Grace to you!
 
Today’s reflection, which is a continuation of our thoughts from the sampled readings of Genesis, focuses on the tendency to play a blame game when we falter. I offer a suggestion on how to confront our demons head on and find answers and healing. 
 
Did you notice that in our lives, more often than not, when things go wrong, we tend to look outside to see who is the cause? We look to person A or person B, situation A or situation B. It is easier to blame others than to blame ourselves. 
 
We tend to judge others more harshly than we judge ourselves. Actually, many times, by judging others, we find excuses for our own indiscretions. It makes us feel good about ourselves. This proclivity is not unique to us as individuals. It was one of the first responses of our first parents Adam and Eve when they were confronted by the Lord after they committed Original Sin. It’s a natural human tendency. 
 
After Adam and Eve violated God’s command not to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, their nakedness became evident to them. And when God takes the stage to call them to responsibility beginning with the man (Adam) to whom the Lord expressly gave the command, the man blamed the woman. Perhaps, he indirectly blamed God who gave him the woman. The woman blamed the serpent. So, the circle goes. 
 
The Lord asked a simple question: “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the LordGod said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.” (Gn 3:11-13). 
 
Blame game. We forget that true self-discovery and true recovery happens when we dare tell ourselves the truth about ourselves. We notice this during the sacrament of reconciliation, Confession. Contrition, that is true sorrow for ours sins, is required for a good spiritual healing and restoration. No one who truly understands what making amends is goes to confession blaming other people. No one who wants to receive grace and mercy goes to God blaming others. 
 
We come to God asking for mercy for ourselves and for others. We know that the Lord is everywhere and knows us through and through. The Lord knows each situation through and through just like the Lord’s Holy Presence was everywhere in the garden of Eden whether Adam and Eve knew it or not. The Lord sees. The Lord knows. Scripture says, even before we were molded in our mom’s womb, the Lord knows everything through and through (Ps 139). 
 
Let’s face it. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rm 3:23). Christian understanding of human nature is such that we acknowledge the reality of human frailty. We believe that the consequences of Original Sin affect all of humankind. No one is utterly good. No one is holy. No one is perfect except God (see Mk 10:18; Lev 19:2; I pet 1:16). 
 
Also, God is all merciful. The Lord welcomes our repentant heart, our contrite spirit (Ps 51:17). In fact, in relating with us, the Lord is full of kindness and compassion (Ps 103:8, 145:8). The Lord is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex 34:6). The same way the Lord had pity on the crowd who was starving as to miraculously feed them (Mk 8:1-10), the Lord has pity on us when we are spiritually starving. 
 
Hence, approach the Lord not hiding yourself or finding excuses for your failings. Approach God in humility asking for mercy and grace. You will receive grace in abundance, and healing too. Amen. 
 
God love you. 
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu 
 
[Saturday Week 5 Ordinary Time: Gn 3:9-24; Mk 8:1-10]

 
Grace to you!
 
We continue our reflection this week centered on Genesis. Today, I look at the craftiness of evil and ways to avoid being trapped. 
 
The figurative story of the temptation of our first parents in the Garden of Eden (Gn 3:1-8), is interesting in many ways. When you read the story, you will notice the subtle tactic of the serpent, a figure representing Satan or the devil, in the story. 
 
The serpent was very subtle and seemed liked an unassuming creature with some secret information that provides great value. It used a sweet tongue and warmed itself into the heart of the unsuspecting woman and man. It does not say that the command of God to Adam and Eve regarding what they are to eat, or not eat, in the garden is evil. Rather, it offers an additional, seemingly better value to the unsuspecting woman, and through her to the man. 
 
“Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”, it asks (Gn 3:1). 
 
Watch that tone. Doesn’t it sound familiar to many of the temptations and struggles within our conscience in consideration of what good to do and what evil to avoid? Its intent, just like the intent of every ploy to evil, is to draw one in and jumpstart a conversation. Satan knows that once people can begin a conversation as to evaluate whether or not an evil path is truly evil or simply mere bias, there is a possibility for them to see the pleasure they could get out of it. Such pleasures tend to draw people in when they let their guard down. 
 
Lying Satan asks questions in such a way that the good and evil are blended so well one would have to be discerning to know that underneath such a plot is deceit. Satan proposes how an evil alternative would make the victim even better. It paints the picture of how it would add more value to the person than what the person is currently enjoying. It sells its pitch pretty well because when one engages in that conversation and decides to take a look at the offer, its glamor seems pleasant at face value. It is just like the glamor of the proverbial fruit in Genesis3. Scriptures says it looks good and was a delight to the woman. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate” (Gn 3:6). 
 
Sometimes, we assume that temptation to evil has to come directly to us with its ugly face before we know it’s evil temptation. That is why many times we enter into a mess because we never thought it was a mess. 
 
Who on earth would put their life on a slaughter table when they know fully well it was a meaningless slaughter table? No reasonable person would do such a thing. 
 
No reasonable person would get addicted to drugs or alcohol when they know it would ruin their lives. People get hooked because they saw something good in that substance. At least, at face value, it seemed pleasant. From the first try, they go deeper and deeper until they are completely trapped. 
 
Those who cheat or tell lies or fail in their commitments, begin with little seemingly harmless faults. When people live the life of sin, that is, when they live in a habitual situation of sin and deceit, it doesn’t happen automatically. Never. It builds up. Sometimes from seemingly harmless faults. Sometimes, from those little lies here and there. It could be seemingly harmless unfaithfulness here and there. Those none-follow-throughs here and there. Those bad words when we are upset here and there. Those cutting corners here and there. It grows and then becomes a pattern.
 
The story of the Fall of our First Parents, the unfortunate Original Sin, teaches us the classical style of temptation to evil. It teaches us to be proactive in fighting evil. 
 
In our individual lives and personal fight against evil, having been born anew in Christ, we could be more proactive against temptation. We learn not to be deceived by those seemingly harmless faults. We have to be certain of this: sin is sin no matter how harmless it seems to us at the moment. 
 
Praying for the grace of spiritual vigilance. Amen.
 
God love you. God bless you. 
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu 
 
[Thursday Week 5: Gn 3:1-8; Mk 7:31-37]

 
Grace to you!
 
Imagine how the world would have been if there were no community, no communion and no love? Could you fathom a scenario where there was only one person on the face of the planet without family, friends, no cries of babies, no “hellos”, no “see you tomorrow”, and no “goodnight?”
 
Such a world would be a nightmare. I wouldn’t like to be in such a world, and I guess you wouldn’t either. God didn’t wish it for us to live life in such a manner. From the start of creation, communion, relationship was included in the plan. 
 
Desire for relationship, for communion, or for reaching out to others, is ingrain in human nature. By nature we are social beings. It’s one of the Creator’s gifts to us. 
 
This truth is well captured in the Genesis account of creation (Gen 2:18-25). The text writes of God’s plan for us to be in relationship. It also writes of divine ordained will for marriage. 
 
God sees being alone, alone not just for a moment, but for the entirety of one’s life as not good. Recall God declared good, all He created (Gn 1:4, 10,12,18, and 25). But for the man to be alone, God said, “It is not good” (Gen 2:18). 
 
Have you ever felt alone? Not necessarily in the physical sense, but emotionally and spiritually. At those moments, don’t you feel the weight of abandonment, or sometimes, don’t you get depressed? Those moments remind us of this word of God regarding the terrible nature of being alone. From being alone, loneliness could be next in line. Loneliness isn’t a blessing we would wish on anyone. 
 
Loneliness is overcome when love, true love, agape, finds a friend. Married people can also feel lonely, though married and not alone. A heart-to-heart communion is the answer to loneliness. For the married, this is found when the two are truly soul mates, bonded by the love of the triune God. The grace of love-communication keeps the fire of love alive, preventing loneliness. 
 
For those not married, such as those who promised perpetual virginity, celibacy or simply those who are single for one reason or another, this is found when the soul is in love with the Communion of Love, the Trinity. 
 
Love in the Trinity is the ultimate answer to loneliness. You know it, for instance, when you are alone, or with someone, yet you feel lonely, and then you allow the grace of divine communion to enwrap your heart with the touch of divine love. You feel the world all around you, though you may be alone. One with God is one in communion. 
 
Communion, companionship, community provide a refreshing avenue for us to be what God has intended for us. God knows we need each other. God provided that we relate with each other. More, our hearts need communion with their Maker. 
 
Our hearts are made in such a way that they are open for such relationships. Marriage is the excellent example of this in human society. Communion with God is the perfection of it in eternity. 
 
For the alone, be assured of the communion of the Trinity. For the married, be confident you are made for each other for love. 
 
Praying for God’s blessings and renewal of the love of married people. May the Lord invigorate singles and those who made vows of celibacy with the grace flowing from the communion of the Trinity. To the lonely, may grace of communion abide. Amen
 
God love you. God bless you.
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu 
 
[Thursday Week 5 Ordinary Time: Gn 2:18-25; Mk 7:24-30]
 

​
 
Grace to you!
 
We continue our reflection based on The Book of Genesis. To access our earlier reflections on this theme please visit the following links--Mondayand Tuesday.
 
Today, I focus on the distinctive nature of the human kind as those specially made by God and called to responsibility not only to oneself, but to physical creation. The lesson is drawn from Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17. 
 
If you read Genesis chapters one and two, you may notice two versions of the story of creation. Some scholars call the first version (Gn 1:1-2:3), the first account of creation; and the following (Gn 2:4-3:24), the second account of creation. We know from biblical studies that those reflect two traditions, the first Elohist (E tradition) and the second Yahwist (J tradition). The Elohist often uses Elohim to refer to God’s name. The Yahwist tradition from time to time uses the sacred and reserved name YHWH (Yahweh). 
 
There are different opinions about each of these traditions and the significance of their narratives to the creation story. The study of these different opinions is not the subject of our reflection. By the way, I am not equipped to engage in such complex discussion. 
 
Suffice it for me to borrow from the Scripture scholar Sarna (1989), who sees in both traditions, narrative of the same truth of creation presented with two different focal points. The first focuses on the prominence and transcendence of God. It opens by showing God’s creation of “heaven and earth” from the beginning (Gn 1:1). The second emphasizes the place and role of the human kind in relation to creation by God and shows divine immanence. It opens its narrative by reversing the order from “heaven and earth” to “earth and heaven”. “In the day that the LordGod made the earth and the heavens” (Gn 2:4). “While God the Creator was the primary subject of the previous chapter, the focus of attention now [in the second] shifts to humankind.” (Sarna, 1989, p. 16).
                  
This change, it seems to me, shows the direction of the second version. It draws us to pay attention to its focus. It is a consideration of earthly things in relation to the heavenly reality. Thus, the God who seems distant from us in the first creation story, who speaks, and things come to be, is the same God who is close to His creatures. 
 
God walks the earth in the symbolic image of the Garden. God touches the dirt/dust to make the man and the woman out of the dust (Gn2:7). God carefully molds the man and the woman. God identifies the human condition and the human need for food, life and companionship. God breathes on the human kind for life (Gn7). God establishes the man and the woman and charges them to be responsible stewards over the rest of creation (Gn 2:15). 
 
God is presented as being very close to creation and to the man and the woman in particular. Yet God establishes the limits towards which our relationship with the things of the world should be. 
Man was to “till and keep” the garden (Gn 2:16). In other words, we have to work and do so responsibly. 
 
Even with the right to eat of the plants and the vegetables, there are limits too. Though the first man (and woman) were free to till and eat, they were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil. “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gn 2:16-17). 
 
The lesson from this complex narrative communicates to us some truths worth reflecting on. From the start, we are to work to earn our living. Work is part of Divine creative plan. To work is to fulfill our destiny as humans. As the Church reminds us, “work is a duty” (CCC 2427) and “In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature.” (CCC 2428). We have to work and pay our bills. As Saint Augustine suggests. “Work as if everything depended on you. And Pray as if everything depended on God.” This balance is the way to God. However, we are to guard against exploitation of one another for that is not proper stewardship towards creation. “Work is for man, not man for work” (CCC 2428). 
 
Second, I see divine will for human sense of responsibility. We are responsible to make the world a better place. We continue to walk in the light of divine plan towards the goal of ultimate fulfillment. We are responsible in our unique ways to lead to the perfection of the temporal order. 
 
Third, our freedom is never absolute. We have to know that there are limits to many things around us. Yet we better respect the laws of nature. We are free to till and work and eat, yet we have to respect the rights of others to their property and freedom too. We better know that our freedom doesn’t mean we can do anything. Some choices have negative consequences symbolized by “death.” 
 
I pray that in all we do, we live our live with grace-filled sense of responsibility in our duties to oneself and the duties to the rest of creation. Amen. 
 
God love you. God bless you.
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu 
 
 
[Wednesday Week 5: Gn 2:4B-9,15-17; Mk 7:14-23]

 
Grace to you!
 
We continue our reflection centered on The Book of Genesis. Today I focus on one of the lines that are repeated at the end of many of creation stages. It is the statement that says: “God saw that …it was good.” 
 
The declaration is repeated seven times in the story of creation (see Gn 1:4,10,12,18,21,25 and 31). Recall that in biblical stories, the number seven in symbolic. In many cases, it suggests completeness. The last occurrence (v 31) adds something that seems to summarize the work with a seal of divine approval, “very good.” “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gn 1:31).
 
It is fascinating to me to understand how God looks at the whole of creation. God’s “seeing” here is not to be understood as the vision of the physical eye as we rational creatures see. Rather, as one of the most renowned Jewish scripture scholars of the 21stcentury, Mattathias N. Sarna, says, it is about divine perception, a formula of divine approval of all creation (Sarna, 1989). It is a divine vision which reveals the way creation fits in the divine will. 
 
As Sarna suggests, this shows that “reality is imbued with God’s goodness.” It is also a direct rejection of the view that creation is radically evil from the beginning (Sarna, 1989, Genesis, p. 7). This view of the fundamental goodness of creation is supported by many other biblical scholars, such as C. F. Keil, and F. Delitzsch (1996). 
 
The church reminds us of this goodness of creation also. “Because creation comes forth from God's goodness, it shares in that goodness - "And God saw that it was good...very good"for God willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him. On many occasions the Church has had to defend the goodness of creation, including that of the physical world.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 299).
 
I am edified by this understanding for many reasons. One is appreciating how God sees me and you and the rest of creation. Divine perception about us is delight and beauty. It is the seeing that is the glory which is a vision of the true nature of things as they reflect the glory of the living God. 
 
I know for sure from the start, evil was never part of divine creation. As St. Augustine says, evil isn’t an existent being, but a lack of being. Most of the evils we see are moral. They are consequences of not being and choosing the real things as God has made them. Creation, the good creation of God, was completed before the wrong choice that led to the fall, Original Sin. 
 
In Christ, the restoration of creation is established through his death and resurrection. Believers bond with this and live in this renewal that connects us to original righteousness through grace. This for me too is refreshing. 
 
I know then that as a believer, I have to see the whole of creation as designed by the Creator with fundamental goodness having been willed by God. I treat everything, all of creation, with utmost care and proper stewardship. I love my neighbor and love my enemy, because not to love what God considers good is to put myself opposed to the will of the Creator. I treat nature in general with care because even though plants and animals may not be human, they still are part of the goodness of creation. 
 
There is order, that is beauty, in creation because God the Creator is order par excellence. I see myself as called to be a missionary of this divine order in all that I do. Knowing that the best way to live in this order and to be a missionary of it is to listen to the Creator, obey His word and truly have faith in His plan for the whole of creation. 
 
Such is the source of inner peace. Such is to live in the beauty of creation. Such is true harmony in my soul and in relation to the world around me.
 
Praying that in all we do, we see the goodness of the Lord in every creation. Amen. 
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu 
 
 
[Tuesday Week 5: Gn 1:20-2:4; Mk 7:1-13]

 
Grace to you!
 
The Church introduces us to the message from The Book of Genesis. For the next two weeks, excluding Sundays, I will be reflecting on the message from Genesis.
 
It is important to state right away that we will follow the same style of which our reflections are known. It is not a scholarly exercise which tries to demonstrate the exegetical expertise of these biblical narratives. Rather, it applies exegetical method by looking at the relevance of the message for our spiritual journey. Following the spirit of the text, it does so shaped by the Catholic Christian spiritual tradition. The goal, as with our other reflections, is for a deeper spiritual life and walk with the Lord. 
 
Genesis, as you may have known, is one of the first five books (Pentateuch) of the Judeo-Christian Bible. In the Hebrew Bible, it is called Bereshit,which is the first phrase that opens the message of the book “In the beginning.” In this book, for the most part written in narrative style, we are introduced to a religious message centered on the claim that creation—of the world, time, space, living beings and nature in general—is as a result of divine providence. It is not a book of science and should not be interpreted as a book of science. It is a religious message, rich in powerful, life-giving messages. To read that message in the spirit of which is was written, is to allow one’s life to be shaped by divine insight to the purpose of life.  
 
We read how God brought order out of chaos, brought about the being of the realities of the heavens and the earth. All these through the instrument of His Word. We see how God speaks and God’s word results to life, nature and all there is. 
 
This message is particularly important to a person of faith. As I read Genesis chapter one, my mind goes back to reflect on my life and the life of my loved ones. How do I see God in thinking about the time when I was conceived in my mother’s womb and throughout the course of my life? Understanding that from the beginning, as is with the beginning of time, God’s Word and grace is ordering things and God’s providence sets things in the state of being. This is encouraging to me. 
 
Notice the sequence of that story of creation. There is order in chaos. There is light, night and day (Gn 1:3-5). There is the firmament or the atmosphere, the sky or if you will, the planetary bodies (Gn 1:5-8). There is the dry land and vegetation (Gn 1:9-13). Other creative acts of God include the luminaries —the sun, moon and the stars (Gen 1:14-19); birds and see animals (Gn 1:20-23); land creatures and human beings (Gn 1:24-31). 
 
This message is to be understood in the religious sense. In it all one sees the hand of providence. The same God who creates (barain Hebrew), and who does not need any material stuff to make His word come true, is the one who has ordered your life also. 
 
For me, it means I approach my life and purpose in life with confidence in divine providence. I do not approach my life as a stroke of chance or accidental occurrences. I see meaning in what I do and my being. I see hope in things around me. I do so because I know the Creator God lives and His Word comes true, not just in the outer space or nature, but in me too. 
 
Belief in creation is belief in life with the ordering of providence. It is belief in life moving towards the ultimate fulfillment and perfection. It is hope-filled life. It is life with ultimate purpose. 
 
I pray that God, the creator, would instill in our hearts confident trust in Divine Providence. Amen. 
 
God love you. God bless you. 
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu 
 
[Monday Week 5 Ordinary Time: Gn 1:1-19; Mk 6:53-56]

Grace to you!
 
In today’s reflection, I share one of the most encouraging truths about God’s relationship with us. God chooses and commissions the sinner, the imperfect like you and me, for the incredible work of grace. 
 
You may have met people who have had a special encounter with the Lord. It could be the devout woman who is your next-door neighbor, the pastor of your church who is living an exemplary spiritual life or your friend whose commitment to the Lord is amiable. Listening to their story is fascinating. Yet we notice that in their story, we may find one aspect or another of ourselves.
 
You will notice that the closer one is to the Lord, the more evident one’s weaknesses become. The called and chosen of the Lord aren’t people who fall from the skies and are dotted with the perfection of the angels. They aren’t individuals who never indulged or used bad language. Neither are they people who never had the temptation to exaggerate, play pranks or deal with lustful and prideful passions. They aren’t people who never missed their prayers and always behaved in a way that is and is seen as complete integrity. In fact, some of them were a mess just like many of us are. They were mired with the mud of human brokenness and smelled the dirt of imperfections smeared all over their body through their indiscretions.  
 
Once I told someone that when your weaknesses as a person become more evident to you, you know you are truly making headway in your spiritual life. Our weaknesses are evident to us when God is closest. The farther away we are from God, the more we assume we are perfect. 
 
On earth, God’s best friends are sinners. The Lord came to call the sinner not the righteous (Mk 2:17; Lk 5:32). In the same way, the Lord calls and chooses those who are attuned to his redeeming grace. It is those who recognize that God is holy, and I am not. God is perfect, I am not perfect. 
 
This reality is evident in the biblical stories of the call of the prophets to the call of the apostles. Indeed, those called and chosen are people who realize that it is by the grace of God that we can have a relationship with God. From the call of Isaiah, to the call of Peter and Paul, the story is consistent. 
 
Isaiah saw a glimpse of the Lord’s glory and holiness. This is a sharp contrast to his own weaknesses, for the light of the glory of the Lord shines upon us and we see our own dark spots.  Fully aware of his own weaknesses, Isaiah cried: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lordof hosts!” (Is 6:5). 
 
Same with the call of Simon the fisherman. Simon (Peter), the one called and chosen to be the leader of the Church, wasn’t perfect either. When he met Jesus by the Sea of Galilee, he saw his unworthiness, fell at the knees of Jesus and said: “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Lk 5:8).
 
St. Paul’s recount of his call by the Lord Jesus in 1Cor 15 equally acknowledges his weakness and the supremacy of God’s grace in his calling. “By the grace of God” he said, “I am what I am” (1Cor 15:10). He was referring to the choice made of him by the Lord to be an apostle though he was unworthy of it.
 
There are numerous examples like these in the Bible. So, don’t suppose that because of your weaknesses God can’t use you to bless his people. In fact, you are the right candidate for God’s call. Always remember the saying “God does not call the perfect but perfects the called.”
 
Praying that we will be attuned to the call of God’s grace as it stirs our hearts to respond to the invitation to follow the Lord in the way of righteousness. Amen.
 
God love you.  God bless you.
 
[Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Is 6: 1-2a, 3-8; 1Cor 15:1-11 or15:3-8, 11; Lk 5:1-11]