Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
(Genesis 2:4b-9.15-17;
Mark 7:14-23)
What if humans did not
eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Would we be better off? Would we even have been born since human
generation seems to be an outcome of eating the forbidden fruit? Eden sounds harmonious, even blissful, but
can humans be happy there? Today’s first
reading begs this line of questioning.
The human encounter
with evil was inevitable. The forbidden
fruit was in plain sight, and there was an enticer waiting to encourage humans
to take and eat it. Still humans could
have resisted and lived in oblivious obedience forever. Instead, humans have become not necessarily more
thoughtful, but calculating, always weighing pros against cons when deciding to
do something.
Yet how much should we
regret the first humans’ decision to eat the fruit? It led not only to the development of our
intellect but also to the Son’s Easter triumph in which we proclaim, “O Happy
Fault!”
