October 12, 2025 - Pastor Message
October 13, 2025JUBILEE 2025 GAUDIUM ET SPES (cont.)
JUBILEE 2025
GAUDIUM ET SPES (cont.)
“Then God said: ‘Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, the tame animals and all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth.’ God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them…God looked at everything he had made and found it very good” (Genesis 1:26-27, 31).
This account of the creation of the human race, the first of two, very different biblical accounts of the creation of the human race, while ancient and mythical in origin, speaks fundamental, universal truth that serves as the foundation of the moral life - human beings are the unique centerpoint of creation, alone made in God’s image and likeness, and entrusted by God with the care of the rest of creation, including each other. The “very good” creation God makes depends on us, so, when we mess it up by sin, the whole order of creation is thrown off. People rebel against God; people harm each other; people harm nature, all because of sin.
GS explains it thus: “Although set by God in a state of righteousness, men and women, enticed by the evil one, abused their freedom at the very start of history.They raised themselves up against God, and tried to attain their goal apart from him…What revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience. For when people look into their own hearts they find that they are drawn towards what is wrong and are sunk in many evils which cannot have come from their good creator…They are therefore divided interiorly. As a result, the entire life of women and men, both individual and social, shows itself to be a struggle, and a dramatic one, between good and evil, between light and darkness. People find that they are unable of themselves to overcome the assaults of evil successfully, so that everyone feels as if in chains. But the Lord himself came to free and strengthen humanity, renewing it inwardly and casting out the ‘prince of this world’ (John 12:31), who held it in the bondage of sin…Both the high calling and deep misery which people experience find their final explanation in the light of this revelation” (GS, 13).
The moral life, therefore - the choosing of what is good and what is evil, of what makes us more fully human and builds up creation and what makes us less human and harms creation - takes place on this inner, spiritual battlefield. But our great hope is that we do not fight the battle alone. In fact, the battle has already been won, on a hill called Calvary outside Jerusalem, 2000 years ago, by the son of a carpenter who gave his life for us. That carpenter’s son is also the Son of God, whose banner is the cross and whose blood washes us clean from sin and gives us new life, free from sin and death. The death and resurrection of Christ re-creates the world. Fresh start. Clean slate. And that is where the moral life for those reborn in Christ begins.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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