Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
(Genesis 2:4b-9.15-17; Mark 7:14-23)
The two readings today have the morality of eating in
common. In the first, God prohibits Adam
from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the gospel Jesus calls all food
clean. He explains that evil is produced
from the heart and not in the stomach.
Adam’s partner and then Adam himself will eat the forbidden
fruit. Their action will attempt to gain
for themselves the authority to determine what is good and bad. In this way they will be trying to overthrow
God’s authority. Their act, stemming
from the heart’s desire for autonomy, can be judged evil. Allowing God to be God is the fundamental
moral lesson of the Bible. Yet it has
continually been violated, perhaps more than ever in today’s world.
Humans try to shake themselves from divine prohibitions in many
areas. Especially prominent (and tragic)
are the permissions to have sex outside marriage and to take both nascent and waning
human life. Adam and Eve will see the
integrity of their life come apart after their sin. They will show contempt for one another and
their bodies will wither and die. Similarly,
today we see, in many places, the breakdown of the family with the consequent
desolation of its members. Somehow, we must relearn that God’s authority
is not only supreme but also just.
