In the beginning ...

There is something significant about the beginning of something. Beginnings are full of promise and expectancy. Just think of ordinary things like a new garden, or a new house, or better yet, a new baby. John Paul II starts his whole Theology of the Body by doing just what Jesus did when questioned by skeptical questioners. Jesus went back to the beginning to turn their questions back to God’s original intention with his creation.

In our present world, where bad news abounds and it is clear that something is not right, we often forget the basics. We are like lost sheep, not knowing where to turn, where we came from or which way is home. Yet, as T. S. Eliot put it in the second of his Four Quartets, “in my beginning is my end.” So it is good to pause, be still, and see if we can learn something of our end from our beginning: “… in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” This simple phrase is striking in its simplicity and its implications. It will take a while to explore it in all of its richness.

As John Paul II says in his first meditation: “Ultimately man can only be understood in relation to God.” That is true of our beginning, our end, and how we live now. St. Paul has this to say about Jesus, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation … in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Col. 1:15,19). It is only through Jesus that we can make sense of the story of God and humanity, learn how we should and can live rightly here and now, and attain the end for which we were made. Let us be patient in learning what John Paul II draws out of Scripture concerning these things.