Memory of the Saints and the Prophets

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Genesis 2,4-9.15-17

Such was the story of heaven and earth as they were created. At the time when Yahweh God made earth and heaven there was as yet no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plant yet sprung up, for Yahweh God had not sent rain on the earth, nor was there any man to till the soil. Instead, water flowed out of the ground and watered all the surface of the soil. Yahweh God shaped man from the soil of the ground and blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being. Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden, which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. From the soil, Yahweh God caused to grow every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yahweh God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it. Then Yahweh God gave the man this command, 'You are free to eat of all the trees in the garden. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat; for, the day you eat of that, you are doomed to die.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

As if to reinforce the original link between human beings, creation and God, Genesis gives us a second account of Creation. The sacred author does not try to propose a scientific truth concerning the origins of the world or of the human species, but rather seeks to affirm the fact that life is holy because it is a work of God and belongs to Him. Every human being is called to honour, respect, defend life and make it bear fruits. Certainly, we are not called to live it only for ourselves that would mean bury it underground. Surely, only God is the Lord of human life, but He gave it to human beings so that they bear fruits for all. This page of Scripture seems to put God's concern for humanity at the centre of the creation story: he moulds him from the soil, blows life into him and puts him in the garden. Life comes from God, as the "breath" that he blows into him indicates. Then God entrusts man with cultivating the garden and keeping it in all of its beauty. How precious and foreseeing is the double task the Lord entrust to human beings! Human beings need first of all to "cultivate" creation. The word in Hebrew means "to serve" and also "to work." Human beings are called to be in service to the garden that is the Earth, the universe in which God has put them. Human beings need to take care of it and cultivate it so that it produces fruit and benefits the entire human family. They must be "stewards" of the Earth: we are not absolute masters of creation, and we cannot bend it to our wishes. We are its lords to exalt it. Our first task is not to dominate or own but indeed to "take care" so that it may be a house for all. The Garden is also associated with he Promised Land that God will give as a gift to his people. Only if Israel "serves and stewards" the land will it continue to express the gift from God, otherwise Israel risks losing it as it did at the time of the Babylonian exile. Indeed, a tree lives in a garden; on one hand it marks a limit that humans should not cross, and on the other hand, it offers the possibility of friendship with God. This is why it represents the most dangerous temptation that pushes people to become like God and to be master of themselves and of others.