the word, polarized.  We are divided and opposed to each other and God because we have eaten from the tree of polarization.

Consider how we speak.  Red States.  Blue States.  Directv Bad.  Spectrum Good.  Democracy good.  Islamic terrorism evil.  Depending on what side of the wall you are on: Palestinians bad.  Israelis good.  (Or is it Israelis bad and Palestinians good?)   Are not the “talking heads” on every newscast purposefully divided evenly between the polar opposites on any issue?  Even Santa Clause gets in on the act: “He knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.”  Consider the words we use for a perpetrator of a horrific shooting or act of violence: “evil”, “inhuman”, “animal”.  Words that denote that the person should be excised from society.

The simple narrative of a world divided between good and evil, is a world that politicians, the media and the currency of everyday speech reach for to explain acts of evil.   And in any discourse today we always see our position as Good and the opposing view as Bad.  That is why there is no middle ground today.  There can’t be.

The Book of Genesis reveals a fundamental truth about the human condition: the knowledge of Good and Evil ushers in a world of blame, shame, alienation and suffering.  Consider those four words.  Blame, shame, alienation and suffering.  Do they not thoroughly describe our present world situation?

God gets blamed.  The woman gets blamed.  The serpent gets blamed.  We blame secularization.  The Iraqis and Syrians suffer.  African and Middle Eastern tribes are alienated from each other.  We all experience the shame of pedophilia and sexual harassment.  The Democrats get blamed.  The races are alienated.  We blame radial and not so radial Islam.  The police get blamed.  The Republicans get blamed.  Conservative Christians get blamed.  We build walls of alienation, real and metaphorical.   The poor get blamed and alienated.

“I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”  Shame.  “The woman you put here with me – she gave me fruit from the tree…”  “The serpent tricked me, so I ate it.”  Blame.  “I will put enmity between you and the woman…”  “Cursed be the ground because of you…”  Alienation and suffering.

Is it no wonder that the Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer described such knowledge as “the deepest divide in human life.”?   This divisive way of knowing – this group, this individual (usually including ourselves) is good; that group, that individual is bad.  We refuse the ambiguity of life for the tidiness of biting and bitter opposites.  This way we can justify ourselves over and against others.

The Genesis story of the Fall unmasks such desires because the doctrine of Original Sin democratizes evil.  We all participate in it as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.  Original Sin tells us that what we call “evil” lurks in every human heart, making each of us susceptible to temptations that draw us toward a tendency to violent behaviour.  It warns us never to assume that we are immune from a tendency to violence, and to always be on guard against those promptings of envy, violence, lust and anger that lurk within us.  What is often called “evil” by the media and us is not the product of any one religion, race, politics, culture or era.  It is the wounding of the human condition, shared by us all.

Thus as we mark the sinless conception of Mary, we hear of the sinless conception of Jesus.  Jesus, who innocent, takes on himself in his Passion every blame we have uttered on someone else.  Jesus, who hangs naked on the cross exposes every one of our shameful acts in the light.   Jesus, who through his encounters reconciles Jew and Samaritan, women and men, Gentile and Jew, the sinner and God, the sick and the community that no person or group be alienated again.

Can we understand why God forbade us to eat of the tree of Good and Evil?  A fruit that at this time we seem to be enjoying with relish.  A meal unto death?