Poetry that makes you say, "Hmmm", part 1

My wife and I went to a concert by the Cantata Singers here in Boston last Friday. They did a couple of wonderful Bach cantatas wrapped around a modern work by Andrew Imbrie called Adam. This particular work starts with a series of medieval poems and three of them have real twists that got my attention.

Before I go further, though, I want to mention how great the music was. I don't know if it was me or the performers, but it seemed to me as if they were just so clear in their intent that even relatively poorly educated (musically, anyway) me could see where they were going. I often feel more like I'm watching a game without knowing any of the rules!

Anyway, here is the first movement's poem:

Adam Lay I-bounden
Adam lay i-bounden, bounden in a bond;
Foure thousand winter thought he not too long.
And all was for an apple, an apple that he took,
As clerkes finden written in theire book.
Ne hadde the apple taken been, the apple taken been,
Ne hadde never our Lady aye been Heaven's queen.
Blessed be the time that apple taken was,
Therefore we may singen, "Deo gracias!"

The author (anonymous or unknown) points out that without Adam's sin we wouldn't have had Mary becoming the Queen of Heaven (by being Jesus' mother). So we should be glad that Adam sinned. Huh? Like I said "....makes you say 'Hmmm''".

On the one side, Adam's sin sure has messed things up a bunch:

• Violence
• Injustice
• Death
  

...just to name a few things that we might want to have second thoughts about.

On the other, God loves us and accepts us as we are. We'd never know the depth of God's love without sin.

I'm just not sure I can get to the place where I can say, "Blessed be the day that apple taken was." More like, "Thank God the apple isn't where the story ends!"

In any case, "Deo Gracias!"