Today for our first reading, we begin at the beginning. Genesis 1. “In the beginning…” We’ll be in the book of Genesis for the next couple of weeks. Today we read about days 1-4 in the creation story. More in a moment. In the Gospel reading from Mark 6, we see Jesus once again healing. He healed everyone who came to him. “And as many as touched it [the tassel on his cloak] were healed.”
There has long been an argument about whether or not to take literally the creation account from Genesis 1. Fundamentalists will say that it should be taken literally – that God created the world in seven twenty-four hour days. Some say that each “day” represents thousands or even millions or billions of years. Others take a completely opposite approach and say that Genesis 1 is really nothing more than a fairy tale. Or less severely, that Genesis 1 is an allegory, a story that is told with its basis in truth, but that it is more there to teach us a lesson about God’s omnipotence, to let us know that, no matter how it really happened, God is the Creator of all things. Holy Mother Church has never definitively taught that any of these must be believed by all believers.
You can believe that it was seven twenty-four hour days. You can believe that it was millions or billions of years. Whatever the length of time, we must know that God created everything from nothing. Without God, there would be nothing. And so it is for the largest of galaxies to the smallest of atoms and everything in between, you and me included. We exist because God wanted it that way. He has willed us, and everything else, into existence. I’d say that’s worth a little thank you, wouldn’t you?
Father, we know that without You, we would not be; that nothing would be. We thank you for all of your creation, and acknowledge you as Creator. Amen.
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