20170216 THE FIDELITY OF GOD TO HIS CREATION
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Genesis 9:1-13 ©
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God blessed Noah and
his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Be the
terror and the dread of all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven, of
everything that crawls on the ground and all the fish of the sea; they are
handed over to you. Every living and crawling thing shall provide food for you,
no less than the foliage of plants. I give you everything, with this exception:
you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say blood, in it. I will demand an
account of your life-blood. I will demand an account from every beast and from
man. I will demand an account of every man’s life from his fellow men.
‘He who sheds man’s
blood
shall have his blood
shed by man,
for in the image of
God
man was made.
‘As for you, be
fruitful, multiply, teem over the earth and be lord of it.’
God spoke
to Noah and his sons, ‘See, I establish my Covenant with you, and with your
descendants after you; also with every living creature to be found with you,
birds, cattle and every wild beast with you: everything that came out of the
ark, everything that lives on the earth. I establish my Covenant with you: no
thing of flesh shall be swept away again by the waters of the flood. There
shall be no flood to destroy the earth again.’
God said,
‘Here is the sign of the Covenant I make between myself and you and every
living creature with you for all generations: I set my bow in the clouds and it
shall be a sign of the Covenant between me and the earth.’
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm
101(102):16-21,29,22-23 ©
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The Lord looked
down from heaven to the earth.
The nations shall
fear the name of the Lord
and all
the earth’s kings your glory,
when the Lord shall
build up Zion again
and
appear in all his glory.
Then he will turn to
the prayers of the helpless;
he will
not despise their prayers.
The Lord looked
down from heaven to the earth.
Let this be written
for ages to come
that a
people yet unborn may praise the Lord;
for the Lord leaned
down from his sanctuary on high.
He looked
down from heaven to the earth
that he might hear
the groans of the prisoners
and free
those condemned to die.
The Lord looked
down from heaven to the earth.
The sons of your
servants shall dwell untroubled
and their
race shall endure before you
that the name of the
Lord may be proclaimed in Zion
and his
praise in the heart of Jerusalem,
when peoples and
kingdoms are gathered together
to pay
their homage to the Lord.
The Lord looked
down from heaven to the earth.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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James1:18
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Alleluia, alleluia!
By his own choice the
Father made us his children
by the message of the
truth,
so that we should be
a sort of first-fruits
of all that he
created.
Alleluia!
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Or
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cf.Jn6:63,68
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are
spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message
of eternal life.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 8:27-33 ©
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Jesus and his
disciples left for the villages round Caesarea Philippi. On the way he put this
question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And they told him. ‘John
the Baptist,’ they said ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’
‘But you,’ he asked ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You
are the Christ.’ And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.
And he
began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to
be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put
to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite
openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. But,
turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind
me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’
THE
FIDELITY OF GOD TO HIS CREATION
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ GEN 9:1-13; PS 101(102):16-21, 29,
22-23; MK 8:27-33
]
What is the most important
lesson in the story of Noah? It is not about the Flood because there were
many floods in the history of humanity and no doubt, there will be many
more. Rather, the story brings out the increasing infidelity of man to
God’s creation because of the sins of man. At the same time, even
when sin increases, God’s fidelity to His creation remains. Nothing can
change God’s love for His creation. Even when sin increases, His grace
remains constant. God does not ever and will never withdraw His love for
His creation.
Indeed, when we look at
creation, the situation only seems to get worse. It began with the
disobedience of Adam and Eve. It was then followed by Cain’s envy leading
to killing of his own brother. As the human race populated, more
sins were committed, sins of every kind. It is significant to note that
even the way human beings treated creation changed over time. In chapter
1, the Lord said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is
upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you
shall have them for food.” (Gn 1:29) Man was
first a vegetarian. Only plants and seeds were given to men because
animals were His companions. “The man gave names to all cattle, and to
the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there
was not found a helper fit for him.” (Gn 2:20)
But by
the time we arrive at Genesis Chapter 9, we read that this unity between
animals and humanity was broken. Instead of being our friends, they now
fear and dread us. “Be the terror and the dread of all the wild beasts
and all the birds of heaven, of everything that crawls and the ground and all
the fish of the sea; they are handed over to you.” (Gn 9:1f) Not only
that, we are given permission to eat the flesh of animals, but not its
blood. “Every living and crawling thing shall provide food for you, no
less than the foliage of plants. I give you everything, with this
exception: you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say blood, in
it. I will demand an account of your life-blood.” (Gn 3:3f) The reason
was simply because blood was a symbol of life and only God is the source of
life. Furthermore, the killing of man is absolutely forbidden because man
is the image and viceroy of God. Thus to kill another fellowman is a very
serious sin that demands punishment by death. “I will demand an account of
every man’s life from his fellow men. He who sheds man’s blood, shall
have his blood shed by man, for in the image of God man was made.” (Gn 3:5f)
The permission given to man
to eat the flesh of animals was certainly a compromise to the growing and
weakening harmony between animals and human beings. Yet this breakdown
between human beings and animals is due to the disharmony among human beings due
to sin. This is traced to man’s disobedience and separation from
God. Once again, we see that human ecology is the basis for the ecology
of nature. Indeed, in the New Testament, all food was proclaimed clean by
the Lord and by the apostles Peter and Paul and could be consumed accordingly.
God’s fidelity to His
unchanging commitment to His creation is brought out in the covenant with Noah.
He said, “See, I establish my Covenant with you, and with your descendants
after you; also with every living creature to be found with you, birds cattle
and every wild beast with you: everything that came out of the ark, everything
that lives on the earth. I establish my Covenant with you: no thing of
flesh shall be swept away again by the waters of the flood. There shall be
no flood to destroy the earth again.” In truth, the threat of God to
destroy the earth was never carried out, for creation was not destroyed.
Even in the case of the flood, the remnant of creation was saved and so we
cannot speak of the destruction of creation.
The sign of this Covenant
with Noah was the rainbow. God said, “Here is the sign of the Covenant I
make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all
generations: I set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the Covenant
between me and the earth.” Yet, the rainbow has always been
there. It is not a new phenomenon. Again the same message is
underscored. God is faithful to His creation. He will never abandon
His creation even when everything seems to go awry. The rainbow is a sign
of His fidelity to creation. The truth is that when we think that the world is
coming to an end because of the atrocious sins and evil of humanity, the
rainbow will reappear after the apparent storm, once the upheavel has settled.
In other words, there is always hope. The beauty of God will shine again
through the darkness of man’s sins. God will not allow Himself to be
defeated by the sins of humanity regardless how grave the situation might be.
From this Covenant with
Noah, God demonstrated that His grace is greater than the sin of man. No matter
how much evil man could do to His creation, God will continue to show us His
grace and mercy. Beginning from Adam and Eve, we see how God promised man
ultimate victory over evil even though he banished them from paradise. He said,
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and
her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” In
the case Cain who murdered Abel, the Lord promised Cain that sevenfold
vengeance would be taken on the man who tried to kill him, “And the Lord
put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him.” (Gn 4:15) In Noah’s
circumstances, the Lord gave them a rainbow as a sign of His irrevocable
covenant with humanity.
God’s fidelity to His
creation is only possible because of His fidelity to Himself. If we are so
confident that God will be faithful to His word, it is because He Himself will
not and cannot do anything that is contrary to Himself. In the gospel,
Jesus showed His fidelity to Himself by rejecting any titles that sought to
qualify Him. He asked the disciples, “’Who do people say I am?’ And
they told him, ‘John the Baptist,’ they said, ‘others Elijah; others again, one
of the prophets.’” The truth is that none of the titles, regardless how lofty
they might be, could not fit the Lord. Hence He asked them, “’But you,
who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You are the
Christ.’”
Again, it must be noted
that although Peter gave the right answer, the injunction of Jesus was to give
“them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.” For Jesus, understanding the
meaning and implications of a title is more important than just getting the
correct answer. This was clearly seen when Peter rejected the idea of a
suffering messiah as prophesied by the Lord. So Jesus “rebuked Peter and said,
‘Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but
man’s.’” Indeed, Peter, like everyone else, sought to impose his image of
what the messiah should be on the Lord. But Jesus would not allow others to
change His identity as the Son of the Father and the suffering messiah.
Jesus was clear of His
identity as the Son of the Living God. He came to show the Father’s love
even unto death. He was not like any of the worldly conquerors. He
came not with power and might but as a servant in human lowliness. He conquered
the world through gentleness, compassion and forgiveness. He remained faithful
to His identity as the God of mercy and compassion. In this way, He could
truly maintain His identification with the Father. To Philip, He said,
“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the
Father’?” (Jn 14:9)
Whatever the Father does, He will do. “I say to you, the Son can do
nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever
he does, that the Son does likewise.” (Jn 5:19)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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