Day Eight: God the Father and Lover, Part Two

I want my student to understand that God, the Father, is the epitome, on a transcendent level, of what it means to be a Lover. The first objective of this class period is “Students will be able to define Original Sin and Holiness”, but we begin where our relationship with God began…Genesis. God, the Trinity, experiences Love within Himself. The Father Loves the Son, the Son Loves the Spirit, the Spirit Loves the Father, and so forth. That Love is so great in overabundance that the natural result is Creation. Because God is Love, He actually creates humankind so they can experience that same Love. God, as Father, is the One who creates us.

In Genesis God Creates and shows Mercy. He Creates humankind in His image and likeness, which is, He creates us to Love and to be Loved as He Loves and is Loved within the Trinity. This is our most Authentic Self. But He also creates us with Free Will. That is, in order to Love and to be Loved, we must have the Freedom to choose that Love. And when Adam and Eve place their will over the will of God (I tell students that, effectively, when we sin we replicate that same action) they separate themselves from God and each other. But God is Lover. A Lover does not just create and leave. A Lover creates and shows Mercy if His Creation rejects Him. I mention my favorite image from Genesis; as Adam and Eve are leaving the Garden, God gives them new clothes. He gives them garments of leather, much sturdier than the leafy clothes they had fashioned for themselves. Mercy.

(Simon of Cyrene Takes the Cross of Jesus, Bl. Rupert Mayer Chapel, Regis Jesuit High School. Photo credit: P. Smith).

I introduce the ideas of sin, original sin, and concupiscence to my students here, but the important concept I try to impress on them is the ideas that God Loves, and we experience that Love in Creation and in Mercy. God, the Lover, the Father, is a God of Creation and Mercy. Despite our sin and our weakness, God continues to Love us. In the next part of the class, I expand on some images in Genesis that reveal His ever-present Love in Creation and in Mercy.