The story of Adam and Eve demonstrates the all too human tendency to blame someone else. Adam pointed toward Eve, “The woman whom you put here with me— she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.” Eve pointed toward the serpent and, doubtless, if the serpent had arms for pointing he would have tried to shift the blame as well. In the world of politics no one is ever responsible — it’s always the other guys fault. When someone is eventually cornered and has to own up, a generic “Mistakes were made” is admitted to but not that I made the mistake. By contrast, Jesus in the gospels takes responsiblity even for things which were not of his making. When he saw hungry people he felt a responsiblity to do something about it. We might not be responsible for racism or poverty or hunger or disease or injustice but we are called to respond to them. We can’t do everything but we can do something.
