When Your Life Is "In The Pit"

"And now, we pray you, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him, and said, "Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them, "Fear not, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." (Genesis 50:17-21)

Now I don't know of many pits where I live, but I'm pretty sure that if my siblings tossed me in one and left me for thieves to find me and sell me into slavery, I'd probably be inclined to hold a grudge against them and plot ways to get even should I ever be given the opportunity. Yet here we have Joseph, who never considered a negative response to his predicament. He was a slave and a prisoner as a result of actions out of his control, yet as a result of his faith and good will, God used his situation, not just to Joseph's personal success, but to the safety and well being of all of Egypt and Canaan.

In the story of Joseph and Egypt, we see that God can (and often does) take a bad situation and use it to His advantage. But for His plan to work, we have to accept the unfortunate situations that we are given, and remain faithful to God in the midst of our suffering. In that regard, our free will does play a role in God's salvation plan.

Consider if Joseph had taken his brothers into slavery when they came to him for food. Similarly, what if Noah had chosen not to heed God's advice to build an ark? What if Mary had said "No" to God's plan? Would God have failed in His plan to reconcile man to Himself? Unlikely -- He is God and He can do anything. Likely He would have worked with other events in history to bring about salvation, and we would now be honoring a Rebekah or a Therese as our blessed mother.

Our call then is to graciously accept our lot in life, and know that although it may seem pointless that we should have to suffer unnecessarily, perhaps if we handle our grief with humility and faith, a thousand years from now humanity will look back and credit our heroic struggles as part of God's redemptive plan.

Faith of Our Fathers

God will provide Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. (Genesis 22:8)

A man waits faithfully for one hundred years to have his only son by his wife as promised by God. And then God commands him to go out and kill that son as a sacrifice for Him, and he does it without question, even up to the point that he has the son strapped to the altar with a knife raised. THAT is steadfast faith in God. I do not have it, and must admit that it would be a hard thing even to ask for as truthfully I do not want to be put to a similar test of faith.

But is the story of Abraham and Isaac not a fantastic foreshadowing to the redemptive act of God when He offers His only Son as a sacrifice to us? Even more so that we celebrate that act of supreme love each week upon an altar? And that in God's mercy, we celebrate that act not with knives and fire, but with the simple species of bread and wine? Our God certainly likes His paradoxes.

Gomorrah No-More-Ah

for we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. (Genesis 19:13)

I often wonder just how bad the people in Sodom were to incur the wrath of God? Then I think of modern times and wonder how far we are from suffering a similar fate?

Origin of Life Worth the Wait

The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give Him thanks for all His works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers. With Solomon they can say: "It is He who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements ... for Wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me." (CCC 283)

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1). The first verse in Scripture is the whole of what we as Catholics must believe. As long as we recognize that God was the beginning and the end of all things (and that man alone has an eternal soul), the details in between those bookends is left up to ourselves.

To believe in anything contrary to pure Creationism flies in the face of many Christian evangelicals. But I do not believe (nor does the Catholic Church require me to) that the early chapters of Genesis were ever intended to be taken literally. Instead, I think it is much more likely that the Bible's explanation for the origins of the universe were being explained to man at a time when their minds could not possibly have grasped the truths we now take for granted today. Their scientists (or "magi" on this day after the Feast of the Epiphany) could not have had the technical aptitude to understand the difference between a star, a planet or some other heavenly body (and apparently we still can't today) so the origins would have to have been explained in such a way as they could make sense of it.

My personal belief is that of intelligent design, in which evolution may have played a part in the scientific sense, but that God guided the process of cosmic jelly to human being. To deny plausible scientific evidence that certain creatures evolved from other creatures is akin to claiming that the universe is not heliocentric despite concrete proof of modern science.

I was surprised to learn that it was initially the Protestants, not the Catholics, who were opposed to the belief that the sun was the center of our galaxy. Both groups however based their ignorance on sacred Scripture, citing that to believe in other than a geocentric universe was to deny the literal interpretation of the Bible, most notably that the "earth is firm in its foundation and can not be moved" (Psalms 93:1, Psalms 96:10, 1 Chronicles 16:30). The Church did denounce Galileo of heresy for promoting Copernicus' findings, and did not admit to her error officially until 1757 due to findings by Isaac Newton.

I, for one, can appreciate the Church's stance on taking time to accept new information quickly. The same Church that took almost 200 years to recognize the sun as center of our galaxy, also applies that same slow, methodical approach to her recognition of saints and her acceptance of apparitions, which I (admittedly) am skeptical of. As a wise ent, Treebeard, once said in the Lord of the Rings, "It takes a long time to say anything ..., and we never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say."

I'd rather take a long time to ensure something is correct before I accept it than to readily accept every claim I hear as truth only to find out later that I had been deceived. Thank God for a slow and thorough universal Church that does not give in so easily to the changes of a liberal society!

Random Thoughts - I

Thence he removed to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar and called on the name of the Lord. (Gen 12:8)

According to wikipedia, Bethel is north of Jerusalem and Bethlehem is south of Jerusalem. I thought we had learned in Bible Study that it was the same city which I found interesting since it would suggest that Jesus' Jewish ancestry, going all the way back to Abraham, all revolved around the same exact spot. Either way, the Old Testament makes one pause to consider the spans of generations it covers, especially for Americans, whose country is just over 200 years old.

But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sar'ai, Abram's wife. (Gen 12:17)

It's no wonder Judaism was never adopted in Egypt! The house of Pharaoh was inflicted not once, but twice by the God of the Jews! Makes one wonder why Pharaoh in Moses' time was so unbelieving after the first of God's plagues. Just further proof that history repeats itself yet man never seems to take notice...

If Wisdom Comes With Age, Adam Was A Wise Guy!

Thus all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. (Gen 5:5)

A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to be a part of a men's Bible Study group. At the time, one of the gentleman asked why we separated the men and women for this study. Aside from just personal choice, we pointed out that men tend to want explanations on the literal sense of the Bible while women tend to accept the message without sweating the details. The lifetimes of the early humans is a perfect example.

The question came up early in Genesis regarding the ages of the patriarchs of our faith. We naturally looked for any official Church teaching and finding none, began to put forth reasons this might be. Some leaned on the fact that the story of Creation was not meant to be take quite so literally, and that ages were merely symbolic of the importance of each person. Others suggested that in those years, time was not measured in the same sense that we think of it -- the Roman calendar and the cuckoo clock were yet to be discovered Still others reasoned that God ordered long life spans in order to allow time for the people to be fruitful enough to populate the world!

I like to think that it stems from the fact that our original parents ate from the Tree of Life while in Eden. The fruit from that tree would have gained them eternal life with the Father. When they were tossed out on their heels for their sin, the effects of that fruit did not immediately subside. Therefore we see throughout Genesis that the ages of our earliest ancestors were great in number, but generally dropped off as the amount of time since the fall of man increased.

Note that this is not official Church teaching. They do not speculate on age just as they do not specify whether a Catholic in good standing must believe in Creation or Evolution or some combination of the two. She only requires that "by faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the Word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible" (Hebrews 11:3). Further more, the Church recognizes that the early chapters of Genesis "remain the principal source for catechesis on the mysteries of the 'beginning': creation, fall, and promise of salvation" (CCC 289).

But alas, the debate between Creation and Evolution is best left for another entry.