The Fall

 

Original Sin, Hugo Van der Goes, late 1400's

It has been quite a long time since I posted one of the Bible study lessons!  I have been thinking about it, though, quite a lot and now I feel ready to discuss the second part of my lesson on the Fall of Adam and Eve--the nature of the temptation.  Why did Eve eat the forbidden fruit and succumb to Satan's suggestions to turn from God?  Why did Adam go along with her?   

First of all, let's look at the seven capital sins.  Sometimes called the seven deadly sins, they are really a set of attitudes that are the basis for all of the sins we commit.

A capital sin is one that is the "head" or source of many other sins.  "Capital" comes from the Latin word capitalis, meaning head, chief, or first.  From the capital sins, all other sins flow forth.  These sinful attitudes generate sinful actions.

Envy,  Hieronymus Bosch

The seven deadly sins are: pride, anger, greed, envy, sloth, lust, and gluttony.  Scripture tells us that it was through the capital sin of envy that death entered into the world, in the very first text of the Bible that equates the serpent in Genesis 3 with the devil:

For God formed us to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made us.  But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are allied with him experience it.  
                               Wisdom 2:23-24

The devil, filled with envy of God's wisdom, power, and creative glory, enters the garden and approaches Eve.  He wants what God already has:  the worship, fear, and devotion of mankind.  But God desires the glory of man, while the devil desires only his own glory, caring little for man's fate, even longing to make mankind as miserable as his own miserable self.  He is the Father of Lies (John 8:44), and so he begins his attack with an insidious lie:

 And he [the serpent] said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise? Genesis 3:1

First of all, the serpent engages the woman.  He gets her wondering about the motives of God and she begins to question in her heart the reasons behind God's restrictions. She questions the goodness and love of God. She is no longer trusting God, but she is trying to understand God.  She is, in a sense, setting herself up to judge God:  Are His reasons valid? Is He right (as if God could ever possibly be wrong) in placing this restriction upon her? Is He even telling her the truth? 

Pride, Hieronymus Bosch

At this thought, pride enters into her heart.  She has placed herself in a position of superiority over God Himself; she has made Him less, and herself more.  She has usurped His authority and put in its place her own judgement and reason. She has determined that God owes her an explanation. She has doubted the truthfulness of Truth Itself.  All of these thoughts enter into her mind.  Sin begins first in the thoughts, and here Eve conceives in her mind not truth, but a lie, not humility, but pride.

So, Eve replies to Satan:

And the woman answered him, saying:  Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat:  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.  Genesis 3:2-3

It is clear that Eve knew the commands of God, and the consequences of disobedience.  And so do we.  How often do we commit sins which we not only know to be wrong, but which we know will have disastrous consequences?  We know we will suffer guilt, hurt our loved ones, damage our relationship with God, but we go ahead and disobey His commands anyway.  Aren't we really thinking, in our heart of hearts, that maybe God is wrong?  Maybe we know better than He does?   So, too, Eve has already begun to question the validity of God's commandments.  Who is God to tell her what she can and can't eat? What she can and can't do?  What she can and can't know?

Now, the devil moves in for the decisive blow:

And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3: 4-5

Pride, envy, and now greed begin to grow in Eve's heart.  You shall be as Gods!  Eve sees before her eyes the shimmering lure of being like God.  She is being "dragged away by [her] own evil desire and enticed. (James 1:14)" But, wait! Isn't she already like God?  Scripture tells us that "God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them."-Genesis 1:27 

Greed, Hieronymus Bosch

Eve  was created in the image and likeness of God, but now Satan has convinced her that she must try to somehow grab from behind God's back, as it were, that which, in fact, she already possesses.  She becomes blinded by her own prideful thoughts and greedy desires and can no longer see the blessings of God.  In truth,  the only thing she does not possess is the experience of separation from God.  The only knowledge God could not give her is the knowledge of shame, of sorrow,  and of guilt.  

 And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat.  Genesis 3: 6

The last, tragic step in the Fall occurs when Eve's thoughts and desires, her embracing of Satan's lies,  become sinful actions.  She takes the fruit and eats it.  The deed is done, and it cannot be undone until Jesus hangs suspended on the rough wood of the Cross.

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;  but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.  James 1:13-15 (NIV)

Eve persuades her husband Adam to join her in her disobedience.  She has moved from pride, envy, and greed, into gluttony ("fair to eat") and lust ("fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold").  I wonder if there is a hint here, also, of anger.  How did she convince Adam to eat?  Did she become angry with him?  We are not told.  But we do know, from our own experiences with sin, the compelling need a person in sin has to validate themselves by convincing others to join them in their folly.  And we know, too, how often that "convincing" takes the form of angry coercion.

We will never know what might have happened if Adam had refused to eat the fruit.  Perhaps death would not have entered the world, for we do know that it was through Adam's participation in Eve's sin that death did enter:

Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.  Romans 5:12  (emphasis added)

 Eve's fall began in her prideful thoughts and misplaced desires, then  was finalized by her sinful actions.   From being the "mother of all living", she becomes the mother of a race of men condemned from the moment of birth to a certain death. 

The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man.  Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.  CCC 390 .

Thanks be to God, this is not the end of the story!  As we read through Genesis 3, we will see the great hope of a future salvation, the great promise of a Savior to come and of a new Eve who will participate in restoring what once was lost by the first Eve long ago.

The Pentateuch, Day 7: The Fall of Man

The Fall of Man, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel

The Fall of Man

     There is so much to consider in Genesis 3 that I have had to break it down into three posts:  

           1.  The Ancient Serpent
           2.  The Nature of the Temptation
           3.  The Consequences of the Fall


Even these barely scratch the surface, but hopefully you will glean some insight and food for thought from these topics as we discuss them.
 

I.  The Ancient Serpent 

A few years ago, when I was out weeding in my garden, I noticed a strange shape up in one of the crabapple trees.  I went closer to investigate and I found that a large black snake had crawl up into the tree.  I was startled to find this snake draped along the branch;  why was it there?  Three large lumps that ranged down its body and an empty robin's nest at the end of the branch told the tale.  The snake had climbed the tree in order the eat and destroy the robin's eggs.  

In Genesis 3, we also see a snake in a tree.  This snake is attractive and does not seem to be very intimidating;  it is persuasive and does not seem to be evil.  The next time this same word for serpent is used in Scripture is in the Revelation to St. John. When we see this serpent again in the last pages of the New Testament, it's true nature is fully revealed.  It has grown to enormous proportions and is a being of unimaginable wickedness, cruelty, rebellion, and evil.  Not only is the serpent's identity as the Evil One clear, but its purpose and plan are plainly seen.  It is intent upon only one end--destroying Christ:

And another portent appeared in heaven;  behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads.  His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth.  And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron...Rev 12:3-5

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman, William Blake

Genesis uses the image of the serpent to portray the deadly evil lurking in the trees of the Garden of Eden.  This serpent is intent on one thing--the destruction of the children of Eve.  More specifically, the destruction of the Son who will be descended from Eve and will ultimately defeat him.  He climbs into the tree, just as the snake in my garden did, to devour Eve's offspring.  If he can tempt her to sin, then he can introduce sin and selfishness into the world and, he hopes, eventually destroy the possibility of the Messiah's birth.

It is interesting that the serpent is portrayed as "subtle", in fact, "more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made." In the ancient world, the serpent was usually a symbol of wisdom and healing.  The great statue of Athena in the Parthenon in Athens was accompanied by a large serpent (just to the left of her shield).  The healing god Asklepius also was depicted with  (or even sometimes as) a serpent  Even today we see this positive representation of serpents  in the caduceus, which is a commonly used symbol of medicine.

In the surrounding Sumerian culture, snakes were also worshipped.  The god Ningizzida, who was a Sumerian god of the underworld, was represented as two snakes entwined around a rod.  His name means literally, "lord of the good tree".  Perhaps it is an echo of the true memory of man's original encountered with the serpent that in these and in many mythologies the snake is associated with a tree of some kind.

In the Hebrew writings, however, the snake is not a positive element. It is not wise, it is subtle.   It is deceitful, a bringer of temptation and death.  It is a usurper of God's rightful place, persuading Eve to turn from her proper relationship with God.  It speaks with a wisdom which is not from God and which ultimately, fueling our pride and rebellion, leads to rupture in our relationship with God and to death.  Throughout the Bible this worldly wisdom, which counsels us to seek fame, glory, and power of various kinds for ourselves, is contrasted with the "foolishness" of God, which calls us to lay down our very lives for the sake of others:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God..  For it is written,  
     "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
     and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart."

Where is the wise man?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe...we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men... Let no one deceive himself.  If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.  For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.  For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."  --I Cor 1:18-25; I Cor 3:18

So, the pagans who surrounded Israel deified snakes, seeing in them the source of that wisdom which would bring them power and domination over their fellow man and would make them craftier even than the gods.  In the Hebrew Torah, however, the true nature of this deceiver is portrayed, along with the real consequences of rebellion against the God of Life.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed?  The end of those things is death...For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of god is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.--Rom 6:20-21, 23 

To deify means to exalt something or someone to the position of a god, to imbue them with god-like qualities and powers.  It comes from the Latin words deus, meaning "god, and facere, which means "to make."


The Church teaches us that behind this "wisdom" and these serpent images lies a reality--a spiritual being who is himself in rebellion against God:

The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God:  "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing." (Lateran Council IV)--CCC 391

These defiant angels rose up against God, attempting to be like God and assume His power and reign.  St. Michael, whose very name means "Who is like God?", defeated Satan and his minions and cast them out of heaven.  These rebellious angels, which we call demons, continue to "act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus"--CCC 395.  But their power is limited and they can only operate in the world by permission of the Divine Providence, which "with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history.  It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but 'we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him."--CCC 395

 

Altarpiece of St. Michael defeating Lucifer,  Gerard David

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.

'"May prayer strengthen us for the spiritual battle we are told about in the Letter to the Ephesians: 'Draw strength from the Lord and from His mighty power' (Ephesians 6:10). The Book of Revelation refers to this same battle, recalling before our eyes the image of St. Michael the Archangel (Revelation 12:7). Pope Leo XIII certainly had a very vivid recollection of this scene when, at the end of the last century, he introduced a special prayer to St. Michael throughout the Church. Although this prayer is no longer recited at the end of Mass, I ask everyone not to forget it and to recite it to obtain help in the battle against forces of darkness and against the spirit of this world."'--Blessed John Paul II

Next lesson:  The Nature of  the Temptation

The Pentateuch, Day 4: Myth or Science?

Garden of Eden, Jan Brueghel the Elder

Two Ways

     When modern people consider the account of creation narrated in the Book of Genesis, they usually look at it in one of two ways.

1.  It's a myth. 
     A myth is a story created by man, often to explain some phenomena he has observed which are otherwise inexplicable to him.   Myths create gods, and then attribute to these imaginary gods the  creation of the world out of some already-existing matter. Events in the world that are not understood by the people of the time are also attributed to the gods. Essentially, a myth is man's effort to understand the world by determining the causes of objects and events in that world.  Many people today would consider Genesis no more than a myth, based on ancient Sumerian myths and no more a source of truth than such myths.  
     The Catholic Church does agree that ancient mythological images were called upon by the writer(s) of Genesis, but this does not undermine the inspired nature of the account.  The image of a primordial "sea" and the idea of a garden of paradise are two elements borrowed from pagan mythology.  However, these are used as commonly-understood symbols or metaphors to convey an inspired truth in ways that the people of that time could understand. 

Pope Pius XII

...the first eleven chapters of Genesis, although properly speaking not conforming to the historical method used by the best Greek and Latin writers or by competent authors of our time, do nevertheless pertain to history in a true sense, which however must be further studied and determined by exegetes: the same chapters...in simple and metaphorical language adapted to the mentality of a people but little cultured, both state the principal truths which are fundamental for our salvation, and also give a popular description of the origin of the human race and the chosen people.  If, however, the ancient sacred writers have taken anything from popular narrations (and this may be conceded), it must never be forgotten that they did so with the help of divine inspiration, through which they were rendered immune from any error in selecting and evaluating those documents--Humani Generis, 18


2.  It's science.

      On the opposite end of the spectrum are those who consider the Genesis account to be as technically detailed and precise as a modern-day scientific report.  Each detail is scrutinized for its possible scientific relevance, and each statement is interpreted in an absolutely literal way.  This approach, often seen as "old-fashioned" or "fundamentalist" is in a way very up-to-date.  The scientific thinking that influences a reader to want the Genesis account to be scientifically accurate is a completely modern phenomenon.  In our time, science has become man's effort to understand the world by determining the causes of objects and events in that world.  In other words, it has replaced myth as our way of explaining the world to ourselves.
     The sacred writers, however, were not composing a science textbook. The Church maintains that

...the biblical creation narratives represent another way of speaking about reality than that with which we are familiar from physics and biology.  They do not depict the process of becoming or the mathematical structure of matter; instead, they say in different ways that there is only one God and that the universe is not the scene of a struggle among dark forces but rather the creation of his Word...[The biblical accounts] express the truth--in another way, to be sure, than is the case in physics or biology.  They represent truth in the way that symbols do--just as, for example, a Gothic window gives us a deep insight into reality, thanks to the effect of light that it produces and to the figures that it portrays.--In the Beginning, p. 25-26

Rose Window, Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

A Third Way

Neither fish...

...nor fowl

     If Genesis isn't myth or science, neither fish nor fowl, then what is it?  The Catholic Church does not consider Genesis to be either myth or science.  Genesis is not the product of  man's effort to understand the world by determining the causes of objects and events in that world, instead it is God's effort to reveal Himself to man.

 The truth about creation is so important for all of human life that God in his tenderness wanted to reveal to his People everything that is salutary to know on the subject.--CCC 287

So, the Church teaches that the Genesis account is revelation, neither an unfounded, man-made myth nor a detailed, analytical report.   Theological truths necessary for salvation are presented symbolically, and are embedded in the cultural images common in the ancient world.

 God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity, and order.  Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine "work," concluded by the "rest" of the seventh day.  On the subject of creation , the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation...--CCC 337


What have we learned so far about God and creation?   We have learned:

1.  One all-powerful God created the world out of nothing (ex nihilo)
2.  The world, as created by God, was good.
3.  God upholds and sustains His creation at every moment.
4.  God guides creation toward its final destiny--union with and in Him.
5.  Six days of creation followed by a seventh day of rest point to the duty of man to worship God, honor Him, and enter into relationship with Him. 

Main Idea:  The Genesis account is neither myth nor science, but the divine Revelation of God which teaches us fundamental doctrines we need to understand for our salvation.

  Your assignment

1.  Compare the creation account in Genesis 1 and with the account in Genesis 2.  How do they differ?  How are they the same?

2.  Read Ps. 104, which recounts the glory of God in His creation and tells of the providential care of God for His creatures.

3.  Read Romans 1:18.  What can be known about God by observing His creation?  Can you think of some things that can not be known through that observation?

Next lesson:  The Framework of Creation

The Pentateuch, Day 3: The Blessed Trinity in Creation

God Separating Light from Darkness, Michelangelo

God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth


Each Sunday, Catholics recite "The Creed", the basic truths of Christianity that were first set down by the Apostles and then handed on faithfully to our own day.  The Nicene Creed begins thus:

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen...




As Catholics, we believe that one God created all the visible and invisible realities which we call "the world", and which the ancient Hebrews indicated under the phrase "heavens and earth".  But not all people have believed in one, all-powerful God.  In fact, the text of Genesis echoes pagan creation accounts that were well-known in the surrounding cultures of the Middle East. In contrast to these stories, the divinely-inspired writer of Genesis wanted to communicate, using images and terms familiar to his reader, that the world was created, not by a group of gods and demi-gods struggling to bring order out of the primordial chaos, but by a single, almighty Power that not only created order, but also created all matter out of nothing.

The Trinity in Creation

The Old Testament suggests, and the New Testament reveals the creative action of the Son and the Spirit, inseparably one with that of the Father.  This creative cooperation  is clearly affirmed in the Church's rule of faith:  "There exists but one God...he is the Father, God, the Creator, the author, the giver of order.  He made all things by himself, that is, by his Word and by his Wisdom", "by the Son and the Spirit" who, so to speak, are "his hands".  Creation is the common work of the Holy Trinity.--CCC 292

In the first few verses of Genesis, we see evidence of all the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity.  First, we have God creating.  Before the beginning, God the Father already had conceived the entire plan of creation and salvation, which He would enact with the Son, His Word, and the Spirit, His Wisdom.  As we read in Day 2, the New Testament states,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world... Eph. 1:3

Creation, James Tissot

In the beginning, God created all matter ex nihilo, which is Latin for "out of nothing".  In fact, the verb used for "created" in Gen. 1:1 is a translation of a Hebrew word which only is used with God as the subject.  Man can "make" from pre-existing materials any number of things, but only God can "create" out of absolutely nothing.  The matter which He created was primordial matter;  it is depicted in Genesis as a deep ocean in the midst of darkness, over which the creative and loving Spirit hovers.  The Spirit is often shown in Scripture to be the Giver of Life.  "When Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground." Ps 104:30  

The Word of God and his Breath are at the origin of the being and life of every creature. It belongs to the Holy Spirit to rule, sanctify, and animate creation, for he is God, consubstantial with the Father and the Son...power over life pertains to the Spirit, for being God he preserves creation in the Father through the Son--CCC 703

  
To impose order upon this matter, God spoke, "Let there be light!" Gen. 1:3  The Word of God, who is Jesus Christ, is the active agent in the creation and ordering of the world.  As St. John will say in the prologue to his Gospel:

 In the beginning (sound familiar?) was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  Jn 1:1-4

Christ Himself was present at Creation, as He had always been present with the Father; all was made through Him and for Him, as the Nicene Creed says:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father.  God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, one in being with the Father.  Through Him all things were made. 

St. Paul makes the same point:

[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God...for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth...all things were created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  Col. 1:15-17

The work of creation belongs to the Blessed Trinity, the three Divine Persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.


A Good Creation

Enuma Elish tabl

The cultures surrounding the Hebrew people had their own creation myths. In the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, the creation of the world is described as being the result of a struggle between opposing gods.  In this account, a dragon is sundered in two by Marduk, god of light, and its dead body forms the heavens and the earth:

Then the lord paused to view her dead body,
That he might divide the form and do artful works.
He split her like a shellfish into two parts:
Half of her he set up as a covering for heaven,
Pulled down the bar and posted guards.
He bade them to allow not her waters to escape.--Enuma Elish

From the blood of this dragon, man is fashioned.  Pope Benedict (while he was Cardinal Ratzinger) described the worldview these myths produced:

It is a foreboding picture of the world and of humankind that we encounter here:  The world is a dragon's body, and human beings have dragon's blood in them.  At the very origin of the world lurks something sinister, and in the deepest part of humankind there lies something rebellious, demonic, and evil...Such views were not simply fairy tales.  They expressed the discomfiting realities that human beings experienced in the world and among themselves. --In the Beginning, Pope Benedict XVI

The very heart of creation for these pagans is death and violence.  The world is not good, but bad, vicious, and evil.

By contrast, the Biblical writer begins with a world "without form and void"; it is dark, but not demonic.  It is not yet full of light, but it is material created by God who is Light.  God, by the power of His Word, creates a world that is both ordered and good.

And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.--Gen. 1:3-4

For the Hebrew, and later for the Christian, the world was created by a good, loving God and was itself good.  Physical creation is not, as some philosophies hold, inherently evil or corrupt, nor is it a random, orderless collection of events.

...we are told [in the first verses of Genesis] that God alone, who is the eternal Reason that is eternal love, created the world, and that it rests in his hands.  Only with this in mind can we appreciate the dramatic confrontation implicit in this biblical text, in which all these confused [Babylonian] myths were rejected and the world was given its origin in God's Reason and in his Word.--In the Beginning, Pope Benedict XVI  

Divine Providence

"Divine Providence" is the term we use to denote God's constant care and guidance of His creation.  Not only did God create this world in the beginning, but Scripture describes His almighty power  upholding and keeping alive and in existence all of creation at every moment of history. He sustains it all, and is continually guiding it forward toward the ultimate perfection for which He created it in the first place.   God created you in your mother's womb, He never fails to sustain you in existence at each and every moment, and He will do this for all eternity. 

  With creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves.  He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end.  Recognizing this utter dependence with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence.--CCC 301

Take a moment this week to meditate on the great goodness, power, and love of God, Who at each and every moment of your life is blessing you with the beauty of His creation, sustaining you and guiding you, and loving you with an infinite love.

Main Idea:  Creation is the good and glorious work of the Blessed Trinity, three Persons in One God, Who are sustaining and guiding it to its final destiny.    

Your Assignment 

1. Genesis, chapter 2.

2. Read the CCC, paragraphs 279-281, 287-289

3. Look up and define "providence".  

Next lesson:  Myth or Science?

I wanted to post a Youtube video of "Morning Has Broken" here, but I can't seem to get it to play without a bunch of ads!  Yikes!  Any tips on how to get the ads off of the video??? 

Couldn't figure out how to delete the ads, so please just turn them off and enjoy the music.  I do not endorse any of the products!