Wednesday of the
Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
(Genesis 2:4b-9.15-17; Mark 7:14-23)
Just after witnessing the first detonation of a nuclear
weapon in 1945, Harvard physicist Kenneth Bainbridge told J. Robert
Oppenheimer, the director of the project, “Now we are all sons of bitches.” He meant that in a sense they had accessed
forbidden knowledge since God would not want humans to know how to destroy
themselves. The quest for that knowledge,
however, did not start during World War II.
Its root can be seen in humans eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil which today’s first reading describes.
Biblical experts are divided on the meaning of the
tree. Some say that eating its fruit gives
humans the authority to say for themselves what is right and wrong. This knowledge then is equivalent to moral relativism
in which people determine for themselves what is right and wrong. It inevitably leads to conflict and
violence. Others believe that eating the
fruit gives no special power but only represents disobeying the Creator who has
revealed His precepts for humans. Knowledge
from revelation is enough for humans to live happily. Unfortunately, however, they prove themselves
unwilling to live in respectful obedience to God.
All of God’s commandments entail putting limits on human
authority. But they are not meant to
deprive humans of a good. Rather, they insure
that humans don’t experience what is bad.
We are wise to give all God’s commandments – whether revealed in nature
or in Scripture – strict attention. In
doing so, we save ourselves a lot of grief.
