Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve
Fr. Miguel Marie Soeherman, MFVA
Homily for the 5th Tuesday in Ordinary Time, given on 2/10/2009 at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama
The next two weeks, starting from yesterday, we have the book of Genesis as the First Reading.
Today covers the 5th, the 6th and the 7th day of creation. That is the creation of living creatures which culminates with the creation of man and how God rested on the 7th day.
As the Holy Book tells us:
“God created man in His image; in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them.”
And God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground, I give all the green plants for food.”
We have a lesson here –
• God created the world.
• He created Adam and Eve
• He gave them the world to use
• He gave them the world to feed them and to clothe them.
• He gave them the world to make them happy, to delight in, and to walk with God in.
In Mother’s little meditation on this passage, she pointed out that our first parents, Adam and Eve, received preternatural gifts – that is, they received gifts to live without pain, to live without sorrow, to live without heartache.
They were endowed with deep intelligence. There was no death. The world could feed them until they were full without toil. These are things Adam and Eve had. We don’t know how long they had them but they had those preternatural gifts!
Mother pointed out – “so often in life we strive for things, we exert a lot of effort and work and sweat, and when we get those things, they turn to ashes. They’re gone. Then you ask, “Why did I work so hard? What was I looking for?” Maybe Adam and Eve were that way. Maybe they got tired of the abundance of God’s gifts.
So Mother’s advice is that “being grateful for all He gives us is the better path.” How much we are to be thankful for all that God has done for us! Even the challenges of life, the sufferings we experience, the bitterness of pain – these too are God’s “gifts.” They’re “gifts” to enable us to be more and more like Jesus!
So we ask St. Scholastica, the sister of St. Benedict, whose feast we celebrate today to always be grateful for all God gives us that we may encounter the Face of Christ who loves us and gives us Himself completely!
