God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

Here is the commentary on the readings and biblical texts for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception [Sunday 8 December 2024].

*First Reading Genesis 3.9-15.20

The tree of life was planted by God in the centre of Eden and somewhere in the same garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that is, the tree of what makes us happy or unhappy. The delivery was simple: "You may eat of all the trees in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you must not eat, for on the day that you eat of it you must surely die" Gen 2:16-17). God commands not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but it is not specified where this tree is located because the story has a high allegorical and symbolic meaning and invites us to focus rather on the ethical and theological message than on its geographical location. For many theologians and saints, this tree symbolises moral awareness, maturity and human responsibility.  St. Augustine interprets it as a test of obedience and free will: "The fruit of the tree was good not by its nature, but as a sign of a greater good: man's submission to God" (from De Genesi ad litteram, on Genesis verbatim). The serpent asks the woman if it is true that God has commanded not to eat of any of the trees in the garden and she, being very honest, corrects him by answering that one can eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, except of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden because God has said: "You must not eat of it nor touch it, otherwise you will die" (Gen 3:1-3).  She thinks she is rectifying, but, without knowing it, she has already distorted the truth: the simple fact of having entered into conversation with the serpent has distorted her gaze and one could say that now it is the tree that hides the forest because she sees the forbidden tree in the middle of the garden and not instead the tree of life. Now the trap is set and the serpent continues his work of seduction by saying that they will not die at all, and God knows that the day they eat of it their eyes will be opened and they will be like God, knowing what makes them happy or unhappy. To become like God with a simple magic act is irresistible and the woman allows herself to be tempted. Lapidary is the conclusion: "She took of her fruit and ate of it, then she gave it also to her husband, who was with her, and he also ate of it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked; they plaited fig leaves and made themselves belts out of them"(6-7).  Until that moment, their nakedness (i.e. their fragility) did not seem to make them very uncomfortable, whereas now they are ashamed 'in front' of each other. This is where the relationship - one in front of the other - came into crisis, with all the consequences that mark the difficulties of relationships between us human beings.  They used to trust God, but the serpent whispered that not only was God an antagonist to them, but he was even afraid because you - he told them - 'would be like God'. In reality, their eyes have been opened, but their gaze is completely distorted: from now on they will live in fear of God and that is why they hide. But God does not abandon them, on the contrary, he seeks them out despite the fact that the original project has been contradicted: by now man has broken his relationship as a happy creature with God and is subject to fear, to discomfort in the search for his own autonomy. To the Creator's questions, the man and the woman answer the pure truth without adding or subtracting anything: both have allowed themselves to be seduced and have disobeyed. The man says that the woman gave him the fruit and the woman adds that she was deceived by the serpent: in short, everything comes from the serpent. At this point the Lord assails the serpent: "for you have done this, you cursed of all wild animals. The conclusion we can draw from this highly symbolic tale is that evil is not in man, and this is a fundamental statement of the Bible. In the face of pessimistic civilisations, which consider humanity to be intrinsically evil, biblical revelation affirms that evil is external to man: when we allow ourselves to be lured onto wrong paths, it is because we are deceived and seduced, and the struggle of all the prophets throughout the ages has aimed to counter the innumerable seductions that threaten man, primarily idolatry. Evil is completely alien to God and His wrath is always against that which destroys man. Where does evil come from if God does not want it? As already mentioned, it is clear in the Bible that evil is not part of man's nature and does not even come from God. Legitimate was the desire of the progenitors to be like gods and God does not reproach them for this having created them in his likeness and his very breath (ruah) is the breath of man. The problem is that they have succumbed to Satan's lie, certain that they can fulfil this aspiration on their own, with a sort of magical gesture, and the result is that they discover themselves naked, unhappy. All is not lost, however, and here is the most beautiful news that we read in this biblical page: God intimates to the serpent "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring: she shall crush your head, and you shall undermine (in Hebrew shuph means to crush, to wound, to ambush, to ambush) her heel". A fierce fight is announced between the serpent and the woman's lineage, but the final outcome is already certain: the serpent will be struck in the head, which is its most vulnerable part and the point from which the bite and the poison come. The woman's lineage will be crushed, and the snake will strike and wound her heel. The wound in the heel is symbolic of the sufferings of all kinds of humanity and the voluntary sufferings of Christ crucified, a wound that is not definitive because the Risen One coming out of the tomb defeats Satan forever. Ultimately, these words of God to the serpent constitute a promise of hope of redemption fully realised in Christ. Christian tradition has glimpsed in this Genesis account a distant announcement of the victory of the New Eve, Mary, to the point of calling it a 'proto-gospel', that is, a 'pre-gospel'. Mary is considered a key element in God's plan of redemption, as she is the mother of Christ, the Saviour who defeated sin and death. Her participation in the divine plan of salvation is illuminated by the biblical texts, while subsequent theological reflection has enriched our understanding and better focused on Mary's role throughout history. One of the titles attributed to her in the Christian tradition is precisely that of the New Eve because if Eve was the woman who, by her disobedience, introduced sin into the world, Mary is the one who, by her docile and total obedience to God, made the incarnation of Christ possible.  Just as sin entered the world through a woman, salvation enters through another woman, Mary, through whom God gave the world its Saviour. The Mother of Christ is seen as a co-operator in God's victory over sin and death, and her obedience, sacrifice and intercession make her a central figure in the entire plan of salvation. Finally, three notes to better understand this text: 

1.According to the Hebrew text (Gen 2:9), one should speak of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil", but such a translation, although correct from a grammatical point of view and often taken up in our translations, could lead to a serious misunderstanding: the terms "good" and "evil" in Italian, as in other languages, have an abstract sense that does not correspond to the concrete and existential sensitivity of Jewish thought. This is why the expression "tree of knowledge of what makes one happy or unhappy" is preferable.  

2. The knowledge of good and evil brings to mind King Solomon traditionally regarded as the symbol of wisdom and enlightened judgement. He asked God not for riches or power, but for a wise and intelligent heart to rule the people with justice (1 Kings 3:9). God granted him and made him the wisest king of his time. According to the biblical view, wisdom is not pure human intelligence, but a gift from God to discern good from evil; it is the ability to rule justly and make just decisions; it is the pursuit of universal knowledge, of nature, of the laws of the cosmos and of human life, as witnessed by the books attributed to Solomon, including Proverbs, Qoelet and the Song of Songs. Finally, it is practical and moral wisdom that integrates intellectual knowledge, moral justice and prudence in human relations. Solomon's reputation as a sage attracted rulers and scholars from distant lands, such as the Queen of Sheba, who visited him to test his wisdom (1 Kings 10:1-13). Wisdom was sought in his court because it is the true way of life.  

3.The biblical account of the sin of the progenitors invites humility because only to God belongs the possession of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of what makes one happy or unhappy: it is therefore inaccessible to man. What to do then? The Bible invites us to feed daily on the tree of life, which is God's Law, the Torah. Unfortunately, what tempts man is always the thirst for knowledge seduced by the thirst for power in all its forms. God introduces us into another knowledge in the biblical sense, the only one that is really worthwhile, namely love. 

*Responsorial Psalm 97/98:

"All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God" (v.3). 

The speaker is Israel, who calls God "our God", highlighting the privileged relationship that exists between this small people and the God of the universe. A people that has little by little understood that its mission in the world is not to jealously guard this intimate relationship for itself, but to proclaim that God's love is for all men, gradually integrating the whole of humanity into the Covenant. In this psalm we perceive the 'two loves of God': God loves the people he has chosen for himself and he loves all the other peoples of the earth, whom the psalmist defines as 'the nations'. "The Lord has made known his salvation, in the eyes of the Gentiles he has revealed his righteousness" (v.2). And immediately afterwards, in verse 3, we find: "he has remembered his love, his faithfulness to the house of Israel". The house of Israel recalls what we call "the election of Israel". Behind this short phrase we perceive all the weight of history and the past: the simple words "his love" and "his faithfulness" strongly evoke the Covenant. If Israel's election is central, Israel must not forget that its testimony must shine before all mankind. Indeed, even now in the days of the Feast of Tabernacles or Tabernacles (sukkot or "harvest festival" Chag HaAsif), which commemorates the 40 years lived in the desert after the exit from Egypt, in Jerusalem the people already acclaim God as king on behalf of all mankind. This psalm therefore anticipates the day when God will be recognised as king of the whole earth. One of the great certainties that men of the Bible have progressively acquired is that God loves all mankind, not just Israel, and in this psalm, this certainty is also reflected in the very structure of the text. When God's victory is sung, his ultimate victory is also celebrated against all the forces of evil. As Christians, we can acclaim God with even greater strength, because our eyes have come to know Christ, the King of the world: with his Incarnation, the Kingdom of God, which is the Kingdom of love, has already begun.

* Second Reading Eph. 1:3-6.11-12

In just twelve verses, St Paul presents God's plan and invites us to join in his contemplation, a plan that consists in gathering humanity together to form one Man in Jesus Christ, the head of all creation: "making known to us the mystery of his will according to the kindness he had purposed in him for the government of the fullness of time: to bring all things in heaven and on earth back to Christ, the one head" (vv. 9-10).  Let us simply point out some good news. 

First news: God has a plan for each of us and for the whole of creation. History has meaning, direction and significance. For believers, the years do not follow one another evenly and history advances towards its fulfilment, bringing us closer, as St Paul writes "to the fullness of time" (v. 10). We could never have discovered this plan on our own because it is a mystery that infinitely surpasses us and in Paul's language, mystery is not a secret that God jealously guards, but rather his intimacy to which he invites us. 

Second news: God's will is all and only love. The words "blessing, love, grace, kindness" punctuate the text, which then bursts forth "in praise of the splendour of his grace (of his glory v.12,14) with which he has graced us in his beloved Son" (v.6). In praise of his grace because God is to be recognised as the God of grace, that is, the God whose love is gratuitous. Jesus has revealed to us that the heavenly Father is love, he wants us to enter into his intimacy and desires that in every circumstance his will be done, because it is always good.

Third emphasis: God's plan is fulfilled through Christ, who is mentioned many times in these verses: everything happens "through him, with him and in him", as the liturgy says. God has predestined us "to be for him adopted children through Jesus Christ" (v. 5). Christ is the centre of the world and of human history (the alpha and the omega); the beloved Son in whom the Father has "graced" us (v. 6) and in whom we shall all be gathered together at the fulfilment of time. The 'mystery' of God's will is indeed to recapitulate the whole universe in Christ. 

*Gospel Luke 1, 26-38

In Nazareth, a village at that time unknown and insignificant, in a province little considered by the authorities in Jerusalem, the angel Gabriel spoke to a girl named Mary, paying her the most sublime compliment ever received by a woman: "full of grace" (Kecharitomene) which means totally immersed in God's grace, filled with divine favour without any shadow. This virgin, Mary, little more than a teenager, at the end of the encounter and in perfect harmony, responds to God's plan with full adhesion: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord: let it be to me according to your word'.  Between the angel's words and the Virgin's response, history has known the decisive turning point that is the hour of the Incarnation of the Word. From that moment on, nothing will ever be the same again because all the promises of the Old Testament now find their fulfilment. Indeed, every word of the angel evokes them and reveals the "fulfilment" of the expectation of the Messiah that has forever marked the course of the centuries. A king descendant of David was expected and here echoes the promise made to David by the prophet Nathan (2 Sam 7) from which the whole messianic expectation developed and constitutes the very heart of the angel Gabriel's announcement: "The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end" (vv. 32-33). Another title attributed to the Messiah is "he shall be called Son of God (of the Most High)", which in biblical language means "king", referring to the promise made by God to David: every new king, on the day of his consecration, received the title of Son of God. Mary understands and reminds the angel that she is a virgin and therefore cannot conceive a child naturally. Well known is the angel's response that recalls other messianic promises, infinitely surpassing them: 'The Holy Spirit will descend upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. Therefore he who is born will be holy and will be called the Son of God'.  The Messiah was expected to be invested with the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfil his mission of salvation as Isaiah had foretold: "A shoot will sprout from the trunk of Jesse, a bud will sprout from his roots. Upon him the spirit of the Lord shall rest" (Is 11:1-2), yet the announcement of the angel Gabriel goes much further because the child conceived will truly be the Son of God. Evident is Luke's insistence on this point: the child does not have a human father, but is "Son of God". The text offers two proofs/signs: firstly, Mary declares: "I know no man" (in the original text: I have no relationship with man). In addition, the angel entrusts the task of naming the child to the mother and this is a very unusual procedure, which can only be explained in the absence of a human father because it was always the father who decided on the child's name as seen in the birth of John the Baptist. The relatives turned to Zechariah, even though he was mute, and not to Elizabeth, to decide what to call the child. Moreover, when the angel reassures Mary: "the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow", it is natural to think of a new creation, bringing to mind what we read in the book of Genesis: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... The spirit of God was upon the waters" (Gen 1:2). This same image is present in Psalm 104: "Send out your spirit, they are created" (v. 30).  The "cloud", "the shadow" of the Most High God evokes the divine presence on the Tent of Meeting during the Exodus, and on the day of the Transfiguration designates Jesus as the Son of God: "This is my Son, the chosen one; listen to him!"(Lk 9:35). 

Mary's response to such great revelations is moving and surprising, indeed it becomes a school of faith. It is of a disarming simplicity, a perfect example of "obedience of faith" as Paul says (Rom 1:5; 16:26), abandonment with total trust to the divine will. By answering 'yes, here I am', Mary joins the true believers of history.  Samuel answered: 'Speak, Lord, your servant hears you' (1 Sam 3:10) and Mary simply: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord: let it be to me according to your word'. The term 'handmaid' proclaims full availability to God's plan and shows that a simple 'yes' is sufficient for God's works because 'nothing is impossible to God'. Thanks to the yes of Mary, an unknown girl in Nazareth, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14).  The promise of the prophet Zephaniah to the people of God, who had been stained by so many crimes and unfaithfulness that they were reduced to a small remnant, comes to mind: "Rejoice, daughter of Zion, shout for joy, Israel, rejoice and shout with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem... The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst" (Zeph 3:14-15). Today's solemnity exalts an event beyond all possible human imagination and Mary too will need her whole life to "keep all these things, pondering them in her heart" (Lk 2.19; 51). The attitude of meditation and total openness to God's will is a central aspect of Mary's life, and becomes the model of every true believer, every authentic disciple of Christ. 

*The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Let me add a few thoughts on the symbolic value of this tree often confused with the tree of life. It is not specified where exactly it is located and this alone tells us that its location is irrelevant to its symbolic and allegorical role.  The narrative focuses on the relationship between God and Adam and Eve and each other whereby this tree serves as a test of human beings' obedience to God and invites us to understand why we human beings have difficulty relating to each other.  Specifying the geographical location would have shifted the focus away from the main theme, which is the fall and sin. Many scholars and theologians believe that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolises moral awareness, maturity and human responsibility. The absence of a geographical description also suggests that the tree is not a physical object, but a symbol of knowledge that is reserved for God and not directly accessible to man. In many Jewish and Christian traditions, the tree is seen as a symbol of a boundary between the divine and the human. God does not forbid man the tree out of cruelty, but because the kind of knowledge represented by that tree - an absolute knowledge of good and evil - is a divine prerogative, and its indefinite location might suggest that it is not a physical place reachable by human beings, but represents a spiritual dimension that can only be understood through the experience of relationship with God. Every person, in a certain sense, must face in his or her life the choice symbolically represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In Genesis, next to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there is also the tree of life, also not described geographically. This suggests that both trees represent aspects of spiritual life that transcend material reality. Their location is not important because they are archetypes of spiritual experiences, not physical objects.  Everything here invites reflection not on where the tree is located, but on what it represents in the journey of spiritual growth and confrontation with human freedom and responsibility.

Interpretations that see the tree of knowledge as a symbol of a transcendent reality or a boundary between the divine and the human have deep roots in both ancient and modern exegetical traditions. Here are some examples of authors and theologians, both among the Church Fathers and modern theologians, who have explored this theme:

1. St Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.) interprets the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in a symbolic way, seeing it not as a mere physical tree, but as a test of obedience and free will. In his masterpiece 'The City of God', he emphasises that the tree had no inherent power, but represented the moral limit imposed by God to educate man to dependence on Him. He sees the tree as a symbol of knowledge that only God can fully possess, as man is not created to decide good and evil for himself. Work: De Genesi ad Litteram (On Genesis literally)

"The fruit of the tree was good, not by its nature, but as a sign of a greater good: man's submission to God."

2. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) in the Summa Theologiae, addresses the theme of the tree of knowledge and interprets it as a symbol of the capacity for moral discernment that God wanted to reserve for man at the appropriate time, after he had reached full maturity. According to Thomas, eating the fruit represents a rebellion against the divine order, seeking to appropriate knowledge that man alone was not ready to handle.

Work: Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 94, a. 2 "The tree was not forbidden because of its fruit, but because of its moral significance: man had to wait for God's time to partake of full knowledge."

3. Gregory of Nyssa (4th century AD) Father of the Eastern Church, interprets the tree as a symbol of spiritual growth and the progress of the soul towards perfection. He sees the tree of knowledge as a stage that man had to reach only at a later stage, through a journey of purification and progressive knowledge of God. Work: De Hominis Opificio (On the Creation of Man) "The tree of knowledge is not evil in itself, but it becomes so when man approaches it with arrogance and disobedience, outside the time appointed by God."

4. Among modern theologians, the symbolic and transcendent interpretation of the tree is taken up by authors such as: Claus Westermann (1909-2000), a German exegete, in his commentary on Genesis, emphasises that the tree represents the moral autonomy that man seeks to gain without God. Work: Genesis (Commentary) "The tree is not merely a physical tree, but a reality that represents man's fundamental choice between trusting God or seeking his own moral independence." Henri Blocher (1942), a French evangelical theologian, interprets the tree as a symbol of the mystery of God's sovereignty, a knowledge that belongs exclusively to the Creator. Work: In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis: "The tree represents what belongs exclusively to God: the right to define what is good and what is evil."

*In the Jewish tradition, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Etz HaDa'at Tov va-Ra') has a complex meaning and a wealth of interpretations, which often differ from Christian interpretations. While Christianity focuses on the fall and original sin, Judaism does not regard the sin of Adam and Eve as an inherited guilt, but rather as an event that offers important lessons about human beings, freedom and moral responsibility. Here are some of the main Jewish interpretations of the tree of knowledge:

1. The Tree as a symbol of maturity and discernment. Many rabbis and Jewish scholars see the tree as a symbol of the ability to discern between good and evil, a quality that Adam and Eve acquired by eating its fruit. Before eating from the tree, they lived in a state of innocence, devoid of moral awareness and responsibility.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), one of the founders of modern Orthodox Judaism, interprets the tree as the ability to make autonomous moral choices, a necessary stage for humanity to evolve from a childlike condition to a life of responsibility. "The forbidden fruit represents the transition from childlike obedience to autonomous ethical awareness."

2. Not sin, but awareness of mortality. Some rabbis, including the philosopher Maimonides (Rambam, 1138-1204), argue that eating from the tree did not bring sin into the world, but gave human beings an awareness of their mortality and imperfect condition. For Maimonides, the tree represents sensitive and material knowledge, which contrasts with intellectual and divine knowledge. Work: Guide of the Perplexed (Moreh Nevukhim): "Before eating from the tree, Adam and Eve lived according to pure, intellectual truth; afterwards, they began to perceive the world through the lens of desire and sensible pleasure." In this view, the tree is not necessarily negative: it represents humanity's entry into a complex condition, in which good and evil, life and death, pleasure and pain are mixed.

3. Knowledge as moral responsibility. In the Midrash (rabbinic exegetical accounts), the tree is often interpreted as a test through which God wanted to teach mankind moral responsibility. Adam and Eve were not destined to remain in the Garden of Eden forever, but had to prove their ability to respect God's established boundaries. According to the Midrash Rabbah on Genesis, God wanted man to learn to respect boundaries and to understand that not everything is accessible or useful to him. The prohibition against eating from the tree symbolises the fact that human freedom is always accompanied by ethical limits. "Not everything that is desirable is good, and not everything that is permitted is necessary."

4. The fruit of the tree: symbolism and interpretations. Jewish tradition does not explicitly identify what the fruit of the tree was. However, there are several rabbinic interpretations of the type of fruit: Fig: Some commentators suggest that it was a fig, since Adam and Eve immediately covered themselves with fig leaves after eating the fruit (Genesis 3:7). Grapes: According to another midrashic tradition, the fruit may have been grapes, a symbol of desire and wine, which brings both joy and misfortune. Wheat: Some rabbis interpret the fruit as grains of wheat, symbolising knowledge and the ability to distinguish between good and evil, since in Jewish culture wheat is linked to wisdom.

5. The role of God and human freedom. In Jewish tradition, the tree of knowledge is often interpreted as a gift that God grants to human beings to enable them to become co-creators of their own destiny. Unlike the Christian tradition, which emphasises the concept of the fall and sin, Judaism emphasises the importance of freedom of choice and the possibility of rectifying one's actions through repentance (teshuvah); it is therefore seen as an educational challenge that leads human beings to grow in awareness and responsibility. Authors such as Maimonides, Hirsch and the Midrash Rabbah emphasise that the essence of the tale is the theme of moral freedom, the need to accept the limits imposed by God and the possibility of spiritual evolution.

+ Giovanni D'Ercole