TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Memorial of Saint Gonsalo Garcia, Martyr
2 Cor 6:4-10; Ps 30: 2, 4-6, 11–13; Mt 10:17-22 (India)
(or) Gn 1: 20 – 2: 4; Ps 8: 4-9; Mk 7: 1-13
DISTORTED IMAGES OF GOD
Human beings are multi-dimensional comprising head and heart, mind and body, interior and exterior, essentials and accidentals. Over and above this natural complexity, there is the supernatural dimension revealed in the Bible. “What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!” (Hamlet – Act II, Sc. II). The human soul created by God, “in His own image”, which is beyond the powers of Nature is found only in the human person. Where, in the human person, is the image of God? In the power of the human mind, to know the truth, to love and choose the good; to act with wisdom and justice, to participate, invited through grace, in the Divine.
Today’s first reading, taken from the first book of the Old Testament, tells us how God created all things. God is the First Cause of everything that exists. The First Cause created energy and matter. He created Nature, and gave Nature, the power to produce other things and give them shape. Taught by God, Nature became an artist constantly, combining materials into a great variety of forms. Beautiful flowers, trees, birds and bodies were formed by Nature. Nature was only a secondary cause, but the creation of the soul was the prerogative of the First Cause. Beholding this great vocation of human beings, to participate in the Divine, the devil was filled with jealousy. He poisoned the mind of Eve, deceiving her into believing that she could be more like God if she broke the commandment of God, forbidding the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve were given a distorted image of God. They became broken images of God. Let us pray to Jesus, to make us genuine, and to set right what is distorted in us.
Response: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name through all the earth!
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