{"id":6218,"date":"2012-12-08T19:28:06","date_gmt":"2012-12-09T00:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=6218"},"modified":"2012-12-08T19:28:06","modified_gmt":"2012-12-09T00:28:06","slug":"fixed-is-not-unbroken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html","title":{"rendered":"Fixed is not Unbroken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The post on judgement and culpability<\/a> has (terrifyingly) crested 300 comments (but I probably deserved that). \u00a0I\u2019ll be reading through them and making notes tomorrow, but I won\u2019t be responding until later in the week, since there\u2019s a highly relevant lecture tomorrow night that I\u2019d like to hear first. \u00a0And DC area folks may want in.<\/p>\n

The Dominican House of Studies is holding a series of talks on the Four Last Things for the four Sundays of Advent. \u00a0(Advent is an anticipatory season, but, in addition to being a remembrance of the anticipation of the birth of Christ, it\u2019s also meant to sharpen our longing for Christ\u2019s return, so that\u2019s the focus of the talks). \u00a0Tomorrow\u2019s lecture is titled \u201cJudgement<\/a>\u201d and that link goes to the Facebook event with full logistic details.<\/p>\n

I went to last week\u2019s lecture (\u201cDeath\u201d) but will miss the last two in the series (\u201cHeaven\u201d and \u201cHell\u201d). \u00a0I\u2019m quite glad I made it up to Catholic University last week, since the friar who was lecturing touched on a facet of the story of Genesis that I\u2019d never noticed before. \u00a0When Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden, God doesn\u2019t intend their expulsion solely as punishment:<\/p>\n

Then the Lord God said, \u201cSee, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever\u201d\u2014 therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen 3:22-24<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I had seen this passage before, and I had assumed that Adam and Eve were essentially on a trial run in the Garden. \u00a0If they resisted temptation for long enough, eventually they would be allowed to eat from the Tree of Life, but, since they flunked the test, God didn\u2019t want them sneaking around to claim the prize. \u00a0But what the Dominican brother pointed out is that, in the text, God only proscribes the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. \u00a0When Eve speaks to the serpent, she says they are free to eat from any tree except that one.<\/p>\n

What the lecturer concluded was that people were naturally mortal, even in the Edenic state, but that God extended the grace of immortality to them through the fruit of the Tree of Life (woo, Eucharistic foreshadowing, etc!). \u00a0The reason that they \u201cshall surely die\u201d as the result of their disobedience is that their disobedience causes God to withdraw his supernatural graces and to restore them to their natural, mortal state.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The friar went on to say that, although we might think the ultimate goal is to return to the Garden and eat again from the Tree of Life, we\u2019re clearly not going to take on a sword-wielding\u00a0angel in single combat. \u00a0So, since we cannot come to the Tree, the Tree of Life came to us, but, to reach us, it suffered a sea-change, into something rich and strange. \u00a0Christ on the cross is the new Tree of Life, and that fruit of that tree is what will restore to us our former graces.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d never heard this Old Testament-New Testament connection made before, so I\u2019m quite excited to see tomorrow\u2019s lecture on Judgement and to be able to reflect on it before responding to some of your comments (with priority going to David and Jay). \u00a0If you\u2019d like to listen the Dominican House lecture, they\u2019ve uploaded the audio here<\/a>. \u00a0The exegesis I\u2019ve glossed above was just one strand of a great lecture that was peppered with more jokes than I expected (including a very funny one about Franciscans).<\/p>\n

Oh, and last week\u2019s lecture gained new relevance this morning, when my \u201cRead the Catechism in a Year<\/a>\u201d email arrived. \u00a0We\u2019re up to various comments on angelology, and today\u2019s excerpt discussed the fallen angels: \u201d It is the irrevocable<\/em> character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels\u2019 sin unforgivable.\u201d \u00a0Humans live in time and are subject to change, so this contrast with the angels helps to explain why we were so quickly shunted away from immortality. \u00a0It is an act of mercy to not calcify someone in zer sin, but to give him\/her the flexibility to change and turn away from their choice.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The post on judgement and culpability has (terrifyingly) crested 300 comments (but I probably deserved that). \u00a0I\u2019ll be reading through them and making notes tomorrow, but I won\u2019t be responding until later in the week, since there\u2019s a highly relevant lecture tomorrow night that I\u2019d like to hear first. \u00a0And DC area folks may want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":6222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[44,25],"class_list":["post-6218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parsing-catholicism","tag-bible-study","tag-soteriology"],"yoast_head":"\nFixed is not Unbroken<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The post on judgement and culpability has (terrifyingly) crested 300 comments (but I probably deserved that). \u00a0I'll be reading through them and making\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fixed is not Unbroken\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The post on judgement and culpability has (terrifyingly) crested 300 comments (but I probably deserved that). \u00a0I'll be reading through them and making\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unequally Yoked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-09T00:28:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/84\/2012\/12\/expuslsion-from-eded.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"585\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html\",\"name\":\"Fixed is not Unbroken\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-09T00:28:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-09T00:28:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\"},\"description\":\"The post on judgement and culpability has (terrifyingly) crested 300 comments (but I probably deserved that). \u00a0I'll be reading through them and making\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fixed is not Unbroken\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/\",\"name\":\"Unequally Yoked\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\",\"name\":\"Leah Libresco\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Leah Libresco\"},\"description\":\"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. Her further writing can be found at leahlibresco.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/author\/leahlibresco\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fixed is not Unbroken","description":"The post on judgement and culpability has (terrifyingly) crested 300 comments (but I probably deserved that). \u00a0I'll be reading through them and making","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fixed is not Unbroken","og_description":"The post on judgement and culpability has (terrifyingly) crested 300 comments (but I probably deserved that). \u00a0I'll be reading through them and making","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html","og_site_name":"Unequally Yoked","article_published_time":"2012-12-09T00:28:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"585","height":"390","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/84\/2012\/12\/expuslsion-from-eded.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Leah Libresco","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Leah Libresco","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html","name":"Fixed is not Unbroken","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-12-09T00:28:06+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-09T00:28:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464"},"description":"The post on judgement and culpability has (terrifyingly) crested 300 comments (but I probably deserved that). \u00a0I'll be reading through them and making","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/fixed-is-not-unbroken.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fixed is not Unbroken"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/","name":"Unequally Yoked","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464","name":"Leah Libresco","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Leah Libresco"},"description":"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. Her further writing can be found at leahlibresco.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/author\/leahlibresco"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}