BIG C CATHOLICS

The book of Genesis features two accounts of creation. Detractors of Christianity, and even some Christians, claim these stories contradict each other by telling different versions of the same event – namely, when God created the world. The two creation accounts also pose a challenge to fundamentalists who hold a literal interpretation of the Bible. Pope John Paul II in his Theology of the Body, shows how the two creation stories in Genesis are complimentary, not contradictory. The first creation account ( Genesis 1:1-2:9 ) is called the Elohist account since the term used for God is “Elohim.” It is chronologically newer than the second creation account starting at Genesis 2:10 . The second creation account is called the Yawhist account since the name used for God in that story is “Yahweh.” The Elohist account or first creation story is creation from God’s point of view. God separates the light from the darkness, divides the waters, creates the sun, moon, and stars, land, vegetat

In John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, he compares and contrasts the three states of man; “Original Man,” mankind before the Fall or first sin, “Historical Man” man after the Fall, (our current state,) and “Eschatological Man,” man following Christ’s second coming, (our life in heaven). Original Man The state of original man concerns two human beings – Adam and Eve. They viewed each other with, “all the peace of the interior gaze.” God walked in their midst, suggesting an intimacy with their creator we can only imagine. Adam and Eve’s lives were untouched by sin. Vice, depravity, and despair were foreign to their experience. The boundary line between the state of original man and historical man is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is key. Man was the only person in the garden. The animals were not persons. They could not choose like Adam could. They could not till the ground or tend to the garden as human beings were called to do. We have a choice. We can

If you ask most Catholics “fill in the blank, Original______” they would reply “Original Sin.” Pope John Paul II in his Theology of the Body introduces us to three additional concepts, “Original Solitude,” “ Original Unity ,” and “Original Nakedness.” I will be exploring these ideas in the days and weeks ahead – as well as discussing John Paul’s, Theology of the Body more in depth. For a brief overview of the Theology of the Body in its historical context go here . For a discussion on the exchange of Persons in the Trinity, an idea central to the Theology of the Body , go here . The Theology of the Body is not light reading – as anyone who has ever tried reading it well knows. I seek to make the complicated simpler for readers of this blog. There is also an excellent review of the latest translation of the Theology of the Body here . Reading the fore mentioned links will bring you up to speed as we begin our journey through the Theology of the Body .

Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.

Pray more Read Scripture Keep holy the Sabbath Sin less Eat less Honor your father and mother Spend less Spend more time with family Read a Psalm a day Live more simply

Thought of the Day Prayer knows no distance or separation. Whereever we are it makes us a single heart and a single soul -- Pope Benedict XVI