Memorial of Saint Scholastica, virgin

A parlor at
Mount Saint Francis

Preparing for her wedding, my niece selected today's first reading from the several suggestions the church offered. But, as I looked it over, I notice the editors of the Lectionary for Matrimony had deleted the last verse, “The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.”

I have to wonder why they deleted this concluding, beautiful sentence. Was it an effort to “protect” the laity from scandal? Did they want to place a fig leaf on the couple who famously wore none, as the nudes in Michelangelo’s frescoes were later refitted?

It may be the most erotic line in the Bible, a book famous for erotic passages in the Song of Songs, Hosea and Ezekiel. But its allure lies in its simplicity and even its naiveté. It describes the beauty and idealism of that Edenic moment before the Fall when our four-fold relationship with God, others, the self and nature was right. There is no suggestiveness in the words. They don’t snicker at the adolescents in the congregation, or wink at the adults. They simply state, “This is how it was; this is how it should be.”

This 25^th verse of Genesis 2 describes the ideal state of marriage, where the sacrament begins and ends. Their nudity, of course, is more than physical. If pornographers clothe the human form in repugnant hostility this sentence leaves them with their fascinating, glorious innocence. Adam and Eve are no more immoral than children who shed their clothes when the summer gets too hot. 

And yet they are adults with neither shame nor fear of one another, nor anything to hide. Genesis 2:25 describes an end of marriage, its potential for happiness, security and comfort. Like any true ideal, it seems attainable:

For this command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, 'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out? ' (Deuteronomy 30: 11-13)

This ideal state of marriage is as close as the buttons on our shirts. And yet it takes a lifetime of courage, patience, healing and compassion to approach. It is more than “good sex.” I’ve met divorced couples who tell me their sex is still good, but everything else is wrong. I wonder what they’re talking about, apparently some kind of athletic activity between heavily armed combatants.

But I also meet couples who approach this ideal. They are dedicated to one another even as they care for their children and parents. They do everything together, even when they’re apart. They need no secrets though they still maintain appropriate boundaries. Their children assume their parents love one another, as they should; and their friends and associates wonder how they make it look so natural. Perhaps they explain with the Angel’s words to Mary, “Nothing will be impossible for God."