By DONALD DeMARCO
There was no moment in the annals of biblical history, if we are to give full rein to our imagination, when the presence of a lawyer was more urgently needed than immediately after Adam and Eve ingested the forbidden fruit. His absence was most keenly felt, for he was not there to prevent the greatest flood of calamities the world has ever known from sweeping over one generation after another of the human beings who were weakened by the transmission of original sin.
Let us exercise our capacity for fantasy and consider what it may have been like if a clever Philadelphia lawyer had been present in Paradise to speak on behalf of our primal parents, who, we might conjecture, knew nothing about their civil rights. What might he have said in the best interest of his unprecedented yet most distinguished clients?
Our fictitious advocate for justice would begin with a most respectful salutation. “With all due respect to His Supreme Majesty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, man and beast, love and order, and all that is holy and good, I would like to represent the interests of my clients in a way that is consistent with the very laws of justice, compassion, and mercy that You, Yourself, Most Beneficent One, in Your Infinite Wisdom, have deigned to personify.
“To begin with, let me respectfully request that You reduce the nature of my clients’ offense. You charge that Adam and his dear wife, Eve, have ‘sinned,’ a transgression you identify as ‘The Original Sin.’ Apart from being an expression that we deem to exemplify inflationary rhetoric, we are also concerned about Your intention of passing on this ‘Original Sin’ to untold descendants. I agree that what my clients have done constitutes an ‘inappropriate act,’ but to call it a ‘sin,’ and one of incomparable magnitude, seems unduly severe.
“There was a ‘momentary lapse,’ to be sure, and a truly ‘inappropriate act.’ Could we not simply leave it at that? We should not want to load too heavy a burden of guilt on my clients. Moreover, this is their first offense. Could we be a little more practical and a little less theatrical?”
He continued: “After careful consultation with my clients, they have wisely agreed to plead guilty to a lesser crime, and are willing to perform a generous amount of service for the environment. They freely and heartily confess to not saying grace before their fateful meal, and are prepared to serve their countryside by planting a variety of apple trees and seeing them through to fruition. We think that posterity would be better served with apple trees than by untold human beings suffering the negative effects associated with the transmission of Original Sin
“We feel confident that, if accepted, this arrangement would be, indeed, a win-win situation. Posterity would never need to know about my clients’ misdemeanor. Let us not make everybody share in the guilt that should belong exclusively to one momentarily misguided couple.
“We also firmly believe that it is unfair for my clients to suffer the loss of both their habitat in Paradise as well as their exemption from disease and death, for the single act of eating the forbidden fruit. Can curiosity be a crime of such exalted significance? In addition to their commitment to service, my clients have issued a most sincere apology, together with a heartfelt promise that such a transgression against the expressed Will of the Almighty will never again take place.
“If they must be censured, let them be censured; but we do not think that Your determination to drive them from their home and deprive them of their original integrity is either necessary or just. Let them be restored to the integrity they formerly enjoyed so that they can be everything they can be for their children and serve as a shining role model for all their descendants.
“My clients are reliable and trustworthy people. They have seen the light and want very much to put this unfortunate incident behind them so that they can move forward with grace and dignity. We do not believe that Your Most Generous and Supreme Lord of the Universe has any urgency to enact the stupendous inconvenience of sending a Redeemer into the world for both them and for their progeny. They are truly self-starters and fully capable of finding their own way through life.
“We fear that the Divinity may be acting precipitously and with an insufficient amount of compassion and forgiveness by subjecting Adam and his First Lady to a Fall and a banishment from Eden. If need be, place them on parole so that that they will have the opportunity to demonstrate how well they will have reformed in the future.”
Satan, whether in the guise of a serpent or a lawyer, can fabricate a tempting case. God’s justice is hard, though His mercy, compassion, and forgiveness abide. Yet His is the only Order that can be realistic. God is the Creator, we are His creatures. It therefore belongs to God to exact justice and for us, His creatures, to obey.
The Original Sin was an attempt to abolish the Fatherhood of God and allow man to rule in His place. The rule of God’s Fatherhood, however, is inviolate and will not be mocked. Nor can human beings flourish when they try to invert the un-invertible Order that proceeds from the Creator to the created. History makes clear how poorly human beings fare when they reject God. History also makes clear how well human beings fare when they accept God and live by His Love.
Adam and Eve’s sin was not a momentary lapse, nor an inappropriate act made out of ignorance or impulse. It was a firm decision to supplant God and rule their lives in accordance with their own limited wisdom. Indeed, as it appears, our primal parents (as well as their descendants) do need a Redeemer. God does know what He is doing. The lawyer, as it turns out, is not an advocate for justice, but simply the deceiving serpent in a different guise.
Adam and Eve made an irrevocable decision to separate themselves from God and be their own gods. This made the redemptive act of Christ the Redeemer necessary for both our primal parents and all of their descendants.
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