LIVING PARADOXES, PART II. . .

The ‘both-and’ way moves us away from the question: ‘Are we humans basically evil and corrupt or are we basically good and virtuous’ to ‘are we humans potentially both?’ For ‘people of the book’ (Jews, Christians, Muslims) the ‘Old Testament’ does not take the position of our fundamental corruption; nowhere is there a hint that their disobedience has corrupted human kind. On the contrary, their disobedience is the condition for our becoming ‘self-aware,’ for our capacity to choose – as Eric Fromm noted, ‘this first act of disobedience is man’s first step toward freedom.’

Thanks to Adam and Eve’s disobedience and expulsion from the ‘Garden’ we humans were able to make our own history, to develop our potentials, to strive to create our way of being in harmony with nature, to become ‘fully human beings’ (prior to their disobedience, we were not fully human beings). Because we have free will and thereby choice our potential for great good will not necessarily win out. The ‘Old Testament’ provides us many examples of both ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and even exalted figures like King David are among those who chose ‘evil’ over ‘good.’ The ‘Old Testament’ affirms that we humans are indeed ‘living paradoxes’ – we are capable of great good and of great evil; each one of us has this capacity. Each of us, then, must choose between ‘doing good’ or ‘doing evil.’ Each of us, then, must choose between offering ‘blessings’ or offering ‘curses.’ Each of us, then, must choose between nurturing ‘life’ or nurturing ‘death.’ Even God does not interfere with our freedom to choose. God does care for us and at times sends us messengers to remind us (for example: Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, Muhammad – more recently by Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela); at times we wake up and pay attention –and become disturbed by their reminders – and at other times we give lip service to their messages and at times we kill the messenger with the hope that God will leave us alone. BUT….God loves us and so God will not leave us alone; God will continue to seek us out and remind us of our ‘better selves’ and invite us to choose the ‘good,’ the ‘truth,’ and the ‘beauty’ (life over death).

Because we are fully human beings God will continue to send messengers and these messengers will continue to teach us about that which will open the pathway (our ‘hearts’) to the ‘good’; they will help us discern the ‘evil’ that resides within each of us; they will warn us; they will protest the ‘evil we do to ourselves and to others.’ Then they will leave us alone so we can choose between our two potentials – the ‘good’ and the ‘evil’ that resides within each of us. Each of us has the ‘freedom’ and the ‘response-ability’ to choose and even if we seek to ‘escape from this freedom’ that does not change the reality: We are living paradoxes and we will choose!’ Perhaps the irony is that we have no choice – each of us will choose; each of us does choose.