All things are yours::: Thursday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time

 Year A

Memorial of Gregory the Great 

1 Corinthians 3:18-23

Psalm 24:1-2.3-4ab.5-6 (R. 1ab)

Luke 5:1-11

All things are yours 

The first Soliloquy in the Bible is "Let us make man in our image and likeness. " This was the first time in the Bible that God spoke with himself.

Genesis 1:26-28 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

Isn't it interesting that the first time God spoke with himself was to create man and the Second person of the Trinity also became man.  A brief understanding of the Trinity is that if God is Love, that means he is a Lover and love his beloved. That is, Love is tripartite; Lover, Beloved and Love itself which binds the Lover to his Beloved.  The Father is the Lover and the Son is his Beloved and the Holy Spirit is the Love that is Uniting the Lover to his Beloved. So the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. 

Matthew 17:5

He was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud covered them with shadow, and suddenly from the cloud there came a voice which said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him. '

The Son is the Beloved, and as the Word of God, He is God's knowledge of himself completely distinct from himself and his love of himself.  So if these three distinct Persons communicates with themselves, why was it about man? I think the answer lies in God wanting the knowledge of himself become physical to his creatures so that creatures become what they are meant to be, show the knowledge of God.  Thus creatures become also the beloved and God their lover. 

John 3:16

For this is how God loved the world:he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal live.

So man as the crown of creation was given dominion over fishes in the sea and birds of the heaven, the Cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.' With this we see that God has given man dominion over the Sea, heaven and earth.  Man has done everything to show this; we have ships, boats, canoes and the like that sail on the sea, planes, jets, spaceships and the like that flies in the sky, and cars that travel on the land.

In Creation all these places where given things to sought of be in charge; fishes and the sea, birds and the sky and earth we have the cattle, creeping things and wild animals. So man being the master of these is clear. However after the fall everything was corrupted and death became Lord over us. 

But today in the first reading Paul reminds us that all things belong to us if we belong to Christ. In his list he mentions that Paul, Apollos or Cephas, the world, life, death, the present or the future  all belong to us. Thus death is no longer our enemy. 

Isn't it interesting that all these things belong to us, they all show the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of God has made us God's beloved. Since the soul seeks knowledge and we are living souls, the knowledge of God is essential for our lives.  

Do you know God?

Genesis 4:1

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.

The Hebrew word yada which means to know is used here, but the context is obviously about intercourse.  Thus in Scripture, knowing someone is about loving the person and the product of these is a blessing to all.

By 

Sylvester Amakye-Quayson