Is 2020 Cursed?

By -

Anyone else feel like 2020 is cursed?

Oh, I’m just kidding, sort of.

It’s just that I was determined to make 2020 a great year beginning with the very first day, except I started out with a terrible cold as we rolled over into January.

Okay, so fine, what’s a little cold you ask?  Well, it turned into something else and didn’t last just a week, but more like six!

Honestly, it has been one thing after another since January, so I for one cannot be happier that our temperatures are nearing 50 degrees on occasion.  I am more than ready to see a little more sun and a few warmer days!  Things are sure to start turning around soon!

It always seems like the sun makes us feel better, doesn’t it?  We have a little lighter lift in our walk, more energy and motivation.  The sun really does seem to chase away those lingering dark days of winter.

While thinking about the sun, I re-read the beginning of Chapter 1 of the first book of the bible, Genesis.  I noted that “light” was created on Day 1 and the sun on Day 4, so I wondered, “Aren’t light and sun the same thing?”

You may be familiar with “let there be light,” which is often quoted from verse 3, but if you read on to verse 14 the bible says:

“Then God said: ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night.  Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth.’  And so it happened: God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night.”

It continues on with the stars and so forth, but it is the light/sun dilemma that caught my attention.

As I began to dig further for an answer to my question about when the sun was actually formed, and what the reference to light was about, I realized that I could spend an infinite amount of time and posts on this question.  Here are a couple of things that I think are notable, that help a little.  They come from a Catholic Forums’ website.

The first comment is this:

“The truth about creation is not found in the order of what happens first and last, but in the lesson about people being made in God’s image and thus being subject to God’s laws.”

I agree with this, however I don’t think we should imagine that order isn’t an important part of creation.  We can see orderliness in God’s creation all around us today.  In fact, it helps us to recognize God’s hand in the beauty of this world.  Of course, God’s time is not the same as ours.

Moving from order, though, one of the important messages in Genesis 1 is that it is God who created.  Once there was nothing, and out of that nothing, God created.

While the bible is not a science or history book in the empirical sense like we refer to science and history books today, it is God’s inspired Word, which brings me to the second point offered on the same website:

“The Catholic Church teaches that the first chapter of Genesis, specifically the first verses speaking about “light,” are symbolic of Jesus coming into the world as our Savior. One of the first and foremost examples of this is the prologue to John’s gospel at John 1:1-5, where it is clear that John was playing off the language of Genesis 1 in calling Jesus ‘the light’ that ‘was in the beginning with God.’”

It is true that in several places, the Old Testament does prefigure the New Testament as we can see in the aforementioned example.  I should point out that the many examples of prefigurement in the bible are not simply speculation from 20/20 hindsight.  They are discovered in the bible, not impressed upon it, for they do, in reality, exist.

I guess my point to all of this, (I must apologize for taking the long way around to my point) is to stress that when we have God in our life, it is analogous to movement out of those cold, dark, wintry, January days into a great spring where light is abundant and the warm embrace of God is a welcome change.

I would say that, like in the Book of Genesis, we should be careful not to let the details trip us up, for while they are noteworthy, the greater, underlying message is what we should focus on:  God created us in his image; he loves us; and he continues to be with us today.

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com
janetcassidy.blubrry.net

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Memorare

By Helen Gonsalves -
Image
This popular prayer, a favorite of many Catholics, dates back to the 15th century and takes its name from the first Latin word of the prayer, "memorare," which means "remember." The Memorare is of unknown authorship, although it has been attributed to St. Augustine (354-430), St. John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) and, with more reason, to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1090-1153). St. Bernard's sermons on Mary were famous, and it was his Cistercian monks in the monastery of Citeaux in the 12th century who popularized the name "Our Lady" for Mary. The Memorare has also been attributed to the French cleric Claude Bernard (1588-1641), known as the "poor priest" of Paris, whose homilies contain passages that echo its words. No matter who wrote this prayer, it was Father Bernard who did much to popularize it, teaching it in hospitals and prisons, where Mary's intercession was effective in working miracles of grace. The first manuscript of the Mem
Read more

The Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary

By -
Image
This is the image most often associated with the writings of the Belgian mystic Berthe Petit. She promoted devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. During my preparation for the retreat I am giving at the end of the month in Pantasaph, North Wales, I began reading a book by the late John Haffert (once the lay leader of the Blue Army of Fatima). His theory in the book, which speaks of God's "last effort" to convert the world before the coming chastisement, is that we are now living in the third or fourth "day" of the Fatima week. At this time, according to Haffert, we should be promoting devotion to The Immaculate Heart of Mary. I also consulted another book by Dr. Courtnay Bartholomew (whom I have been privileged to meet) which also speaks of the importance of this devotion, linking it with the writings and visions of the mystic Berthe Petit, and the importance of the full title of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. These things will feature in
Read more

Why Modesty Is Not Subjective

By -
Image
Hi there, ya'll!  The modest fashion world is one very diverse place.  Even among Catholics, the definition of "modest apparel" can vary greatly from person to person.  Recently I joined a Facebook group that advertised itself as a haven for Catholic women of all ages to share ideas for modest style and makeup and was hoping to learn more about modesty from my fellow Catholic sisters.  After a few days of being a member, though, I sadly left the group feeling a bit discouraged.  No two members seemed to agree on ANY aspect of modesty whatsoever, and the prevailing theme of the whole group was that modesty is subjective, it means something different for each woman and each woman gets to decide what she considers is "modest".  One woman very emphatically declared that she wears bikinis every summer to the beach and doesn't feel that this violates the virtue of modesty in the least.  The same woman also announced that she was never going to caution her d
Read more