AFRAID

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of the Immaculate Conception is, “Afraid.”

That word is found in two of the three readings we heard today: Genesis and Luke.  

Adam is afraid.  Mary is afraid.

AFRAID - THE WORD

Afraid:  meaning frightened,  scared, hesitant, nervous, concerned, worried, tense, fearful ….

Afraid:  I always try to hear reasons why a word sounds the way it sounds. Listen to the word "afraid".  Hear the sound of friction - and fray in it. The letter “f” - the second letter and key sound in this word “afraid” - brings together our lower teeth and lower lip - as in biting one’s lip. That’s something we do when we are afraid or tense or feeling an “Uh oh!” To be afraid is to be bit or pulled or rubbed against by frightening forces. Something is biting us. OOOOOOhhhhhhhh! Uh oh!

Luke 1: 26-38 -  today’s gospel - uses the Greek word “phobos” for  “afraid”. We know the English word “phobia” from that Greek word - as in "phobias".   We have heard about dozens and dozens of phobias people can have: from autophobia [fear of being alone ] to zoophobia [fear of animals]. Does anyone here today have “chionophobia” - which is fear of snow? 

So the word “afraid” is an interesting word to explore.

ADAM AND MARY

In today’s first reading from Genesis 3: 9-15 - we hear about Adam disobeying God. He and Eve did not listen to God and ate the forbidden fruit.

Non-listening to God - as well as others - is often the root of many of our problems.

Communicating and questioning - what Mary does - can be the key to many of our solutions.

When Adam and Eve bit into and ate the forbidden fruit, uh oh, they became afraid. Why? Well they heard God’s voice in the garden. Next they hid. They felt exposed. They felt naked - disobedient - caught in their sin with only their skin. They were afraid.

Mary was afraid when she heard the Word of God. She had Joseph - but she was not married yet. When she was approached by God’s Message and Messenger - to do something for God that seemed impossible - she must have felt an “Uh oh!” -  because the story teller has the angel say, “Do not be afraid!”

And I’m sure you’ve heard a dozen times from us preachers: “This message of 'Don't be afraid!' is a constant in the Bible - when God reaches out to us!”

In fact, we have here in these stories the beginnings of religion. Often it is  fear - afraidness - falls - and wanting to drop out and hide - that bring us to God - to a power greater than our weakness. 

Questioning and questions can also bring us to God.

Being open or being closed? Now that’s a question. Now that’s a life choice.

Adam hid. Mary questioned.

Adam did "No". Mary said, "Yes!"

THE ORGINAL CHOICE: TO BE THE OLD OR NEW ADAM AND EVE.

I’m assuming that our scripture readings place these 2 people: Mary and Adam - or these 4 people - before us: Adam and Eve, Mary and Jesus - as we come to this feast of the Immaculate Conception.  In theology, Mary and Jesus, are called, “The New Adam” and “The New Eve.”

They are placed before us as choices - on how to live life - how to live it to the full - or how to hide in the dark.

In fact, is that the original sin: choosing darkness instead of choosing the light?

Hey Lucifer - means “Light Bearer!” It’s the name of the great fallen angel. [1] In today’s first reading he’s pictured as a serpent, a snake in the grass, crawling along - hissing sin - dismissing God - trying to bring down to his level God’s first people - Adam and Eve. The Serpent tries to bring them down to the dust from which they were sculpted and created by God. This is a push for the horizontal - when our call is to be vertical -  to evolve upwards  - to rise up - to stand up straight - be tall upon the earth.

I loved the joke about a person who dies and wants into heaven - but Peter is not sure if they should get a pass through the Golden Gates. “Well,” says Peter, “If you can find Adam or Eve in 20 minutes you’re in.”  The person comes back with them in 5 minutes. Peter astonished says, “How did you find them so fast?” “Simple!" says the person, "They were the only ones without belly buttons.”

So Adam and Eve started from scratch - with no belly buttons - with no history - but with all the gifts of paradise. They could have everything they wanted - except the fruit from one tree.

Hey there’s always a catch….

There’s always forbidden fruit ….

That’s our origins story. That’s what makes the story so original.

Otherwise the story would be boring….

Question: Why? 

Answer: Mystery....

So they bit - the snake’s story …. and the rest is our history.

Afraid - and sin - and darkness - and hiding - entered our world with them - but then sin became no longer that original.

Well, Mary grew up in that world - but with one original catch. 

Because of  Christ - because of the New Story to come - she was born without the original sin. 

And that’s what we celebrate today.

The Immaculate Conception is an original concept. It's a mysterious teaching from our Church - which took a long time to be articulated - agreed upon - and promulgated.  As I was trying to put this into words, I realized how difficult it is to state what the Immaculate Conception means. It certainly is one of a kind - original - and obviously a mystery.

Let me say this.  Mary had a belly button from her mom - and Christ had a belly button from Mary. That’s us. We don’t start from scratch.  We are connected. We have background. We are part of a history. We are called to be in communion with each other and our history. We begin with Adam and Eve’s story - and in time we can embrace Mary and Christ’s story.

Mary is conceived  without sin so she can bring Christ - who is without sin - Christ who is light - without any darkness  - into our world.

Mary does not have a Divine Nature.... Christ does.  

This feast of the Immaculate Conception brings us smack into the great struggles and controversies and heresies on how Christ is.

Mary is without sin, but this doesn't mean she is not one of us. She felt fear - was afraid - questioned - but then Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

CONCLUSION

Maybe that original “Yes” is the message here - to say  that rather than the original “No” of Adam and Eve.  We have the choice each day to say “Yes” or “No!”

OOOOOOO

NOTES:

Painting on top: Master of Moulins - c. 1500, Coronation of the Virgin Mary

[1] In The New Jerome Biblical Commentary - one can read the following when looking at Isaiah 14: 12-15: “How!: Hebrew ‘ek parallels the ‘ek that opens verse 4b and probably intends to mark a major division. The poet applies to the king a non-Israelite myth of a god (the ‘shining star, son of the dawn’ [verse 12], conceals a proper name, Helel ben Shahar) who aspired to ascend the mountain of the gods and make himself equal to Elyon, for which presumption he was cast down to the netherworld. In the Latin Bible helel was rendered lucifer (‘light-bearer’) and since some Patristic writers saw in this piece an account of the fall of Satan, Lucifer came to a dame for the devil.” [Confer page 239 for this comment by Joseph Jensen, O.S.B.]The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Isaiah 1-39, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 07632, 1990.