THE KNUCKLEHEAD
'
S GUIDE TO COVENANTAL THEOLOGY
139
'self-centered' he is as a consequence of the Fall.
This type of 'evidence' may be so familiar to you that you can't see
what's wrong with it, in spite of the fact that, in theory, there must be
something wrong with it, since 'flesh' by itself can never find anything
whose existence depends on more than 'flesh' -- not even the Fall.
Actually, it is fairly easy to demonstrate why all these 'proofs' must
fail. These proofs can prove our finitude, the fact that we die, the fact
that we get confused, the fact that we may have originated in Africa,
but they can't prove the crucial thing. They can't prove that it was ever
better than it is now.
We have to have had a place from which to Fall. This is obvious to
Fr. Keefe, but it appears not to have been obvious to very many
Catholic theologians.
We will never find the Fall in Mr. Minsky's and Ecclesiastes's Real
World, because, within that fallen world, the freedom from which Man
Fell is only available sacramentally. The Fall was not a 'pretend' Fall.
The freedom that we still really possess is only available to us in and
through the sacraments. Only the continued direct action in our time of
the Risen Lord in the sacramental 'order' which is, simultaneously, the
Eucharistic Event: Offertory, Consecration, and Communion, and the
New Covenant: 'flesh,' 'One Flesh,' and 'life' provides the real context
for 'flesh,' thus gives ex nihilo the actual ridiculous free responsibility
that is Man's, and thus provides the only ground on which to stand to
understand the Fall.
We resort to a familiar picture:
Here we are, over here, in the Fallen world
.
< - - - Nope, that's it. We're nowhere
else.
And now we destroy nothing of that picture, but transform it all:
Here is the Risen Lord, working in time, mediating,
pre-eminently in the Eucharist, the grace of his One
Sacrifice, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in and
through the Body and Bride of his Catholic Church,
with us in the Fallen world.
Catholic theology can find the Fall only in Him.
N.B. This is an html-ized copy of a page from the pdf file, The Knucklehead's Guide to Covenantal Theology.