creation and the fall - simon philips 2015, sfx pj rcia

God’s Plan of Salvation I

CREATION & THE FALL

In the beginning…

God created heaven, and earth.

And the earth was void and empty,

And darkness was upon the face of the deep;

and the Spirit of God moved over the waters.

And God said…

LET THERE BE LIGHT

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed

with all their adornments.” Genesis 2:1

But what was it like before the beginning?

Before creation there was God

in His timeless eternity.

But who is God?

The Creator; the One who spoke over the void; the One

who adjudged the work of creation to be good.

The Father

“In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and

The Word was God.” John 1:1

The Son

The Word spoken by the Father, the agent of creation, is Christ the Son.

“And the Spirit of God moved over the waters.”

Genesis 1:2

The Spirit

The breath of God reaching all of creation, bringing grace and goodness.

But … what is God?

So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love and those who abide in love abide in

God, and God abides in them.

God is love

1 John 4:16

But … what is Love?

You tell me …

Love gives of itself perfectly.

Where the Father gives of His love entirely …

there is the Son.

The Son is God perfect love from perfect love.

And the Son gives of His love entirely back to the Father.

In love’s perpetual giving …

there is the Holy Spirit: the perfect love of the Father for the Son

and the Son for the Father.

Why did God create us?

“What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You have made him little less than the angels, you have crowned him with glory and honour and set him over the works of your hands.”

(Psalm 8:5-10)

God created all things out of love.

God created man out of love

for love.

God breathed life into man through the Holy Spirit

giving man a share in Divine Love.

Making man body and soul.

Man is created in the image of God,

in the image of His love. asdsdasdasda

But man is not God.

Adam and Eve are created as the moulds for mankind

in the image of God.

Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“Man and woman were made "for each other" – not that God left them half-made and incomplete: he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can be "helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of my bones. . .") and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh", they can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth."By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and woman as spouses and parents cooperate in a unique way in the Creator's work.”

(CCC, #372)

God gives man everything he needs to love God perfectly, to return God’s love entirely.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The first man was not only created good, but was also established in friendship with his Creator and in harmony with himself and with the creation around him, in a state that would be surpassed only by the glory of the new creation in Christ.

The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original "state of holiness and justice". This grace of original holiness was "to share in. . .divine life".

Catechism of the Catholic Church

By the radiance of this grace all dimensions of man's life were confirmed. As long as he remained in the divine intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die. The inner harmony of the human person, the harmony between man and woman, and finally the harmony between the first couple and all creation, comprised the state called "original justice".

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The "mastery" over the world that God offered man from the beginning was realized above all within man himself: mastery of self. The first man was unimpaired and ordered in his whole being because he was free from the triple concupiscence that subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses, covetousness for earthly goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the dictates of reason.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The sign of man's familiarity with God is that God places him in the garden. There he lives "to till it and keep it". Work is not yet a burden, but rather the collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the visible creation.

(CCC, Nos. 374-378)

God wants man to love Him perfectly and entirely.

Then, man could enter into the life of God.

True love is given freely.

So man has a choice …

Does man love God enough to trust in His love?

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.”’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”

(Genesis 3:1-5)

“She took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband,

who was with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6)

God had given only one prohibition: not to eat of the

Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Satan depended on them eating from that tree. Man’s immortality depended on

eating from the Tree of Life.

What happened at The Fall?

“On a material level, he lost the integrity of his physical nature and became subject to suffering and death; on an intellectual level, his understanding was darkened and his will weakened. After this it was only by much labour of mind that he could acquire much of the knowledge which he could have easily understood before, while in his moral nature he experienced a strong inclination to evil.”

The Mystery and Destiny of the Church Sr. Rosena Marie

Adam and Eve sinned against God’s love.

Instead of returning God’s love entirely, they kept it for themselves.

They could no longer hope to enter into the divine life of love.

By rejecting the divine life, they welcomed death.

They changed the mould for the whole of mankind.

Humanity would never be the same again.

But that was not the end,

Because God is Love

it was only the beginning …

“And the Lord God said to the serpent, For this work of yours, you, alone among all the cattle and all the wild beasts, shall bear a curse; you shall crawl on your belly and eat dust all your life long. And I will establish a feud between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers; she is to crush your head, while you lie in ambush at her heels.”

(Genesis 3:14-15)

“With the intention of opening up the way of salvation from above, He also revealed Himself to our first parents from the very beginning. After their fall, He lifted them up in hope for salvation by the promise of redemption, and watched over mankind with unceasing care, in order that He might give eternal life to all, who persevering in good works seek out salvation.”

(Vatican II, Dei Verbum 3-4)

Benedict PP XVI:

“Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us

is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.”

Reflect on two or three relationships in your life today. Consider how God has willed that you should be here for these people. How can you be the loving image of God in these relationships?

St Bernard of Clairvaux

“Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return, however unequal it may be. For when God loves, all He desires is to be loved in

return; the sole purpose of His love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love Him are

made happy by their love for Him.” (Sermon 83)

St Peter Chrysologus

“Why do you ask how you are created and do not seek to know why you were made? Was not this

entire visible universe made for your dwelling? … And the Creator still works to devise things that can still add to your glory. He has made you in

His image that you might in your person make the invisible Creator present on earth; He has made

you his legate, so that the vast empire of the world might have the Lord’s representative.”

(Sermon 148)