Each day this week, we have been reading about God’s creation of the earth and everything in it as recorded in the book of Genesis. On Monday we started with the first chapter of Genesis.
We read that God started with a dark, formless waste land and created light and separated it from darkness. Then He created the sky, the oceans, and the dry land. Then plant life for food and the sun, moon, and stars to govern day and night and seasons.
Finding the plants and the conditions for growing them good, he moved on to animal life.
Pleased with His creation so far, God created man in his image; male and female and blessed them, saying: “Be fertile and multiply; and fill the earth.
The Lord gave man this order, “you are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat. The moment you eat from it, you are surely doomed to die.”
And God, who was pleased with His creation, rested. But what did the man and his wife do? We all know what they did: they went for the forbidden fruit, breaking their connection with their God.
Imagine how displeased God must have been when he saw them covering themselves and hiding from Him in the Garden claiming they were afraid. And then, the man blamed the woman, and the woman blamed the serpent, but God responded with justice and with love.
Justice by driving the man and his wife out of the Garden.
Love by promising a way for humans to have their sins forgiven and be reconciled to God.
This way would come through God’s only Son who would become a man and die for the sins of the humans that God had been pleased to create. In today’s gospel, we see this Son, Jesus, on earth, healing humans as He proceeds to His death on a cross to fulfill His Father’s promise.
In the Psalm, we see a person who feels blessed to have his sins forgiven. As we think about this expression of God’s great love for us, let us acknowledge and confess our sins, and feel blessed like the Psalmist.
- Father Pinto's inspirational homily was recorded live this morning during Mass at the Father Peyton Center. Please view the video on our Facebook page. (You don't need a Facebook account to view.)
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