1. Why God Created

2.   Genesis is about origins (beginnings)  Origin of all things (Gen 1)  Origin of humans (Gen 2)  Origin of sin (Gen 3)  Origin of death (Gen 4-5)  Origin of second chances; the reboot (Gen 6-10)  Origin of languages (Gen 11)  Origin of God’s chosen people (Gen 12-50)  “Origin” is the root for “original”; hence “original” means not unique, but first The Origins

3.   Listen carefully to Genesis 1.1-2.3  Hebrew poetry, which uses patterns instead of rhyme  List the patterns that you hear The Creation

4.   The most important patterns are these:  “And God said”  “He made”  “And it was good”  What do these patterns show?  All creation begins with God  God created simply by speaking  The one exception is important The Creation

5.   The second most important pattern is the one that is broken  Where is “And God said” not used?  What does this tell you about man compared to all other creatures?  What else does God say that is not said to any of the other creatures? The Creation

6.   How are man and woman unique in all creation, according to the opening chapters of Genesis?  IMPORTANT: Man is unique, made in God’s “image and likeness”  Humans were created to know God, to love God and to share in His divine life  Humans were made to be in relationship with God  Humans were made for “communion” in and with God  This explains why God creates and why God will redeem His creation The Creation

7.   Third most important pattern is how the days are arranged  Chart on page 6  Why are only six days listed?  The days of creation build to a pinnacle.  What is the pinnacle of God’s creation?  What words show you that God made everything for the man? The Creation

8.   Everything is made for humans  Everything is a gift from God to man  BIG QUESTION: What is man’s responsibility?  Locate the words that describe the responsibility  What does “subdue it” mean? (p. 7) Stewardship

9.   Look again at Genesis 1.1-3. Where is the Blessed Trinity in this account?  God = Father  Spirit hovering = Holy Spirit  Word (“and God said”) = Jesus The Trinity in Creation

10.   It is the Blessed Trinity that is represented as creating. For, when Scripture says, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth,” by the name of “God” we understand the Father, … and when Scripture says, “And the Spirit of God was stirring above the water,” we recognize a complete enumeration of the Trinity. So in the conversion and in the perfecting of creatures by which their species are separated in due order, the Blessed Trinity is likewise represented: the Word and the Father of the Word, as indicated in the statement, “God said.” St Augustine

11. How Man is Supposed to Be

12.   Genesis 1 presents the big picture  Everything made in 6 days  It gives us a glimpse about why God created  BIG QUESTION: Why did God create?  Possible answers  Not loneliness (He is community)  Not boredom (How can God get bored?)  Summary: God creates to show forth His goodness and love  Love impels God to create The Creation of Man

13.   Genesis 2 zooms in on one part of Day 6  It gives a magnified view of Gen 1.26-27  Locate the words that describe the creation of man  What do these words tell you about yourself  Locate the words that describe the creation of woman  Do you see any hints at salvation history? The Creation of Man

14.   Genesis 2.7 shows what man is made of  Man is body and soul  “soul” refers to “life”—the complete you  With the soul, humans are able to  Love (sacrifice)  Believe (choose)  Hope (look beyond the material world) The Soul

15.   With the soul man is a rational being. He can  Form concepts (abstract thinking)  Make choices (free will)  Know God (love what is not seen)  The soul means that man is not merely an empirical or instinctual creature The Soul

16.   Most importantly, the soul allows us to love God  IMPORTANT: Man is made to be in communion with God  The soul makes all kinds of love possible  Self-giving love ( ἀ γάπη )  Romantic love ( ἔ ρως )  Friendship and Loyalty ( φιλία )  Natural Affection ( στοργή )  God’s love for us is ἀ γάπη, and that is the love He desires us to have for Him The Soul

17.   Look again at Genesis 2.7. Where is the Blessed Trinity in this account?  The Father molds or forms  The Spirit (breath) is blown into nostrils  The Son is the form or image of what the man looks like  The Father looks at His Son to see what humans should look like The Trinity in Creation

18.   God creates two complimentary humans  Adam means Man  Eve is originally named Isha (means “woman”)  Later (Gen 3.20), Adam names her Eve  Means “Life”  Hence, “Mother of all Living” The Human Family

19.   Why does God create the woman?  To be alone means to be without community  God is community, and wishes man to be community  Marriage is the community that man and woman form  The original community is family  The community of the family is a picture of the Trinity  Divorce divides this community and suggests that God can be divided  That Son or Spirit can act independently of the Father The Human Family

20.   BIG QUESTION: Why does God create humans?  Possible answers  God creates humans  To live in love with God  To live in love with others  To live in love with all creation  Love is a choice to give yourself completely to another without demanding anything in return  All love is sacrifice Ideal Man

21.   To live in love with God is to  Desire what He desires  To love what He loves  To live to please Him  Later the Scriptures will call this “fear of the Lord.”  “Fear of the Lord” is not being sacred of God’s wrath, but being afraid of disappointing Him Ideal Man

22.   Living in love with God is living in harmony with Him  This is Original Holiness  Original Holiness allows one to share in God’s divine life  NOTE: Jesus redeems the world to restore holiness with God Ideal Man

23.   In addition to Original Holiness, Adam & Eve also had Original Justice  Original Justice means living in a right (just) relationship with God, other humans and all creation  Original Justice includes sanctifying grace; freedom from strife; and lack of sickness, suffering, concupiscence and death Ideal Man

24.   What does the word angel literally mean?  “The word ‘angel’ denotes a function rather than a nature.” (St Gregory the Great)  What is an angel?  What are God’s two spiritual creations?  What is the key difference between humans and angels?  HINT: See Hebrews 2.5-9 What About Angels?

25. The Origin of Sin

26.   What are the two trees?  NOTE: No tree is called “The tree of knowledge”  To know, to seek to know, to be curious, is not evil  What are the rules about the two trees? (Gen 2)  Who is first told these rules?  What do these rules mean? Why the Tree?

27.   BIG QUESTION: Why does God place a forbidden tree in the Garden?  Possible answers  IMPORTANT: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is an act of God’s love  All love is sacrifice  Sacrifice requires choices  There is no true love without choices and sacrifices  Therefore, the tree lets humans show true love  Love is not forced or demanded Why the Tree?

28.   The devil is the diabolical one  The one who opposes  God’s love  God’s good creation  God’s will  The devil rebelled (Rev. 12.7-11) because he chose his own way rather than God’s way  God gives us what we want, even if we don’t want Him What About the Devil

29.   Locate what God says to Adam about eating from the forbidden tree (Gen 2)  Not “I will kill you” but “you will die”  Death is not God’s action but the result of our choice  To choose against God is to choose against His desire  To love us  To give us Himself and all things  To live in us and with us Why Death?

30.   God is Love  Choosing against God is choosing not to love  NOTE: We can’t choose to be loved or love.  One is given, the other is innate  God is Life  Choosing against God is choosing death  We can’t choose life; we can’t choose to live. Both are gifts Why Death?

31.   Read Genesis 3.1-6  Where is Adam?  Where should he be?  What does the devil promise?  Is his promise the truth or a lie?  Lies are not real.  How does Eve’s answer differ from what God said?  Compare Gen 2 and Gen 3  Why do you think the words are different? The Story

32.   What did Adam and Eve realize immediately after they had sinned?  What does this represent or signify?  Nakedness signaled the experience of loss of innocence and purity, replaced by disorder in their passions and appetites. Hiding

33. What Comes Next?

34.   Why does God come to Adam first?  What is Adam’s first response?  Who is he really blaming?  What are the three immediate consequences of Adam & Eve’s sin?  For Adam  For Eve  For the snake Owning Up

35.   How did sin result in a dramatic change in the human condition?  IMPORTANT: Loss of Original Holiness & Original Justice The Consequences

36.   One long-term consequences is the loss of Original Holiness  Harmony with God is ruined  Sin is inherited by all humans  The communion between God and man is broken  The “share in divine life” must be restored Lost—Original Holiness

37.   A second long-term consequence is the loss of Original Justice  Relationships are no longer “right” (as they were designed to be)  Temptation, evil and death are now part of this world  Opposition to God and Parents  Murder, Theft, Adultery, Envy  First evidence: Cain kills Abel  All creation is no longer what it should be  Does creation become evil?  Is the body or material things now intrinsically evil? Lost—Original Justice

38.   The sin of Adam & Eve results in  The loss of self-control and self-discipline  Body over heart and will  Selfishness (pride/arrogance) rather than self-giving  BIG QUESTION: Why can’t I do the good I want to do?  Man still desires the good, but his nature bears the wound of Original Sin and, thus, is inclined to evil and subject to error. Because of this, the life of individual men and all of society is a dramatic struggle between good and evil. ( Gaudium et Spes ) Lost—Self Control

39.   The clouding of human intellect  The blurring of human morality  Limited ability to discern God’s laws  Prey to arguments like “If it feels good, do it” Intellect & Morality

40.   What were the consequences of Original Sin for Adam and Eve?  What were the consequences of Original Sin for Adam and Eve’s descendants?  What was the effect of Original Sin on our minds and wills?  What was the effect of Original Sin on sexual relations?  Did Original Sin destroy our ability to know the truth or to act freely? Review Questions

41.   BIG QUESTION: Why do you suffer because of what Adam & Eve did?  Isn’t everyone responsible only for his own actions?  Sin (like all behavior) has a ripple effect  We are all interconnected  Because of the “unity of the human race” all men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as all are implicated in Christ’s justice.” In other words, we all suffer because of Adam, but we all benefit due to Christ. (cf CCC 404) Concupiscence

42.   Sin (like all behavior) has a ripple effect  We are now all weakened because of the first sin  We have “disordered” desires (appetites)  We have a strong pull to see, hear, say, do what we know is wrong  We are easily influenced to do wrong  This is concupiscence: the inclination to sin  We are born with a damaged but not corrupted human nature, which inclines us strongly to every conceivable form of selfishness Adam & You

43.   What is the crucial difference between Original Sin for Adam and Eve and for the rest of us?

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45.   How did God respond to man’s fall?  What does the word “Redemption” mean in theology? Good News

46.   God does not leave Adam & Eve, nor the creation they ruined, to fend for themselves  The love that creates is also the love that redeems  God’s love is located in the three actions when He confronts Adam & Eve  The words of hope in the Protoevangelium (Gen 3.15)  The sacrifice of an animal  The banishment from the Garden Good News

47.   All three signs of hope point to our redemption in Jesus  The seed that comes from the woman is Jesus coming from Mary, the new Eve  The sacrifice of an animal points to the sacrifice of Jesus which covers us from all sin  The banishment from the Garden points to the day when we will be invited back to taste fruit of Jesus’ body and blood from the Tree of Life Good News

48.   For us, this redemption is found in the Sacraments  We need a removal of Original Sin and a purification of our souls.  Baptism removes the stain of Original Sin by infusing God’s sanctifying grace into the soul.  However, it does not completely heal the sinful inclinations, called concupiscence, left by Original Sin Good News

49.   Sacramental Grace and our personal struggle is the key to living in conformity with the teachings of Christ  The saints show that by taking advantage of God’s saving and healing graces, we can possess spiritual goodness and beauty Good News

50. Basic Questions Key Ideas

51.   Who is the origin of all things?  What is man’s original vocation?  What are the Sacred Scriptures?  Can we detect the Blessed Trinity in Genesis? Basic Questions 1

52.   What does Genesis mean when it says that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God?  What are angels?  What does the Church mean when she says that Adam and Eve were created in an original state of holiness and justice? Basic Questions 2

53.   What is Original Sin?  Who are Satan and the demons?  What are the effects of Original Sin? Basic Questions 3

54.   What were the consequences of Original Sin for Adam and Eve?  What are the consequences of Original Sin for the human race?  How do we overcome the effects of Original Sin? Basic Questions 4

55.   God is the creator and sustainer of all that exists, whose work is good.  Formed in the image of God, man is the pinnacle of creation and was made to be in friendship with God, to fill the earth with people, and to rule over all creation through wise stewardship. Key Ideas 1

56.   The Bible is the inspired and inerrant history of salvation of which God is the principal author and men were the secondary authors. It is ancient, religious literature and must be read as such.  Creation is the work of the Blessed Trinity, which can be seen in Genesis in the light of the New Testament. Key Ideas 1

57.   God created Adam and Eve in his image with souls possessing intellect and free will. Consequently, man has the special dignity of being able to understand God’s infinite goodness and to reflect his glory. Key Ideas 2

58.   The angels are purely spiritual beings who love and serve God.  In their original state of holiness and justice, Adam and Eve shared in God’s life and were in harmony with God, each other, and all of creation. They also enjoyed an inner harmony in which their passions were at the service of their reason and will. They were also immune from suffering and death. Key Ideas 2

59.   The Original Sin was Adam and Eve’s disobedience of God’s command under the temptation of the Serpent.  Devils are originally good, but fallen, angels who are enemies of God and bent on our destruction.  The Original Sin deprived Adam and Eve of their original state of holiness and justice and wounded their souls. Key Ideas 3

60.   As an effect of Original Sin, Adam and Eve experienced illness, suffering, and death. In addition, Eve suffered pain in childbearing and became subject to Adam. Adam’s work became toilsome.  For Adam and Eve’s descendants, Original Sin is a wound in their nature, transmitted from parents to children, which has resulted in every kind of actual sin, beginning with fratricide.  The wound of Original Sin can be overcome through sacramental graces and personal struggle, as the Saints have shown us. Key Ideas 4