The Third Fall

Learning to get up again after we fall

07/17/2018

Matthew 11:20-24 Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum: Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the nether world. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

Whenever I read the gospels, I am always mystified by how the Jews missed the Messiah. Not everyone missed him, of course, but the Jewish authorities did, and it was their sworn responsibility to be on the lookout for him and even to rejoice when he arrived. But Jesus’ own people did a lot worse than miss him, they maligned him, they mistreated him, and finally they murdered him. Everything in the nearly 2,000 years of Jewish history – all the way from Abraham to Malachi, all the pronouncements of the prophets, all the wisdom of the Mosaic law, all the poetry of King David – served as a kind of opening movement to the symphony that was the life of our Lord. All Old Testament signs pointed straight to the Savior, but the Jews were walking with their eyes closed, and didn’t see the signs.

I’m not the only one to wonder about this Jewish oversight. Romano Guardini, the great German theologian who Pope Francis loves to read, said starkly: “The failure of the Jewish people to accept Christ was the second Fall, the import of which can be fully grasped only in connection with the first” (The Lord, 113). In other words, the fact that the Jews missed the Messiah was as catastrophic as Adam and Eve committing the original sin, and equally as astonishing. Why? Just like Adam and Eve were endowed with the preternatural gifts of infused knowledge, integrity of passions, and immortality, but still turned away from God, so the Jews, even though equally endowed with the gifts and graces of the Old Testament, turned away from Jesus. With good reason, therefore, Guardini calls this “the second Fall.”

This may shed some light on Jesus rather scathing judgment on the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. We read in Matthew 11: “Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented.” These three towns represented a microcosm of all Judaism, the people who should have jumped to convert at the first words to fall from Jesus lips when he said: “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk. 1:15). But their eyes were shut, and their ears were clogged, and their hearts were hardened. And Jesus is far from pleased with them because to whom much is given, much will be expected. Jesus had done mighty deeds for them.

May I go out on a limb at this point and suggest to you there is also a third fall, which is perhaps even more tragic than the first fall of Adam and Eve and even the second fall of the Jews? This third fall is whenever Catholics, me and you, turn away from Jesus and sin. In a sense, haven’t we been blessed with gifts of grace and glory – the sacraments, the Scriptures (both Old and New Testaments), the saints, the treasures of our tradition, the centuries of scholars, not to mention the prayers of Mother Mary – all this should make it virtually impossible for us to sin. And yet we do. That’s the third fall. When I think about how many years I have studied in Catholic schools, in seminary, and even studying canon law, I shake my head in shame thinking that I could still sin. And yet I do. I should be more saintly and smarter than I am! That’s the third fall. Maybe you have children who were raised as Catholics, went to Catholic schools, were even devout altar servers, but now no longer go to Mass. How is that possible? How can people who have been blessed beyond belief (literally) turn their back on God? That’s the third Fall.

I don’t know why we do that; why there’s a third fall. But here’s what I do know: God doesn’t give up on us. God didn’t give up on Adam and Eve; he didn’t give up on the Jews, and he does not give up on you and me. I guess that’s the reason the Good News is so good.

Praised be Jesus Christ!