The Urge for Cleanliness

The scriptures tell us that in the beginning God made a “good” world and when humans entered the scene, they were at first well integrated into this harmonious creation. Indeed, Genesis portrays the relationship between God and humans as unusually intimate and personal. It is only when the snake induces the humans to doubt God’s good will toward them that the relationship is ruptured. The effects cascade as the intimacy between humans is damaged (passing the blame) and then the relationship between humans and the earth also becomes disharmonious (it is now difficult to till the soil). This tale suggests that human ignorance gives rise to suspicion and then to division, the cause and the effects of human sin.

The Letter to the Ephesians begins with a blessing of God, which emphasizes that what God has done in Christ is not an accident or “add-on” to a human history gone wrong, but is in fact part of a divine plan “before the foundation of the world.” Humans, despite the sins they will commit, have been loved by God from before all creation and have been destined to be “adopted” as God’s children from the beginning. Even human sin cannot derail the plan “of the one who accomplishes all things” as intended. That God’s desires for all humanity cannot be undone by millennia of sin attests to the glory and power of God.

Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, rendered in our Lectionary as “full of grace” (from the Latin gratia plena), can also be understood as “highly favored one,” and indeed, the angel assures the young woman that she has found favor with God. This should be understood not as an indication that Mary has somehow earned God’s favor, but that she has been “favored by God,” in the sense that she has been given a special role in God’s plan (as was the case also for Israel and Moses, neither of whom could be said to have earned God’s favor; see Exodus 33:16). The passage makes it clear that it is God’s unmerited choice of Mary to fulfill a long-standing plan, “prepared” well before she was born.