| Immaculate Conception8 December 2007Genesis 3:9-15,20 + Psalm 98 + Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12 + Luke 1:26-38 |
It has taken me a lifetime to figure this out; this matter of Adam and Eve and this business of sin and redemption. I’m not sure if I am just slow to process things or have simply had to live sixty-five years to get it; but I finally am getting to the heart of matter here. These two figures from the beginning: the problem with them is that they simply never said “I’m sorry.” When asked the question: “Why did you do it? The blame started. She blamed the snake. Adam blamed her All they needed to say was: “I don’t know. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was foolish, and it was wrong.” All they needed to say was: “I did it. I’m sorry.” Confronted by God after their sin, they were unable to admit it. Had they simply admitted their sin, human history may have been different, and I am beginning to believe that this is the point of the story the writer of Genesis wanted to share with us. The tragedy of blame, the foolishness of hiding the truth, and the consequence of a failure to cry out for redemption and forgiveness.
The refusal to admit that we sin begins a lie that gets retold and retold again and again until we begin to believe it ourselves. We rationalize, make up excuses, project blame, use psychology and sociology to justify our behavior. All the while it’s lie. This ability and easy way of not admitting our sin is the greatest of all temptations that faces us. Failure to admit weaknesses and acknowledge our sin as sin is infinitely more damaging than the weakness and sin itself.
Failure in self honesty is the start of the sin against the Holy Spirit, the only sin that cannot be forgiven. We are all familiar with the warning Christ gave against the one sin that cannot be forgiven: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. That sin is simply lying to oneself until one become so warped that the lie is believed. Falsehood become truth. The reason this sin cannot be forgiven is not that God refuses, but because the person no longer sees the need to be forgiven. Living in darkness is seen as living in light; sin is seen as grace; perversion as virtue. This person would not accept forgiveness if it were offered, because to do so would mean admitting sinfulness and the need for redemption.
It always begins with the rationalization and the failure to admit sin, and everything in this world supports that way of getting off the hook,
of making ourselves look good by denying our weakness and sin. We see this everywhere, and for us Catholics, the most obvious sign is our tendency to avoid Confession of all kinds. It means an inability to take personal responsibility for our own unhappiness, and in our tendency not to admit our moral misery. It shows up in our inability to be contrite in confession in church and everywhere else.
What does all this have to do with the Immaculate Conception you might ask about now in the middle of this homily. My thoughts have gone this way because this feast declares that only one of us human beings is without sin: that is the Immaculate Conception. Only one. The point of celebrating Mary’s sinlessness is to move honestly toward admitting our own sinfulness. She stands before us in her human perfection so that we might see our human imperfection and know what to do about it because of her Son.
Only the sinner can be saved. Only those who say: “I am sorry.” or “Forgive me.” can ever hope to hear the angel’s message: “Fear not.”
and become “full of grace.” But that is what He came to bring us: grace and a life without fear.