return to innocence

Today we continue our reading of the creation account and we pick up where Noah gets out of the ark and embraces this new beginning.

In some sense the new beginning parallels the original beginning. We hear similar words of commissioning. Just like Adam and Eve, Noah and his family is given the commission to "Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth."

However there is a difference. Adam and Eve were told to subdue the earth and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on it."

Noah and his family were not given this proclamation. Different words are used. The sacred writer uses the words that we encounter into today's reading, "dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about the ground and all the fishes of the sea."

Interesting!

It is a new beginning but it is not the same. Things can never be the same. Something of the innocence of the original experience of Adam and eve in paradise is lost.

The tragedy of sin.

Yet it isn't lost for ever only for a time. That innocence can be ours but it comes at a price. His blood must be shed, our life must be lived in faith in the power of the cross, purification must take hold, and only then can we truly return to innocence.

Is this not why we hear those words in the gospel, "He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, be killed, and rise after three days."

The price of innocence!

Until then we must deal with fear and only perfect love cast out fear as St. JOhn tells us in his letters. Love of Him whom conquerors, this love alone can destroy fear and bring about a return to innocence.

Here is a little pick me up song