General (Vol. 2)

The Fall in Question

Now in a willing state of mutual love,
Was it a fall when we lost innocence?
And was the journey from naiveté
Into self knowledge one of quickened sense?
How can we see that moment as abject
When shame ordained the clothing of the ram
When it foretold the glory of those clothes
Washed in the blood of Our redeeming lamb.
The price of lost serenity, though high -
Sorrow and hardship, death, uncertainty -
Is surely worth the tension with our God
Which makes our giving difficult but free:
This anthropocentric stance is, in itself,
Conditioned by our being and our lot
But, seeking our reward at heaven's gate,
The Eden first ordained is best forgot.
Except Our Saviour's passion which demands
At once our pity and our reverence
Raises the price god paid for our 'descent
From easy discourse into Sacrament:
Should we have loved to talk with God at ease
Before that crux encounter with the tree?
Too late to ask; before God planted it
His only son had died on Calvary.