Today’s first reading begins with the beginning: “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.” While this is the beginning of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth the true beginning is with the Trinity. Jesus, the Word of God, was with the Father before the creation of the world:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2). John’s Gospel tells us that the Word of God was involved in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and human beings:
“All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:3-5).
The Prologue in John’s Gospel is a reflection on today’s first reading from the book of Genesis. The creation story in Genesis is not giving us an historical or scientific account of the creation of the heavens, the earth and human beings. More importantly it is giving us the religious or theological meaning of creation. God created the world and saw it was good. God created human beings in God’s image and likeness and saw that they were good. The beginning and first lesson of Genesis is the goodness of the world and human beings. God gave human beings the care of his good creation:
“God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them…God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’” (Genesis 1:27-28).
The world “dominion” comes from the Latin Dominos, Lord. Since God has made us his representative or lord over all his creation, he expects us to see his creation as he sees it as very good and to treat it with reverence. God has handed his wonderful work of creation into our hands to take good care of all he has made: the sky, the rivers, the seas, the earth and especially human beings. We are called to see the image of God in each person we meet. God created all of this in the beginning and placed it into our hands for safekeeping.
Image: “Sky and Water – Around el Nido” by raulmatali is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.