In the selection from Genesis today (Gn 3:9-15, 20), we hear the aftermath story of the “fall” of humankind.  The “original sin” as it has been traditionally referred to…that moment when Adam and Eve decided to defy the Creator’s request and take the fruit of the tree of “Knowledge of Good and Evil,” despite clear instructions not to do so.  And then we have the poor snake, upon which all the final blame ultimately falls in this “blame game.”  Even though this story seems to be about wrongdoing and the resulting punishment, if we bracket all this blame upon Adam, Eve, and the snake, there may be something else to look at…nakedness!

“…the LORD God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”     He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”

This seems to be the scriptural definition of “shame” – that sense that we have done something “wrong” and now we have been caught and we want to hide.  We know we were told not to do this, but we did it anyway.  It happened.  It’s a fact.  The act itself cannot be undone…or so it seems.  However, there is a larger context for this scenario it seems.  Remember, the question that God asks is “WHERE ARE YOU?”  This is not a condemnation, but an inquiry for us to look at ourselves.  What do we see?  Adam says that he is afraid because he was “naked,” and for this reason hid himself.

What if this nakedness is the truth of who we are as creatures of God?  What if we are totally vulnerable and dependent upon our Creator?  Why would we experience this as something unwanted? It appears that we most acutely experience this when we try to go it alone, i.e., attempt to take ourselves outside of the caring context of the Loving Creator.  We try to live the “lie” that we are alone and that we create our own lives and destinies by ourselves with our own “powers” that don’t necessarily interconnect with anything or anyone else.  We then begin to see “nakedness” or vulnerability as something to be ashamed of rather than the greatest gift we have.  It takes the Incarnation to bring us back to the idea of nakedness as life-giving and beautiful.  The vulnerable One is the one with Power, because the Power is Love which constantly relates to everything and everyone else.

Paul tells us of this in his letter to the Ephesians (Eph 1:3-6, 11-12):

“Brothers and sisters: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, …as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ”

 Jesus the Christ from the “foundation of the world,” i.e., back beyond everything in time and space and history, chose all of us to be “holy and without blemish before him.”  This certainly does not mean that we will not sin.  We all know that to be a fact in our lives.  We sin or “miss the mark” for receiving and giving the sustaining Love in Creation on a fairly regular basis I would say.  I know that I do.  But the fact that we “sin” does not seem to be the point here.

Could Paul be telling the Ephesians that “to be holy and without blemish” means to know that we are “naked” and “vulnerable” in the most wonderful possible way.  We are naked and vulnerable in LOVE!  And the only times that we look at being naked and vulnerable as unfavorable, and wanting to hide from it, is when we try to escape our “condition,” and consider it meager and distasteful.

Then we go to sewing the fig leaves for cover!

It is the Gospel that we hear on this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception ( Lk 1:26-38) today that gives us the beautiful yet paradoxical image of the embrace of nakedness and vulnerability, specifically in the life of a teenage Jewish girl.  The angel Gabriel visits Mary and lists off the seemingly absurd events that are about to take place in her life, all centered on the birthing of the Son of God!  Mary realizes that what is being told to her seems a little bit crazy, yet she questions and trusts.  It is interesting to note the point at which Mary seems to turn from perhaps skepticism to trust…

“…the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,      and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.      Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”

 Mary now can resonate with what is being told to her, because now she hears the GREAT context within which this is all taking place – the context of the Holy Spirit of Love and Creation.  Her nakedness and vulnerability are the necessary conditions within which the “Most High” will be born.  She is not alone and will not ever be alone.  The Grace of God in her life is the resonance within which she can trust all the wonderful yet unfathomable things will happen in her life and ultimately in the life of the whole world!

Mary casts off the fig leaves of Adam and Eve in her nakedness, because the only clothes she needs are the Eyes of the One who loves her and all of us – the eyes of the Most High that “overshadow” us only by illuminating us in Love.  The question that God asked Adam “WHERE ARE YOU?” is answered now…WITH YOU!

Perhaps this is one way of seeing the symbolism of the “Church” this day in the Immaculate Conception of Mary.  None of us are conceived in sin, because of the GREAT context of Love that overshadows us and reveals the beauty of our nakedness.  It is precisely in our naked vulnerability that we find each other in God and can begin to embrace the ever-new Creation that we all are called to be.

Then we can say with Mary, confidently about the wondrous possibilities that our lives can be,

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

Peace

Thomas

“Let the beauty we love be what we do.  There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the earth.”  – RUMI