A couple of weeks ago as I was doing some household chores, I was listening to Sean Hannity on 770AM, WABC–New York. The guest on the show was an atheist venting his outrage at recent efforts to make students recite the Pledge of Allegiance each day in the city’s public schools. It really wasn’t the pledge as much forcing student to utter the phrase "under God" that provoked this fellow's animus.

Following some probative questioning, the guest asserted his belief that religion is manipulative of human beings because it is based solely upon fear. He further asserted that, if people would realize how there really is nothing to fear, there would then wouldn't be a need for religion and it wouldn’t be long before people would relegate it to the dustbin of history where, he believed, religion belongs. Freed their fear, people would be much more mature, he asserted, acting less like little children afraid of the dark---when there’s nothing there---and more like wise adults---who would do make their choices and bear responsibility for the consequences.

As I listened to this fellow, I recalled that video clip where Rodney King said, "Can’t we all just get along?" I wanted to call the radio show and speak with the self-professed atheist. But, the sun was setting, the afternoon was drawing to a close, and I had to get my chores completed. Besides, I didn’t have the telephone number to place a call.

But, had I the opportunity, what I would have said is that the purpose of religion is not to make people fear, as this guest had asserted and, I am fairly certain, there were some---if not many---people in the audience who would concur heartily. In addition, there are many people who do fear God, in the sense of "being afraid" of God. In this sense, I’d agree with the self-professed atheist that this does not reflect spiritual maturity. On the contrary, however, I would suggest that religion is about "hope" and, in particular, the hope to be discovered deep in the mystery of who we are. This is the hope that makes it possible for human beings not only to freely will something good but also to direct the power of free will to accomplish much good.

With all due respect to Mr. King, human beings can’t "all just get along." No, they must will to get along. Left solely to their own devices, history teaches that there isn’t a reasonable whit of hope that human beings will ever get along.  Co-exist maybe, but not get along.

Religion provides the hope that makes it possible for human beings to respond in difficult and trying circumstances in truly amazing ways. On this Feast of the Immaculate Conception we celebrate the victory of hope over fear as Mary---against all the odds---mustered the will power to respond to the angel Gabriel’s message by saying, "Let it be done unto me according to your will." In the crucible, Mary looks deep in the mystery of who she is and discovers hope where most would look around, experience fear, and respond, "Thanks, but no thanks. The cost is simply too much to ask me to bear."

Contrast Mary’s response with Eve’s in the Garden of Eden. Created immaculately in the image and likeness of God, both Adam and Eve were perfectly capable of freely willing and doing good. In that sense, they and all of their progeny could "all just get along." But, left to their own devices, Eve first and then Adam freely willed to be disobedient by seeking to become not more fully human but more like God, the One who alone is capable of knowing all good and evil. One concept oftentimes overlooked in this very important story is that Eve and Adam were not disobedient only to God---by which they introduced fear of God into human experience---but Adam and Eve were also disobedient to themselves and, in particular, their human nature---by which they introduced enmity into human experience. From that point forward, human beings found themselves fearing not only God but themselves as well.

It’s a comical scene if its consequences weren’t so truly tragic. Think about it: Eve freely chooses to be disobedient both to God and to her human nature and, subsequently, convinces Adam to do likewise. Imagine what that conversation must have been like. "Oh, come on, honey. Would you do it---just take a bite, it's nothing, really----take a bite, just for me? Please? Please? Oh, pretty please? I did it and look...nothing's happened to me." Then, recognizing things that they hadn’t noticed before---among which was their nakedness---the two co-conspirators not only attempt to cover up what they now recognize but they also try to hide the fact from God.

See the deception? See how fear of having to bear responsibility for their freely chosen disobedience is motivating Adam and Eve to be increasingly deceptive? And, to top matters off, when God---the One who knows all---discovers the pair hiding, lo and behold, Adam turns towards Eve and blames her for his actions!  Now, here's a real guy! Mr. Macho himself hiding behind Eve rather than bearing responsibility for his freely willed choice. And, as if Adam isn’t irresponsible enough, Eve compounds matters by blaming a talking serpent. Did she really think God would actually believe her fiction? Doesn't that sound like the kind of story kids invent when they know they've been caught being disobedient?

The point of this story, of course, is for us to examine the evil choices we've made and, knowing how these choices have altered our lives in ways for which we’re now ashamed, to recognize further that we've wasted an awful lot of time and energy mightily trying to cover up, to hide, and to deny responsibility for our freely chosen disobedience. Indeed, if we live in fear of God, it’s not because religion makes us fearful. No, it’s because we have freely acted in ways by which we have estranged ourselves not only from God but also from one another. And, sadly, all we do is point the finger of blame at everyone else for the woes we’ve created for ourselves if only because we thought that we could get away with it. In sum, we’ve made the same wreck of our lives just that Adam and Eve did by introducing chaos into the order that God instilled at the world's creation.

Adam and Eve’s sad legacy is the stain (the "macula") of their evil choices by which they've insured that fear and estrangement will characterize the lives of their progeny. Left solely to our own devices we can’t "all just get along." Through freely willed choices, Adam and Eve---and all of us as well---turn the perfection of the created order upside down. We introduce fear into our lives, especially the fear of being held accountable for our disobedience both to God and to ourselves as God’s creatures. Furthermore, we introduce enmity into our lives by loving ourselves more than we love God and others.

Today’s Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a celebration of the victory of the power of hope over the power of fear. This feast day reminds us that, of all the human beings that God has created, Mary alone was conceived without the stain that makes Adam and Eve’s progeny prone to disobedience. Out of divine love, God created Mary immaculate, that is, free of the macula of original sin. That does not mean, however, that Mary’s life was free from temptation. No, it does mean that, as Mary confronted evil in her life as a mom, wife, and friend, she wasn’t seduced as we are by evil’s false and empty promises. And, because of this, Mary’s example offers us hope.  If we follow her example and use our lives and free wills to fight evil as it tempts us to be disobedient and, subsequently, to re-introduce fear and estrangement into our lives, we too can displace the chaos we've created by freely willing obedience to God.