ORIGINAL GOODNESS
ORIGINAL SIN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Original Goodness, Original Sin.”

Some use the words, “Original Blessing" instead of “Original Goodness."

Today is the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

There are many themes to ponder. This year I decided to do a little thinking on, “Original Goodness, Original Sin” – especially because we use the words when talking of Mary: “She was conceived free of original sin.”

BAPTISM
Whenever I do a baptism of a baby there is a moment I feel a bit queasy and uneasy. I feel this when there are references to sin – original sin. Here is this beautiful baby – who only brings delight – especially if she or he is the first child – and this baby has obviously committed no sin.

I have to remind myself that baptism of a baby - is also a special ceremony of thanksgiving for the birth of this child.

I have to remind myself that baptism of this person is their Exodus moment, their Jordan River moment.

I have to remind myself that baptism is a sacrament – an outward sign that brings an inflowing of grace to this child and to others.

I have to remind myself that the stress in this sacrament is that parents and god-parents will do their best to give good example to this child – and the baptismal ceremony stresses that.

I have to remind myself that the sacrament of baptism is a ceremony in which the newborn child is brought into the church, into the Christian community. And the Christian community says, “Yes! We welcome you into the body – into the family of the church. You are not just a member of one family. You are a member of all our families.”

I have to remind myself that the Sin called "Original Sin" when experiencing Baptism is not a mark on a soul. Catechists had to come up with some kind of image to describe a reality. Then they taught that this mark is washed away by the waters of baptism. Catechists today have to try to describe an atmosphere - a tendency in all of us to selfishness - a pull in us to make self first and others last. And we need to experience good example of folks around us who put others first.

Adult catechists have to get people shaking their heads up and down - doing a "yes" with their heads in agreement, with "I know what you're talking about", with "I've been there too", when they talk about Paul's insight and epiphany that we say "yes" to doing good that day and we go out and do the opposite. We do the things we hate. We break diets and resolutions and promises all the time. [Cf. Romans 7:14-25]

Preachers and Spiritual Directors have to point out how Augustine had the same experience and insight - and point this out in Augustine's Confessions - where he constantly talks about the different pulls he was experiencing [Cf. Chapter 10 especially.]

Catholic Theologians have to state at some point the long theological struggle on whether Mary was free from sin and its pulls and how this could be - sort of like Mary in today's gospel saying, "How can this be, since I have had no relations with a man?" It wasn't till 1864 that this teaching was proclaimed as a dogma of the Catholic faith - and the Dogma of Assumption of Mary into heaven - followed in the year 1950.

Here we run into different streams and currents. Pedestals and down to earth.... Divinity and humanity....

Saying Mary was immaculately conceived puts Mary on a pedestal - and just as we try to proclaim Christ's humanity along with his divinity - how do we proclaim Mary's humanity - especially when other Christians say we are making her divine?

The Immaculate Conception is mystery. This is tough stuff to bring up at an 8 o'clock Mass on a Saturday morning in December.

ORIGINAL GOODNESS
The Book of Genesis gives a powerful poetic description of how the universe was created by God. In fact, there are two creation accounts in the book of Genesis.

The down to earth account has God sculpting us out of the clay of the earth and forming us – like an artist, like a sculptor – and then God breathes life into us. Beautiful. One can picture that. [Cf. Genesis 2:5 to 3:24.]
The up in the air account – has God just speaking out, “Let there be light – and water – and earth, sky and animals” and then the refrain, “And all us good.” [Cf. Genesis 1:1 to 2:4.]

This was rich and important theology by the Hebrew writers – who wanted to say and teach and proclaim that everything that God makes is Good.

There are people who don’t think this. They think alcohol or sex are bad.

No! All is good – that’s God’s original goodness creating everything – especially us.

ORIGINAL SIN

Then the question of evil came up. Okay – if God created everything and everything is good – where did evil come from?

Why wars and brutality – and stealing and abusing – and selfishness and self-centeredness?

Theologians will answer, “Because we are free and if we are free to choose, we are free to chose sin.”

Storytellers will tell us the story we hear in today’s first reading.

Every parent – every human being – knows that we can not only be good, but we can also be bad.

So today’s first reading talks about a fruit tree. We know the story. We make it an apple tree – but we don’t know what kind of fruits were on this tree. And God said, “You can have it all – but you can’t eat from this tree.”

There is always a catch. There is always the possibility of wrong choices. We can all self destruct.

In fact, this human tendency to be selfish – to stick our tongue out at our parents – to be brats – to snitch – to lie – to push – to try to cause attention – to be selfish – is in all of us – and these temptations are in the little kid till the big adult.

We take the forbidden fruit. Pornography and prostitution are ways of making money on our inner self destruction.

I love the Hebrew phrase, “Yetzer hara” - the evil force at our door. The inner itch to slip and slide into self destruction.

This is what is prayed over at baptism. This is why we pour water on babies and adults who are baptized – to acknowledge our need to receive help from parents, from god-parents, from family, and from Church – to avoid sin and do good.

MARY AS MODEL

The theology of the Immaculate Conception likes to contrast Mary with Eve – calling her the New Eve.

In that first reading we hear about Eve going against God and then bringing her husband down – and both blame each other – as well as the serpent.

Evil – the whisper of Satan – the hiss of the Serpent – is very real. “Take the money.” “Cheat.” “You’re on a business trip. He’ll never find out. She’ll never find out.”

Mary takes the fruit offered by God – it’s Jesus – the fruit of her womb – and we are told to “Take and eat!”

BUMPER STICKER
There is a wonderful bumper sticker – which we’ve all seen in the past 25 to 30 years, “Practice random acts of kindness.”

Just as there is original sin, there is original goodness.

Just as there is temptation to do evil, there are temptations to do good.”

Just as people mess up the earth, there are people who do what they can to fix up our earth.

Just as there are whispers to sin, there are also suggestions, inner silent nudges to be graceful.

SHAME SHOWS

Somewhere in this conversation there is the theme of shame. When we sin, we become naked. We feel shame. We’re embarrassed. Shame shows.

The best dressed person in the room, the best looking person in the room, feels horrible – crummy – when they sin - unless they have become totally embedded in sin - and have forgotten how to feel guilt and/or shame.

I see that as the gist behind today’s first reading. Can a husband or a wife see through a cheating spouse – and see right through their "Stop looking at me eyes"?

MARKET PLACE STORY – FLOUR IN ONE'S HAIR

I remember hearing a story somewhere – from way back. I’m not sure exactly how it goes, but I know the gist of the story.

Someone in this small village was sneaking into people’s sheds or back yards and stealing bicycles.

The people didn’t know who was doing the stealing, so they went and asked a holy man if he could help.

He said, “I'll try. Gather all the people in the village in the square.”

The wise man stood before everyone and asked, “Is everyone in the whole village here? Look around and yell out the name of anyone you don’t see here – a neighbor or a friend?”

Some people yelled out names – but from the back or the front, someone would yell, “I’m here.”

After determining that everyone in the village was there, the wise man said, “Someone is stealing bicycles in this village. And the person who did it – has some white powder on the back of their head.”

The wise man stood there and watched the crowd. Then he spotted a man taking his hand, putting his hand to his head, and patting his hair in the back.

The wise man yelled out, “There is the man who stole the bicycles.”

The crowd gasped a big loud, “Wow!”

Then the wise man said, “Let’s all head for this man’s house.”

And the whole crowd headed for this man’s house. They went into a big shed in the back of his house and there were the bicycles. And they all took back their bicycles and they brought the man to the local jail.

CONCLUSION

Goodness shows. Sin shows.

Kindness shows. Evil shows.

Adam and Eve saw their nakedness. It was obvious. Sin shows up on the skin with blushing – or the inability to look each other in the eye.

God looked at the crowd of people and saw Mary, the sinless one. He looked and saw her goodness and kindness and fullness of Grace.

God called this one - Mary - to be his mother.

Mary models goodness – and kindness.

And it shows. Check out the history of this world's millions and millions of pictures of Mary everywhere.

This feast calls us to move away from sin and move towards goodness, kindness and to be full of Grace.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Painting on top, The Immaculate Conception, by the Spanish artist, Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velazquez, 1599-1660.]

NOAH

[This was a "homily story" for the kids' Mass this morning - on this First Sunday of Advent - Year A - December 2, 2007]

Once upon a time, there was this neat kid named Noah.

Now, Noah was one of those kids who was always neat. His shoes were always tied. His shirt was always tucked in. His tie was always right up to his top button – even after running around the school yard on a hot day during recess for a half hour.

Other boys – especially his two brothers were just the opposite. His parents seeing the contrast – seeing the difference between Noah and his two brothers, Nathan and Nicholas, in the ways they took care or didn’t take care of themselves or their stuff – wondered at times and laughed, “Where did we get this kid, Noah?”

When he ate, his string beans, his carrots, his potatoes, his gravy, always looked too neat on his plate. This was Noah. It was not something that he had to work at. Neatness just came to him naturally.

Noah was one of those kids who was a Boy Scout before he became a Boy Scout. He was always prepared. His parents noticed this about him from when he was in kindergarten – maybe even before kindergarten – even pre-K – even in his high chair.

He always had an extra box of crayons – an extra ball point pen – an extra pad of paper in his school backpack. “You never know when you might lose a crayon and the teacher says to draw the roses red, the branches brown and the leaves green – and maybe some kid might need an extra crayon or doesn’t return your brown, green or red crayon that he or she borrowed from you.” And kids always borrowed from Noah. He always had extra stuff. He was always prepared.

He loved those tiny catsup packet’s and mustard packet’s when the family went to Burger King or McDonald's or Wendy's. He always took two of each. He never spilled his soda. His tray was always neat – and he always went and dumped his waste in the big garbage pail – even when he could hardly reach the top.

When the family went on summer vacation to the beach, he always wanted to pack his own pack – always making sure he had 8 sets of underwear, 8 sets of socks, etc. if they were going to be away for 7 days. It was always one extra with him.

He liked umbrellas. He liked flashlights. He liked boots and galoshes. He liked extra batteries. He even looked at the tires before he got in the family SUV – and sometimes he would even lean on the spare tire when the back was open to make sure it had enough air. “Hey you never know.”

This was Noah – and everyone in the family knew this was Noah – and they long since stopped kidding him about his neatness and organization skills. His mom and dad stopped using him as an example to his two brothers a long time ago, when they would be quite sloppy.

Yes, Noah became a Boy Scout – and an Eagle Scout – and when he got older he joined the local rescue squad. He liked helping people who needed help.

When he went to college, he knew what he wanted to be – an engineer – and not any kind of engineer – but an engineer who built strong bridges and dams and strong walls along waterfronts, along rivers, lakes and the ocean, to prevent floods.

He had watched TV very carefully when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf of Mexico. He saw all those people who lost their homes and their cats and dogs and everything. He wanted to help people in the future from being flooded.

And that’s what Noah did. Even though he was from a Navy town, even though he saw Army lose in football to Navy 18 years in a row, Noah joined the Army after college and was able to get into the Army Corps of Engineers.

And that’s what he did with his life – helping people prepare for storms and floods.

His parents were proud of their boys, Noah, Nathan and Nicholas.

Nathan ended up owning and running a Starbucks – and did well – even though there were 14 other Starbucks within a mile of his store. Nicholas ended up starting a Santa Claus suit factory – and was very busy – especially at this time of the year.

All three boys were back home when their parents were celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary. That December Sunday morning, all were at Mass together, Mom and Dad, and Noah, Nicholas and Nathan, and their wives and kids.

That Sunday morning, it just happened that Noah ended up sitting between his mom and dad. Secretly, he was always their favorite – but moms and dads can never say that – but all kids know their parents have favorites.

And that Sunday morning, it just happened that in the gospel Jesus talked about the people in Noah’s time who didn’t prepare for the big flood and all were lost - except for Noah and his family. Noah prepared well – building his ark – his big boat – saving his family and all the animals.

When his mom and dad heard this they both automatically elbowed Noah at the same time.

And Noah’s mom and dad, both came up with the same idea at the same time. They both lied. Okay, it was a white lie, but both lied as they whispered to Noah, “That’s why we named you Noah. You were always so prepared.”

And Noah smiled – but he knew they were lying, because he knew he was named after his dad’s dad, whose name was Noah – and who died of cancer just before Noah was born – and never saw Noah – but his grandmother saw him – and she stopped crying once she heard that her grandson was being named after her husband, Noah – “Noah the Neat,” as she always called her husband.