Meditation: Genesis 1:20 God said, “Let the waters swarm with living things, and let birds fly above the earth up in the dome of the sky.” 21 God created the great sea animals and all the tiny living things that swarm in the waters, each according to its kind, and all the winged birds, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was. 22 Then God blessed them: “Be fertile and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
23 There was evening and there was morning: the fifth day.
24 God said, “Let the earth produce every kind of living thing: livestock, crawling things, and wildlife.” And that’s what happened. 25 God made every kind of wildlife, every kind of livestock, and every kind of creature that crawls on the ground. God saw how good it was. 26 Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.”
27 God created humanity in God’s own image,
in the divine image God created them,[a]
male and female God created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and master it. Take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, and everything crawling on the ground.” 29 Then God said, “I now give to you all the plants on the earth that yield seeds and all the trees whose fruit produces its seeds within it. These will be your food. 30 To all wildlife, to all the birds in the sky, and to everything crawling on the ground—to everything that breathes—I give all the green grasses for food.” And that’s what happened. 31 God saw everything he had made: it was supremely good.
There was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.
2:1 The heavens and the earth and all who live in them were completed. 2 On the sixth [b] day God completed all the work that he had done, and on the seventh day God rested from all the work that he had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all the work of creation.[c] 4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
World’s creation in the garden
On the day the Lord God made earth and sky—[Footnotes:
Genesis 1:27 Heb has singular him, referring to humanity.
Genesis 2:2 LXX, Sam, Syr; MT seventh
Genesis 2:3 Or from all his work, which God created to do]
Saint Scholastica, VirginGod looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good. (Genesis 1:31)
When you’re thinking about buying a used car, it can be difficult to size up your options. You look at the body for scratches or rust. You start it up: how does the engine sound? But this gets you only so far. It’s so much better if you also know that this model has a good track record and if you know the car’s previous owner.
In some ways, the same is true about understanding ourselves and our world. We get only so far by looking at the way things are right now. It’s more helpful to know where the world came from, who made it, and why. Today’s reading from Genesis tells us just that. We learn that God made the world. We learn that he made it good, and it gives him pleasure. We learn that he made it for us.
It can be easy to forget these basic facts about our world. Sin has wounded our world, but we must always remember the goodness, the beauty, the lavish generosity that lies at the heart of all creation. Today’s first reading is overflowing with wondrous details. Look at the words that show the bounty of creation: teem, abundance, fertile, multiply. Notice the variety of the creation, both in the passage and outside your window. God doesn’t do anything in half measures!
And then there’s the crown of creation, the culmination of all that God made. “God created man in his image” (Genesis 1:27). Humans are unique in all of creation because God modeled us after himself. It’s difficult to even take in what that means, but it’s certainly a life-changing truth.
Do you think of yourself as part of God’s creation? Is it sinking in that God delights in you, just as he delighted in the things he made in Genesis? What’s more, God wants to share his creation with you; he has appointed us as caretakers of his good world. In part, this means that we hurt because of the darkness sin has brought into the world, but it also means that we can still delight in its beauty and goodness.
So rejoice today in the goodness and love of your Creator—and in your own goodness and beauty!
“Father, thank you for making me and sharing your creation with me.” Amen!
Psalm 8:4 what are human beings
that you think about them;
what are human beings
that you pay attention to them?
5 You’ve made them only slightly less than divine,
crowning them with glory and grandeur.
6 You’ve let them rule over your handiwork,
putting everything under their feet—
7 all sheep and all cattle,
the wild animals too,
8 the birds in the sky,
the fish of the ocean,
everything that travels the pathways of the sea.
9 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!
Mark 7: What contaminates a life?
1 The Pharisees and some legal experts from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. 2 They saw some of his disciples eating food with unclean hands. (They were eating without first ritually purifying their hands through washing. 3 The Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat without first washing their hands carefully. This is a way of observing the rules handed down by the elders. 4 Upon returning from the marketplace, they don’t eat without first immersing themselves. They observe many other rules that have been handed down, such as the washing of cups, jugs, pans, and sleeping mats.) 5 So the Pharisees and legal experts asked Jesus, “Why are your disciples not living according to the rules handed down by the elders but instead eat food with ritually unclean hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied about you hypocrites. He wrote,
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far away from me.
7 Their worship of me is empty
since they teach instructions that are human words.[a]
8 You ignore God’s commandment while holding on to rules created by humans and handed down to you.” 9 Jesus continued, “Clearly, you are experts at rejecting God’s commandment in order to establish these rules. 10 Moses said, Honor your father and your mother,[b] and The person who speaks against father or mother will certainly be put to death.[c] 11 But you say, ‘If you tell your father or mother, “Everything I’m expected to contribute to you is corban (that is, a gift I’m giving to God),” 12 then you are no longer required to care for your father or mother.’ 13 In this way you do away with God’s word in favor of the rules handed down to you, which you pass on to others. And you do a lot of other things just like that.”[Footnotes:
Mark 7:7 Isa 29:13
Mark 7:10 Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16
Mark 7:10 Exod 21:17; Lev 20:9]
____________________________A Catholic Devotional based on the Daily Mass Reading & Meditation for Monday, 9 February 2015
Meditation: Genesis 1: World’s creation in seven days
1 When God began to create[a] the heavens and the earth— 2 the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters— 3 God said, “Let there be light.” And so light appeared. 4 God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God named the light Day and the darkness Night.
There was evening and there was morning: the first day.
6 God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters to separate the waters from each other.” 7 God made the dome and separated the waters under the dome from the waters above the dome. And it happened in that way. 8 God named the dome Sky.
There was evening and there was morning: the second day.
9 God said, “Let the waters under the sky come together into one place so that the dry land can appear.” And that’s what happened. 10 God named the dry land Earth, and he named the gathered waters Seas. God saw how good it was. 11 God said, “Let the earth grow plant life: plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind throughout the earth.” And that’s what happened. 12 The earth produced plant life: plants yielding seeds, each according to its kind, and trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was.
13 There was evening and there was morning: the third day.
14 God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will mark events, sacred seasons, days, and years. 15 They will be lights in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth.” And that’s what happened. 16 God made the stars and two great lights: the larger light to rule over the day and the smaller light to rule over the night. 17 God put them in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was.
19 There was evening and there was morning: the fourth day.[Footnotes:
Genesis 1:1 Or In the beginning, God created]
5th Week in Ordinary Time
In the beginning … (Genesis 1:1)
Who is God? So many different answers are given to this question today. For some, God is the principle of order in the universe. For others, he is a lawgiver and judge. Some believe in many gods, and others, in no god at all. Still others say that God is just an idea devised by humans to help us get through life. But here, at the very start of the Bible, we see that God just plain is. He was not created by humans to fill some need. He is not the product of human imagination. He is Lord over all of creation.
In the first line of the Creed, we proclaim, “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” We announce that God created the entire universe and everything in it. We proclaim that God’s power is so great that he created all of it out of sheer nothingness.
The author of Genesis also proclaimed that God is not like the gods that the people of the ancient Near East made for themselves. Rather, he is the one true God who created all the elements that other religions considered to be gods. Other religions worshipped heavenly bodies, animals, or weather events or sea creatures, but the Jews worshipped the One who made all these things!
Keep this central truth of who God is at the forefront of your mind today. Use it to help you trust that God is above every circumstance you will face, however imposing it may seem. Since God created everything, you can be sure that he has more than enough power to work in your life today. But don’t just stop there. Let the truth of God the Creator convince you that he loves you as well: “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good” (Genesis 1:31).
Each and every day, we can place our hope in God our Father. He has the power to save us. And because he loves us, he wants to save us!
“Father, we exalt you as the Creator of all that is. We believe that you love your creation and that you love each of us. Through your Spirit, help us to know you and not to settle for worldly ideas or our own imaginings about you.” Amen!
Psalm 104:1 Let my whole being[a] bless the Lord!
Lord my God, how fantastic you are!
You are clothed in glory and grandeur!
2 You wear light like a robe;
you open the skies like a curtain.[Footnotes:
Psalm 104:1 Or soul; also in 104:35]
5 You established the earth on its foundations
so that it will never ever fall.
6 You covered it with the watery deep like a piece of clothing;
the waters were higher than the mountains!
10 You put gushing springs into dry riverbeds.
They flow between the mountains,
12 Overhead, the birds in the sky make their home,
chirping loudly in the trees.
24 Lord, you have done so many things!
You made them all so wisely!
The earth is full of your creations!
35 Let sinners be wiped clean from the earth;
let the wicked be no more.
But let my whole being bless the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Mark 6: Healings at Gennesaret
53 When Jesus and his disciples had crossed the lake, they landed at Gennesaret, anchored the boat, 54 and came ashore. People immediately recognized Jesus 55 and ran around that whole region bringing sick people on their mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 Wherever he went—villages, cities, or farming communities—they would place the sick in the marketplaces and beg him to allow them to touch even the hem of his clothing. Everyone who touched him was healed.
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