The full text of the Holy Father's talk is found by clicking on the title of this entry. Below is the section that I want to highlight:
"Jesus Christ died to liberate the humanity of old of their ignorance of God, of the circle of hate and violence, of the slavery to sin. The cross makes us brothers and sisters.
But let us ask ourselves, in this moment, what have we done with this gift, what have we done with the revelation of the face of God in Christ, with the revelation of the love of God that conquers hate. Many, in our age as well, do not know God and cannot encounter him in Christ crucified. Many are in search of a love or a liberty that excludes God. Many believe they have no need of God.
Dear friends: After having lived together the passion of Jesus, let us this night allow his sacrifice on the cross to question us. Let us permit him to challenge our human certainties. Let us open our hearts. Jesus is the truth that makes us free to love. Let us not be afraid: upon dying, the Lord destroyed sin and saved sinners, that is, all of us. The Apostle Peter writes: "He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness" (1 Peter 2:24). This is the truth of Good Friday: On the cross, the Redeemer has made us adoptive sons of God who he created in his image and likeness. Let us remain, then, in adoration before the cross.
Christ, give us the peace we seek, the happiness we desire, the love the fills our heart thirsty for the infinite. This is our prayer for this night, Jesus, Son of God, who died for us on the cross and was resurrected on the third day."
How often we ignore God's love for us. How seldom do we look in the direction of the One who is calling us to friendship and union. How hard it is to truly walk the way of the cross with Him. My wife and I watched "The Passion of the Christ" last night as has become our tradition on Good Friday. We didn't want to watch it. We wanted to go to bed early. But we both knew that we needed to watch it. It never gets old. It is always horrible. Jesus became the Passover Lamb to set me free from the slavery of sin and death. He was slaughtered in a most horrible manner. How could I ever sin again after seeing what it cost Him? What won't I do to draw close to Him after all He did to draw close to me?
God invites us draw near to Him. He invites us to open our hearts to Him. We seek complete and total peace, happiness and love forever, and this is what God alone is able to give us. He died to give us what we desire. What are we doing with this gift? God asks us: Will you marry me? How do we respond to this invitation? It is all a matter of the heart. Do we close our heart and refuse Him? Or worse, do we simply ignore His invitation and greet it with indifference? True life is found only in our opening our heart to the One who loves us and died for us. "Let us remain, then, in adoration before the cross."
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label image and likeness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label image and likeness. Show all posts
2.26.2008
Jesus of Nazareth
I plan to work my way through Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Joseph Ratzinger, published by Doubleday in 2007. Tonight I want to start by focusing on the last sentences of his introduction on page eight:
“The disciple who walks with Jesus is thus caught up with him into communion with God. And that is what redemption means: this stepping beyond the limits of human nature, which had been there as a possibility and an expectation in man, God’s image and likeness, since the moment of creation.”
Putting what the Pope says in my own words, I would say: Jesus is the Way by which we are united to God and have a relationship with Him. This union and friendship with God is what redemption is, for heaven itself is nothing other than being with God. Jesus enables us to go beyond the merely natural and be transported into the supernatural reality for which God created us. Being made in God’s image and likeness bespeaks the reality that God made us to be in relationship with Him.
What I find most interesting in this quote from our Holy Father is that he connects our communion with God to our being created in the image and likeness of God. That makes sense. It relates to what I say which is that being created in the image and likeness of God means that we are created to be God’s spouse and to have the deepest union with Him. Our two statements are not mutually exclusive; my statement is more specific and strongly stated.
The first chapter of the book is a reflection on the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. John is shocked that Jesus wants to be baptized by him, but Jesus replies to John saying, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The Pope reflects on Jesus’ words on page seventeen of his book:
“The key to interpreting Jesus’ answer is how we understand the word righteousness: The whole of righteousness must be fulfilled. In Jesus’ world, righteousness is man’s answer to the Torah, acceptance of the whole of God’s will, the bearing of the “yoke of God’s kingdom,” as one formulation had it. There is no provision for John’s baptism in the Torah, but this reply of Jesus is his way of acknowledging it as an expression of an unrestricted Yes to God’s will, as an obedient acceptance of his yoke.”
One is baptized then, in Jesus’ understanding, as an expression of an unrestricted Yes to the whole of God’s will and an obedient fulfillment of God’s commands. Pope Benedict says that the Eastern Church sees Jesus’ response here to John’s bewilderment as an anticipation of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My Father…not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Jesus is wholly given over to the will of His Heavenly Father, even unto death.
Today, when one is baptized, he enters into the death of Jesus, and he is given the very heart of Jesus which led Him to His faithful-unto-death self-offering. With Jesus’ heart within us, we are able to take on the impossible task of following and loving God and obeying His commands. We too are given the courage and spirit of sacrifice to say together with Jesus: “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” The Eucharist is an extension and celebration of our baptism, and as such, the Eucharist is the new heart we need to be wholly given over to the will of God. Jesus frees us from our slavery to our own wills and makes it possible for us to follow and please God perfectly.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
“The disciple who walks with Jesus is thus caught up with him into communion with God. And that is what redemption means: this stepping beyond the limits of human nature, which had been there as a possibility and an expectation in man, God’s image and likeness, since the moment of creation.”
Putting what the Pope says in my own words, I would say: Jesus is the Way by which we are united to God and have a relationship with Him. This union and friendship with God is what redemption is, for heaven itself is nothing other than being with God. Jesus enables us to go beyond the merely natural and be transported into the supernatural reality for which God created us. Being made in God’s image and likeness bespeaks the reality that God made us to be in relationship with Him.
What I find most interesting in this quote from our Holy Father is that he connects our communion with God to our being created in the image and likeness of God. That makes sense. It relates to what I say which is that being created in the image and likeness of God means that we are created to be God’s spouse and to have the deepest union with Him. Our two statements are not mutually exclusive; my statement is more specific and strongly stated.
The first chapter of the book is a reflection on the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. John is shocked that Jesus wants to be baptized by him, but Jesus replies to John saying, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The Pope reflects on Jesus’ words on page seventeen of his book:
“The key to interpreting Jesus’ answer is how we understand the word righteousness: The whole of righteousness must be fulfilled. In Jesus’ world, righteousness is man’s answer to the Torah, acceptance of the whole of God’s will, the bearing of the “yoke of God’s kingdom,” as one formulation had it. There is no provision for John’s baptism in the Torah, but this reply of Jesus is his way of acknowledging it as an expression of an unrestricted Yes to God’s will, as an obedient acceptance of his yoke.”
One is baptized then, in Jesus’ understanding, as an expression of an unrestricted Yes to the whole of God’s will and an obedient fulfillment of God’s commands. Pope Benedict says that the Eastern Church sees Jesus’ response here to John’s bewilderment as an anticipation of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My Father…not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Jesus is wholly given over to the will of His Heavenly Father, even unto death.
Today, when one is baptized, he enters into the death of Jesus, and he is given the very heart of Jesus which led Him to His faithful-unto-death self-offering. With Jesus’ heart within us, we are able to take on the impossible task of following and loving God and obeying His commands. We too are given the courage and spirit of sacrifice to say together with Jesus: “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” The Eucharist is an extension and celebration of our baptism, and as such, the Eucharist is the new heart we need to be wholly given over to the will of God. Jesus frees us from our slavery to our own wills and makes it possible for us to follow and please God perfectly.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.21.2008
We are "The One and Only Bride of Christ"
Today in my Magnificat the meditation of the day is from Saint Peter Damian, a doctor of the Catholic Church who died in 1072. What he says has some application to what I am saying; I will quote some of it. This selection comes from pages 111-112 of A Word in Season, Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours, volume V.
“The Church of Christ is united by a bond of mutual love so strong that not only is it a single entity subsisting in many members, but in each member it is also mysteriously present in its plenitude. So it is that the entire universal Church is rightly said to be the one and only bride of Christ, and each person, through the mystery of the sacrament, is believed to be the Church in its fullness. One in all and entire in each, holy Church is single in the plurality of its members thanks to the unity of faith, and manifold in each of them thanks to the bond of charity and the diversity of charisms, for they all come from One.”
What I understand Saint Peter Damian to be saying is that the Church is one Body with many members, as Saint Paul says, and the Church is also present in Her fullness in each of Her members. The part that I don’t remember hearing before is that the Church is present in each of Her members; I had thought something like that, but I don’t remember ever reading it. If you and I, as members of the Church, bear within ourselves the plenitude of the Church, could what is said of the Church, in some sense, be said of us?
Since the “entire universal Church is rightly said to be the one and only bride of Christ,” could it not also be said that each of us participates in that one spousal relationship with Him? The highest level of prayer and the spiritual life is called mystical marriage or mystical union with God; in prayer, the endpoint is to become the spouse of Christ, and this we already know, especially from the works of Saint John of the Cross and Saint Theresa of Avila. The Catholic Church also teaches that all are called to be holiness, that there is a universal call to holiness. There is no holiness without a deep communion with God in prayer, so in some sense, it could be said that there is a universal call to contemplation and to its fulfillment: mystical marriage.
One of the pillars of my theory is that God made us to be His spouse. When, in the very first chapter of the Bible in Genesis 1:26, we were made in the image and likeness of God, since every other living creature was made according to its own likeness and kind for reproduction and we were not made according to our own likeness and kind but in the likeness of God, that passage is saying that we were created to be the spouse of God. It is in our mystical union with Him that we bear much good fruit. We see this best lived out in the Blessed Virgin Mary who was so closely united to God and trusted in Him above all else, that she bore the best possible fruit, the very Son of God, and she did so virginally as a pure gift from God Himself.
How great a dignity we have; we are indeed temples of the Holy Spirit; God lives and dwells within us; when we foster that relationship with God and give ourselves to Him more and more each day, our mind, heart and will more closely conform to His; the more we become like Him, the more able we are to receive Him and His life; having removed all attachments to sin and created realities from our souls and desiring to please only Him, we approach the deepest spiritual union with God; it is in this that we become the bride of Christ as an individual, participating in the life and reality of the singular bride of Christ, the Catholic Church.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
“The Church of Christ is united by a bond of mutual love so strong that not only is it a single entity subsisting in many members, but in each member it is also mysteriously present in its plenitude. So it is that the entire universal Church is rightly said to be the one and only bride of Christ, and each person, through the mystery of the sacrament, is believed to be the Church in its fullness. One in all and entire in each, holy Church is single in the plurality of its members thanks to the unity of faith, and manifold in each of them thanks to the bond of charity and the diversity of charisms, for they all come from One.”
What I understand Saint Peter Damian to be saying is that the Church is one Body with many members, as Saint Paul says, and the Church is also present in Her fullness in each of Her members. The part that I don’t remember hearing before is that the Church is present in each of Her members; I had thought something like that, but I don’t remember ever reading it. If you and I, as members of the Church, bear within ourselves the plenitude of the Church, could what is said of the Church, in some sense, be said of us?
Since the “entire universal Church is rightly said to be the one and only bride of Christ,” could it not also be said that each of us participates in that one spousal relationship with Him? The highest level of prayer and the spiritual life is called mystical marriage or mystical union with God; in prayer, the endpoint is to become the spouse of Christ, and this we already know, especially from the works of Saint John of the Cross and Saint Theresa of Avila. The Catholic Church also teaches that all are called to be holiness, that there is a universal call to holiness. There is no holiness without a deep communion with God in prayer, so in some sense, it could be said that there is a universal call to contemplation and to its fulfillment: mystical marriage.
One of the pillars of my theory is that God made us to be His spouse. When, in the very first chapter of the Bible in Genesis 1:26, we were made in the image and likeness of God, since every other living creature was made according to its own likeness and kind for reproduction and we were not made according to our own likeness and kind but in the likeness of God, that passage is saying that we were created to be the spouse of God. It is in our mystical union with Him that we bear much good fruit. We see this best lived out in the Blessed Virgin Mary who was so closely united to God and trusted in Him above all else, that she bore the best possible fruit, the very Son of God, and she did so virginally as a pure gift from God Himself.
How great a dignity we have; we are indeed temples of the Holy Spirit; God lives and dwells within us; when we foster that relationship with God and give ourselves to Him more and more each day, our mind, heart and will more closely conform to His; the more we become like Him, the more able we are to receive Him and His life; having removed all attachments to sin and created realities from our souls and desiring to please only Him, we approach the deepest spiritual union with God; it is in this that we become the bride of Christ as an individual, participating in the life and reality of the singular bride of Christ, the Catholic Church.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
1.12.2008
The Bridegroom Has the Bride
Today I want to take a look at the readings of the Mass. I’ll start with the responsorial psalm, Psalm 149, which is the one that was the inspiration for the poem I posted on January 4. The response is, “The Lord takes delight in his people.” God loves His people, and his people sing, praise, rejoice, and dance for Him. The love is mutual and deep. Remember that Eden means delight and often has a spousal connotation. Here, again, God delights in his people and seeks us as His spouse.
The first reading is the conclusion of Saint John’s first letter. A few sentences before the end, he says, “We know that anyone begotten by God does not sin; but the one begotten by God he protects, and the Evil One cannot touch him. We know that we belong to God, and the whole world is under the power of the Evil One” (1 John 5:18-19). The Evil One has power over the entire world and can touch anyone within his power. The children of God are under the authority of God and are not subject to the Evil One. One is either a child of God and belongs to Him or a child of the Devil who belongs to him.
The children of God belong to God and so do not sin (at least not with mortal sin which he just finished explaining). He is not saying that God’s children never commit a mortal sin; the point is that belonging to God and sinning mortally are mutually exclusive. When a child of God sins mortally, he gets himself quickly to confession and makes everything right once again, or else he ceases to be a child of God (at least as long as he stays away from confession).
Once one is made a child of God in baptism, God protects us. He protects our heart so that we can know, love and serve Him, so that we can be faithful and obedient to His will. The woman in the garden was made from the rib, and as such, was made to protect the man’s heart and lead him to heaven. She did the exact opposite and betrayed her love with a kiss in the garden. Then God sent the angel to guard the way to the tree of life. This guarding by the angel is not to keep man from eating the tree of life; the guarding is the giving of our guardian angel who protects our heart, our tree of life, so that it stays faithful and true. His mission is to help us get to heaven, and there is no way there except via a trusting and obedient heart.
To protect us, we also have the New Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the New Rib, Our Rib, who only leads us to her Divine Son and shows us how to love, trust and obey Jesus. There is no greater human protector of our heart than Mary; she is the true port in the storms of life. Her heart was sorely tested on numerous occasions, and it was spiritually crucified during at least two trials of faith. She knows what it takes to have a healthy and fruit-bearing tree of life, and she longs to protect our trees of life so that they can be a true and holy home for God and give birth to Christ in our life.
John’s gospel today has a very powerful sentence: “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice” (John 3:29). John the Baptist is saying that he is the best man and Jesus is the groom. The groom is the one who ends up with the bride, and together they start a family and have children. Jesus’ bride is the Church; He will always remain faithful to her, even when she is not faithful to Him. He will never, nor has He ever, divorced her; He gave up His life for her, and He will remain with her to the end.
As each of us is one of her members, in that manner Jesus takes us on as a bride, too. All followers of Christ, all members of the Church, are thereby also His brides; we are brides in the one bride, the Church. This is the way it was from the very beginning. As God says in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image.” Being made in God’s image means that God made us to be His spouse. Jesus comes to fulfill, above all else, this reality that was from the very beginning, from the very first words of the very first sentence that has anything to do with man in the Bible. We are made to be God’s spouse, and so now the Divine Bridegroom has come to take us to Himself. All we have to do is give ourselves to Him in return, as a bride gives herself to her bridegroom. If we do and only if we do, will we bear good fruit.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
The first reading is the conclusion of Saint John’s first letter. A few sentences before the end, he says, “We know that anyone begotten by God does not sin; but the one begotten by God he protects, and the Evil One cannot touch him. We know that we belong to God, and the whole world is under the power of the Evil One” (1 John 5:18-19). The Evil One has power over the entire world and can touch anyone within his power. The children of God are under the authority of God and are not subject to the Evil One. One is either a child of God and belongs to Him or a child of the Devil who belongs to him.
The children of God belong to God and so do not sin (at least not with mortal sin which he just finished explaining). He is not saying that God’s children never commit a mortal sin; the point is that belonging to God and sinning mortally are mutually exclusive. When a child of God sins mortally, he gets himself quickly to confession and makes everything right once again, or else he ceases to be a child of God (at least as long as he stays away from confession).
Once one is made a child of God in baptism, God protects us. He protects our heart so that we can know, love and serve Him, so that we can be faithful and obedient to His will. The woman in the garden was made from the rib, and as such, was made to protect the man’s heart and lead him to heaven. She did the exact opposite and betrayed her love with a kiss in the garden. Then God sent the angel to guard the way to the tree of life. This guarding by the angel is not to keep man from eating the tree of life; the guarding is the giving of our guardian angel who protects our heart, our tree of life, so that it stays faithful and true. His mission is to help us get to heaven, and there is no way there except via a trusting and obedient heart.
To protect us, we also have the New Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the New Rib, Our Rib, who only leads us to her Divine Son and shows us how to love, trust and obey Jesus. There is no greater human protector of our heart than Mary; she is the true port in the storms of life. Her heart was sorely tested on numerous occasions, and it was spiritually crucified during at least two trials of faith. She knows what it takes to have a healthy and fruit-bearing tree of life, and she longs to protect our trees of life so that they can be a true and holy home for God and give birth to Christ in our life.
John’s gospel today has a very powerful sentence: “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice” (John 3:29). John the Baptist is saying that he is the best man and Jesus is the groom. The groom is the one who ends up with the bride, and together they start a family and have children. Jesus’ bride is the Church; He will always remain faithful to her, even when she is not faithful to Him. He will never, nor has He ever, divorced her; He gave up His life for her, and He will remain with her to the end.
As each of us is one of her members, in that manner Jesus takes us on as a bride, too. All followers of Christ, all members of the Church, are thereby also His brides; we are brides in the one bride, the Church. This is the way it was from the very beginning. As God says in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image.” Being made in God’s image means that God made us to be His spouse. Jesus comes to fulfill, above all else, this reality that was from the very beginning, from the very first words of the very first sentence that has anything to do with man in the Bible. We are made to be God’s spouse, and so now the Divine Bridegroom has come to take us to Himself. All we have to do is give ourselves to Him in return, as a bride gives herself to her bridegroom. If we do and only if we do, will we bear good fruit.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
11.11.2007
Image and Likeness
Each According to its Kind
The main focal point in chapter one is the dry land together with what lives on it, and it is the reason that everything else has been created and put in its proper position in relation to the land. The plants and fruit trees were created on the third day to be food for man, and now on the sixth day the inhabitants of the land are put into place. First God creates all the living creatures, the cattle, the beasts, and all that creeps on the ground. Each of these is created according to its kind; here the word is used five times. It was used five times when talking about the plants, trees, fish and birds, and now it is used five more times for the creatures of the land. It is used ten times altogether. There are many patterns and repetitions in this section of Genesis 1-2:3; the only other phrase repeated ten times is “And God said.” “Each according to its kind” is a significant phrase, and its real meaning becomes clear in a verse or two when we expect it and it is not there. “According to its kind” is replaced with “image and likeness.”
A Personal Matter: the Creation of Man
We have come to the final work done on the second half of the last day of the work God did when He created. The second half of the very important day six says: “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….” First of all, up until now, every time that it stated, “And God said,” God said for this to be or that to happen; He speaks using the third person in His acting. Here, however, God uses the first person, “Let us make.” Everything else that has been created up until now was made because God said it should happen, and it was. With man, we are led to expect the same wording of how everything else was made, but we are pleasantly slapped awake with a different way of God working. The wording, “let us make,” makes the creation of man something special to God; the creation of man is a personal matter for God.
Man Created to be Bride of God
The other much harder and more fruitful slap across the face is that with man there is no more mention of being made “each according to its kind.” We expect it, but it is not there because man is being created on a completely different sphere and for a completely different purpose. All the living beings created before man where created according to their own likeness and kind for the purpose of reproduction. So here, man is not made according to his own kind; how, then, is he to bear fruit and multiply and fulfill the blessing? Man is to be fruitful, but we were not made to be fruitful just according to our own kind since we were created in the image of God. We are made according to the kind of God, and united to Him we bear good fruit (see John 15).
Since man is made in the image of God, as He said: according to “our image and after our likeness,” He is made according to God’s kind. Putting two and two together, God created man as the highpoint of His creation and a home for Himself. He Himself will be the source of man’s fruitfulness; God will make man fruitful because God made man to be His spouse. Our husband is God so from Him will come our fruit (see Hosea 14:8: "I am like an evergreen cypress, from me comes your fruit").
Image and likeness means a similitude to God, but it means so much more. It means that, from the beginning, God made us to be His. He made us to be so closely united to Him, that we are married to Him. Saint Paul talks of marriage as the great mystery related to Christ (the bridegroom) and His Church (the bride) (see Ephesians 5:32: "This [marriage] is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church"). We are God's home, His temple, His bride. United to Him, we bear fruit every month.
This has set the stage for Genesis two. Simply put, Genesis two zeros in on how man is a home for God. Chapter one was how earth was made for man; the next chapter is how man is made for God. I will tell you soon what the tree of life is and what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is.
Thanks for reading.
Copyright 2007.
The main focal point in chapter one is the dry land together with what lives on it, and it is the reason that everything else has been created and put in its proper position in relation to the land. The plants and fruit trees were created on the third day to be food for man, and now on the sixth day the inhabitants of the land are put into place. First God creates all the living creatures, the cattle, the beasts, and all that creeps on the ground. Each of these is created according to its kind; here the word is used five times. It was used five times when talking about the plants, trees, fish and birds, and now it is used five more times for the creatures of the land. It is used ten times altogether. There are many patterns and repetitions in this section of Genesis 1-2:3; the only other phrase repeated ten times is “And God said.” “Each according to its kind” is a significant phrase, and its real meaning becomes clear in a verse or two when we expect it and it is not there. “According to its kind” is replaced with “image and likeness.”
A Personal Matter: the Creation of Man
We have come to the final work done on the second half of the last day of the work God did when He created. The second half of the very important day six says: “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….” First of all, up until now, every time that it stated, “And God said,” God said for this to be or that to happen; He speaks using the third person in His acting. Here, however, God uses the first person, “Let us make.” Everything else that has been created up until now was made because God said it should happen, and it was. With man, we are led to expect the same wording of how everything else was made, but we are pleasantly slapped awake with a different way of God working. The wording, “let us make,” makes the creation of man something special to God; the creation of man is a personal matter for God.
Man Created to be Bride of God
The other much harder and more fruitful slap across the face is that with man there is no more mention of being made “each according to its kind.” We expect it, but it is not there because man is being created on a completely different sphere and for a completely different purpose. All the living beings created before man where created according to their own likeness and kind for the purpose of reproduction. So here, man is not made according to his own kind; how, then, is he to bear fruit and multiply and fulfill the blessing? Man is to be fruitful, but we were not made to be fruitful just according to our own kind since we were created in the image of God. We are made according to the kind of God, and united to Him we bear good fruit (see John 15).
Since man is made in the image of God, as He said: according to “our image and after our likeness,” He is made according to God’s kind. Putting two and two together, God created man as the highpoint of His creation and a home for Himself. He Himself will be the source of man’s fruitfulness; God will make man fruitful because God made man to be His spouse. Our husband is God so from Him will come our fruit (see Hosea 14:8: "I am like an evergreen cypress, from me comes your fruit").
Image and likeness means a similitude to God, but it means so much more. It means that, from the beginning, God made us to be His. He made us to be so closely united to Him, that we are married to Him. Saint Paul talks of marriage as the great mystery related to Christ (the bridegroom) and His Church (the bride) (see Ephesians 5:32: "This [marriage] is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church"). We are God's home, His temple, His bride. United to Him, we bear fruit every month.
This has set the stage for Genesis two. Simply put, Genesis two zeros in on how man is a home for God. Chapter one was how earth was made for man; the next chapter is how man is made for God. I will tell you soon what the tree of life is and what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is.
Thanks for reading.
Copyright 2007.
11.10.2007
Overview of Genesis 1
Genesis 1 is a bird's-eye view of creation during the seven days wherein God is making and organizing the earth as a home for man. God creates and separates to make a hospitable environment in which man can live. Although Genesis 1 is written flying high above the scene, there is an extremely strong foreshadowing of chapter two wherein God creates and separates to make man a home for God.
Arguably the most important verse in all of the bible, Genesis 1:26 sets the tone and makes sense of all of chapter two. I am not aware of anyone else who interprets this verse as I see it, but as I see it, it is a much more powerful verse than is commonly realized. In fact, it makes sense of the rest of the bible. It makes sense of life. It is the source of the name of this blog.
Tomorrow I will explain more. Thanks for reading.
Copyright 2007.
Arguably the most important verse in all of the bible, Genesis 1:26 sets the tone and makes sense of all of chapter two. I am not aware of anyone else who interprets this verse as I see it, but as I see it, it is a much more powerful verse than is commonly realized. In fact, it makes sense of the rest of the bible. It makes sense of life. It is the source of the name of this blog.
Tomorrow I will explain more. Thanks for reading.
Copyright 2007.
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