Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

 Lectionary: 572A

The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me — she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”
The LORD God then asked the woman, “Why did you do such a thing?”
The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”

 I have occasionally fumed about the confounded stupidity of Adam's remark. Confronted with his sin, he manages to blame both God and his wife for what he has done. The idiocy of the remark is only compounded by the observation that "Adam" is a fictional character who stands in for all men and women. Precisely! We have all done that, and it's unacceptable!

Because I have fumed against Adam, I have not paid much attention to Eve's equally foolish alibi. She passes the blame to the serpent who, of course, says nothing since serpents can't talk! Hello? But apparently God accepted her story and placed a curse on the wretched snake. People do the same thing when they yell, "Bad dog!" at their mutts. 

When accused of wrongdoing, people sometimes make a stab at admitting they've done wrong, but cannot suppress the urge to explain the whole thing. "You have to understand the context of what happened! It was my fault but, but, but, but...." 
My mother would say, "You sound like a lawnmower."

It's so much easier to say, "I have done wrong. I am sorry. I have offended you. How can I make it up to you?" There's a process involved, of course, and it takes time. Trust doesn't come back automatically; there's nothing in divine or human nature that is automatic, least of all the decision to trust again after an offense. But an apology and atonement is far more reliable than pretending it never happened, even when two people silently agree about that. 

When the Lord was accused of making trouble in Jerusalem, he remained silent. Silence, any lawyer should tell you, is not proof of guilt. The silence of the accused proves nothing and mean, nothing. Mary, too, was equally silent on Calvary. She could not speak in his defense. Since he had done nothing wrong there was no excusing what he had done. 

And so we honor Mary and on this day following the gala event of Pentecost, we show her special homage. She alone, in her silence, was found worthy to be the Mother of the Church. Like Eve, her ancestress whom Adam called, "the mother of all the living," Mary became the mother of those who find new life in Jesus. 

It is fitting that she was among the disciples in the Upper Room when the Church was born. That which had been conceived in the mind of God from all eternity appeared in the flesh, in the world with her living and ever faithful mother.