Original Blessing

Original Blessing

I remember meeting with a person from our church quite a few years ago, and they asked what I thought was a good question.  They said, “How come the homilies at Spiritus never deal with sin?” They went on to say that, growing up, they heard a lot more about that in church and wondered why Spiritus might not put much emphasis on that.

One reason, I think is that most of Christian theology picks up in Genesis 3 (which we read from today) about the “fall” of Adam and Eve.  We hear of their transgression and humanity’s sinful nature (oftentimes called original sin).  This theology became prominent in Christian consciousness and led to a hyper-focus on sinfulness, immorality, shame, etc.  It also initiated the need for all kinds of “atonement” theologies (like we hear of in the second reading) whereby a savior is needed to redeem us from our sinful nature.

It is what most of us heard growing up.  It’s what most of us were taught. And for many of us, the message that we heard was, “You are bad. You are defective. You are worthless.”

Obviously this can have disastrous consequences for our self-esteem and spiritual lives, and I think it’s one of the reasons why the messages coming from the pulpit at our church try to focus on the opposite.

The Dominican priest, Matthew Fox, published a groundbreaking book in 1983 entitled Original Blessing.  Fox starts with the goodness of creation/humanity as the fundamental reality and notes that all of the mystics were focused on awe, love, beauty, intimacy, playfulness and goodness – not sin. This invites us to change our view of who God is and what God does in the world.

With a view of original blessing, Jesus did not come to atone for our sinfulness or need to act as a ransom to placate a God who was angry with humanity. Jesus came to show us the true heart of God and to show us what humanity is capable of being when we live fully into our original blessing.

We know the reality of the world is that people do bad things, make harmful choices, hurt one another and succumb to greed, power, manipulation and a whole host of other damaging actions.  And we see these very temptations put upon Jesus in the gospel.  The devil (whom we can think of as the forces of the world), challenge Jesus to embrace something other than his original blessing.  They try to coax him into being effective, dominating or popular – all at the expense of his deep humanity.  But he does not take the bait. He chooses a path that embraces vulnerability, love, nonviolence and goodness.  And throughout his ministry, he seemed far less concerned with punishing “sin” than with restoring what had been separated.

It should be said that a focus on our original blessing does not ignore the harm people have done, nor does it suggest that people should not be held accountable and work to repair what they have done. But it locates us at a very different starting place and thus sends us down a different trajectory.

The Soto Zen priest Suzuki Roshi said, “All of you are perfect, and you could use a little improvement.”

Part of the Lenten journey is to embrace our own goodness (which for some of us is harder than embracing our own sinfulness) and to work to see the goodness in each other. Our work is to then take steps to clear away whatever stands in the way of our goodness (personal and collective) truly becoming who God invites us to be.

For today, rest in your own goodness. Feel your original blessing. Help others feel theirs.

18 Comments

    Fran Cardella

    Thank you for this very uplifting reflection Michael. It does indeed seem that a focus on original blessing can lift a person up and refocus on goodness. And in so doing we can embrace the goodness within ourselves to focus on the goodness of one another. Your suggestion that for today we rest in our own goodness might be a great Lenten focus. I can’t think of a better way in order to prepare ourselves to give to others the uplifting message that is so desperately needed by each and every one of us. Embracing goodness might indeed be the most effective way for us to turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel.

      Mike Boucher Author

      Fran, thanks for this response. As I read the words we hear out loud on Ash Wednesday, “Turn away from sin, and be faithful to the gospel…” I thought about literally turning oaway from a focus on sin and, instead, working towards a greater faithfulness to the “good news” – which could be interpreted to be goodness! Thank you for this.

    MarthaSorriero

    Excellent as usual, I don’t use the word sin and your essay helps me to be able to defend my self and put the non use of sin into a reality . In other words it gives me ammunition. Martha Sorriero

      Mike Boucher Author

      Thanks, Martha. I know that I tend to think more about ‘social sin’ (and I’d direct folks to read Peter’s comments related to today’s blog).

    Peter Veitch

    I think if you listen to the homilies we’re talking about sin all the time. The sins of exclusion, patriarchy, greed, racism, homophobia, etc.
    When we talk about injustice, we’re talking about grave sin: our collective sin. Injustice is the sin we all co-sign.
    Whenever I sit out an opportunity to confront injustice I am participating in sin. Sin is something that separates us from the goodness in all, or ‘God’, if you prefer.
    Yes, I’m doing little naughty things all the time I wouldn’t do or say if my mom was standing next to me, but my real sin is to narrow my vision and perceive my behaviors and choices as mine only.
    Maybe I should look at all the things I’ve purchased in the last year and ask myself how I have participated in slavery and child labor in faraway places I’ll never visit, or how I pray for folks with cancer and then start my car or board an airplane spewing the emissions that cause it, the list goes on and on.
    Talking about ‘sin’ as such may have fallen out of fashion, but I think we have learned a way of describing our sins differently. The sins we’re always struggling against at Spiritus won’t be resolved by forgoing chocolate for forty days, and that’s a messier predicament than most followers of Jesus are hoping for in these times.
    Peace,
    Peter

      Mike Boucher Author

      Amen, Peter! Thanks for raising this. Your words evoke so many of Jesus’ teachings that ask us to locate ourselves in systems and not just to focus on our own individual lives…

    Steve Tedesco

    Great blog! Sin and blessing are not opposite. Sin focuses us on our own selfishness and power as in this weekends readings. Blessing is relying on God. God always calls us to return to Him.

      Mike Boucher Author

      Thanks for commenting Steve. Your words remind me of what we say during the Easter season – Felix Culpa or O Happy Fault – which, ideally, brings us closer to acts of repair in the world – which leads us back to blessing.

    Marianna Beigel

    As a new parishioner, I was wondering how the homilist might address the readings for today, however, you addressed it head on. Thank you! I’ve never been able to reconcile the idea that we are born in original sin but only those who “know” Jesus are cleansed and that a baby born in Mongolia who never had the chance to learn about a western version of Jesus would be never be able to get to heaven. I love your perspective of how God created the goodness all around us and the goodness in Adam and Eve, our journey is to live out that goodness and in the words of Diana Butler Bass path; “the “way” of Jesus is a verb. All is movement. There is no destination, only the enveloping presence of love.”

      Mike Boucher Author

      Marianna, thank you for posting this comment. It is great to hear from you, and I am glad that you have found our community. As Lauren, our hospitality minister says, “Welcome home!” And thanks for your beautiful insights. I love Diana Butler Bass and really resonate with that idea of “the way is a verb” and our “work” is to let ourselves be enveloped in the presence of love. Beautiful!

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