FORGIVENESS FOLLOWS HUMILITY

Beloved parishioners,

On the literal level, the first reading this weekend presents a picture of why things are the way they are: why humans suffer to earn their food or have children, and why the serpent crawls on its belly unlike other animals. But beyond this literal relevance of the story, we also derive some insights into what we have come to know as the First Sin and its consequences. We see in the story, also, a display of the attitude of our first parents to the reality of their disobedience when confronted by God. Instead of acknowledging and repenting of their wrongdoing and ask forgiveness, they preferred to trade blames. They did not show any remorse for contravening God’s command. The man blames the woman, and the woman blames the serpent. Thus, the man and the woman, who had hitherto walked freely in the garden without any sense of fear, guilt or shame, now hide from God because of what they had done.

This is what sin does. It distorts our image of God. Instead of seeing God as the loving friend who comes to us and walks with us in the cool of the evening, we see him as a tyrant to be feared; one to hide from. Their refusal to take responsibility for their action did not excuse them of wrongdoing. They were guilty of disobedience, even when they did not admit it. Sin is sin even when we deny or rationalize it. We do not become less guilty simply because we chose to hide our sins or not talk about them. Healing does not come from blaming others or even avoiding our sin. Rather, healing comes from true repentance, which is preceded by acknowledgment of the sin. The Church’s teaching on Original Sin and its effects on all of humanity comes from this experience in the Garden. The sin comes from a misuse of the freedom God had given them. And it continues to find reverberations in our world today, when human beings worship their freedom as absolutes. We see our freedom as limitless, and as such we can do whatever pleases us without reference to God.

But why did God not forgive Adam and Eve? Why did God punish them for what they had done? St. Athanasius reasons that because God is true to what he says, it would be a contradiction had no consequence followed the disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Remember that God had warned them that “in the day you eat of the fruit of this tree you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Had this not happened, then God would either have said something that was untrue, or God’s word would have been ineffectual. But we know that God’s word, once spoken, never returns back to him void, without accomplishing its purpose (Isaiah 55:11). A priest once shared that someone asked him why God did not forgive Satan when he sinned and why did God cast him down from heaven? The priest responded, “because Satan did not ask forgiveness.” I think he got it correctly. Forgiveness is a gift given only to those who ask.

Asking forgiveness is an act of humility. It takes humility to acknowledge that one has done wrong, and it takes humility to ask forgiveness. A person who does not admit that they are guilty of wrongdoing cannot receive forgiveness. Forgiveness is a gift given to the guilty, not to those who perceive they are upright or innocent in their own eyes.

By this logic, we can see that neither Adam, nor Eve, nor Satan asked forgiveness. However, because God is loving and merciful, not wishing his creation to go into extinction, he made a way out for Adam and Eve. He prophesied about the son of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent, even as the seed of the latter strikes at his heels. In the tradition of Christian interpretation of this text of scripture, this seed of the woman has come to be identified with Jesus, who would crush the head of Satan, represented by the serpent. We rejoice today because Jesus has really come to redeem creation that was on the path of self-destruction on account of sin. Thus, as we sing in our Psalm, “With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.” This mercy and redemption of the Lord, which are fruits of his passion, death and resurrection are available to us. Jesus Christ has paid the supreme price for our redemption to the eternal Father. And we rejoice because we are the beneficiaries of this redemption.

May Jesus bless you, and may Our Lady protect you!