living being

Genesis 2:4-9,15-17

We stare into the beginning as recounted in the book of Gensis. We see the formation of man, how God from the dust formed and then gave life to man with his breath and man becomes a "living being."

In hebrew the word Nephesh, "being" means the following: "soul, self, person, creature, passion, appetite,, mind, desire, emotion."

To be a living being means to be all of that and so much more.

Before we even begin to ponder that reality we must understand and appreciate that to be a "living being" means to be part of God's project

First and fore most we are God's project, his handiwork.

The accout tells us that we have life because we have God's breath within us, "he blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being."

We must never forget we did not make ourselves. we can never be the self-made man or woman we are often tempted to be.

We did not make ourselves. We are not the rulers of the universe. We are limited in our reach, our scope. We do not make ourselves, but rather we can only recieve ourselves as a gift.

We are dust alive in the hands of God, fashioned from God's good earth, carrying within us the very breath of God that animates us.

Here alone discover what we all have common. The great unifying force, from dust we come to dust we go and only in God is life ours.

We are all one humanity formed from God's one earth. In the words of Pope Benedict, "It is this thpught that is at the heart of the creation account and the whole of the Bible. In the face of all human division and human arrogance, where one person sets himself over or against another, humanity is declared to be one creation of God from his one earth."

This is both humbling and consoling; there is no room for racism there is only room for gratitude in diversity.