God said� �Let us make man in our image and likeness� Gen 1.26. God said and when God �said� his volition was involved. God willed and created man in His own image and likeness. It was a decision of God. From his willful action we humans came into existence. �God created man in his image. In the Divine image he created him. Male and female he created them� Gen1.27. When we say, God created� us in His image and likeness, it implies that we are created with the faculty to exercise free will. God gave us existence as the crown of the rest of his creation. God said � I am putting you in charge of ..�Gen.1. 28. God blessed the first humans and said, �be fertile and multiply� Gen 1.28. Thus God blessed the creatures and gave them particip! ation in the Divine act of creation. Procreation is a willful action with and in communion with God. Creation is not only an action with human desire for pleasure alone. The humans and the rest of the animate world are co-creators with God, in transmitting life. Our life is a gift from God and we hand over the torch of life. Thus God made holy the act of procreation. God is a holy God and very sensitive and the sensitive God has included the� recreational element in the generative work of mankind. What God has upheld we need to respectfully appreciate and enjoy.
�We are not accidents on the earth. We are created with willfulness which means, we are not accidents on this earth.� God wanted us to be. Some people may disagree with me. I respect them but I feel that God gave us free will and responsibility. If we do not use our freedom to uphold our responsibility in procreation we are at fault.� God breathed into the first man and he came alive. In that Divine breath God infused in us the image and likeness and the free will of God. God found everything to be perfect and then God took rest. �God looked at everything he made, and he found everything good� Gen 1.31. God waited till the whole of the creation was over so G! od could rest. �When God finished his work, he rested on the seventh day� Gen 2.1. It is amazing to note that, just because God took rest from his activities, God made the seventh day Holy. �So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy� Gen.2.3. God blessed the day of Sabbath, the seventh day. We are to follow God�s example. God set us a role model. Since he blessed the seventh day it became holy. Thus came the expression the Holy day of obligation. The day God rested, became a day to respect God, to rest and participate in the holiness of God. To respect that day of obligation is also left to our willingness to observe.� It is to be noted that God gave the first parents the command to follow God�s will.� God gave the first man an order �You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you! will die the same day� Gen 2.17. This command did not hamper the free will God has given to the first humans, Adam and Eve. Satan tempted them but that temptation didn�t invalidate the free will of Eve and Adam who disobeyed God. Disobedience is an act which proceeded from volition, even if it is from Adam and Eve or us, whom God created in His own image and likeness. God created Adam and eve with His own holy hands. � Then God took some soil and formed a man. He breathed into his nostrils and the man began to live� Gen 2.7. Every� disobedience to God is a sin. The punishment for sin is death. This punishment of death came from the very mouth of God �You were made from soil and you will become soil again� Gen.3.19. Thus God punished the first parents for their sin. If there is no freedom, no need to obey. Obedience implies volition. Otherwise, God would ha! ve been a remote control and we would have been robots. Think about the world as a junkyard of robots. �God didn�t want us to be robots. One of the reasons for the incarnation of God was to redeem the lost dignity of humans due to their willful action against the command of God �You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day� Gen 2.17. If the whole world was just a junk yard of robots, there wouldn�t have been any chaos. Perfect law and Order was not a burning issue. But that is not the case in the world. Since God is not a remote control and as we aren�t robots, we exercise free will and create a mess around us. God is a God of the Living, the God of the dead and the God of judgment. When judgment is involved, justice is implied. Judgment is to exact justice and t! hat is to reward or to inflict punishment. Some of us may uphold a mistaken notion that God is a God of love alone. It is true that God is a God of Love and compassion but at the same time God is also a just God who punishes the evildoers. God punished Adam and eve with death for their disobedience. God punished the erring humans down through the centuries. God punished even Moses, his chosen one for his erroneous attitude. Often we maintain the concept that Jesus is all that is only love. It is true that Jesus rewarded the repentant sinner on the cross but the other sinner nailed on the cross, who didn�t repent is not rewarded. He was cursing Jesus and Jesus didn�t respond to him. The unrepentant sinner is not� mentioned to be saved. I am not judging the benevolent God but the Scripture doesn�t state much about ! the person who didn�t repent. But we know the attitude of Jesus to the unrepentant Pharisees. Jesus called them White washed tombs and brood of wipers. Jesus said to the repentant sinner �Today you will be with me in paradise� Luke 23.43. It is interesting to realize that even dying in the presence of Jesus God, did not warranty salvation for the unrepentant sinner. Dying with Jesus on a cross didn�t warranty salvation for� the unrepentant sinner, as we know. Eating with Jesus did not warranty salvation for Judas. Jesus dipped the morsel and gave to Judas at the last supper. �Judas too shared the blood and Body of Jesus at the last supper. Judas was present at the institution of the Eucharist and that didn�t save him. About Judas Jesus said �It would have been good if he were not born�. Judas didn�t repent so he hung himself on a tree.� We have a different picture about another person who disowned Jesus. It is peter. Unlike Judas, Peter repented and wept bitterly. Jesus looked at peter as he denied Jesus. Peter felt the pain of rejecting Jesus and Jesus saved him. Before his ascension into heaven Jesus awarded Peter, �feed ! my sheep� John 21.17. A repentant Peter was awarded the post of the shepherd of the flock of Jesus. I think this is an immense responsibility to be a pastor. Judas and Peter, denied Jesus. They both sinned against God by denying Jesus before the others. Jesus has said, � If any of you deny the Son of man before the others, the Son of Man will deny them before the Father in heaven�. When Judas betrayed Jesus, he asked Judas �Is it with a kiss that you betray� Luke 22.48 which has become a classic expression. Peter denied Jesus, before the people three times. He said� �Woman, I don�t even know him� Luke 22.57�. He was a fine and expert liar. He loved his own life more than anything else. He forgot what Jesus had said � if anyone loves him or his family more than me, is not worthy of the kingdom of God�.� Both� Peter and Judas prayed with Jesus, journeyed with Jesus, ate and drank with Jesus, suffered and enjoyed with Jesus. Yet both of them disowned their master. They both felt bad� as they denied jesus. Both of these people exercised their free will and one was lost in the course of the exercise of the free will where as the other was saved. I think our free will is a very decisive factor in our salvation, more than our participation in the church, the body of Christ. Church is the Body of Christ. We are the members of the mystical body of Christ. But our status as the members of the body of Christ is not a token to sit at the right and left handside of the father in Heaven. Jesus said to the mother of two of has disciples,� who asked Jesus a favor to allow his children to sit on either sides of jesus in the next life. And Jesus didn�t grant that request. He said �It is up to the Father to give them seats in Heaven on judgment day". That mother was a great donor to Jesus, who offered two of her so! ns to follow Jesus. Yet she was told that the exercise of�her son's free will and related actions are factors in winning seats in heaven. �Jesus respected the free will, the Father in Heaven has awarded us humans. Jesus didn�t discredit the Father in any thing. He said � I dint come to change the law but to fulfill the law� and the law is the law, God has set� in this universe. The inanimate objects too follow the course of God�s commands, they are set in motion and are set so they remain where they are to. They don�t seem to be exercising free will. God set certain rules and principles and all the inanimate objects including the sun and moon and the stars in the universe obey those rules of God. �God created us with dignity and free will. God respects our decisions. God awards or punishes our actions done in freedom. So we have no reason to blame God for our actions.. � Do not say it was God�s doing that I fell away, for what he hates he wouldn�t do� Sirach 15.11 �When God created man, in the beginning, he made him subject to his own free will� Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 15.14. God Bless you Fr Thomas Mathew/July 11/2002 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: Click Here **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
