Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The First Reading we have today from the Book of Genesis is essential to our understanding and articulation of how God has been revealed to humanity. The story of Creation and the Fall, while not a scientific textbook, is inspired Scripture which tells us the truth about humanity's relationship with God and his plan for its salvation after our first parents who chose to rebel by choosing what is evil instead of adhering to what is good. Since most of us are Gentiles we have been grafted, though baptism, onto the olive tree that is the Jews who were the original Chosen People and remain as such: "... for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." (Rom 11: 29) St Paul says: "For if you (the Gentiles) have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature, into a cultivate olive tree (the Jews) how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree (converted to Christ)." (Rom 11: 24) It is a complete error to think that we can find a foundation for our faith in a "new cosmology" or on the basis of some other foundational myth, whether Asian, Maori or European. We cannot, likewise, think of them as all having equal value or meaning. The work of evangelization is to unite the whole of humanity in the one family of faith which includes the understanding of our origins. Thus, the Church: "Through her work, whatever good is in the minds and hearts of men, whatever good lies latent in the religious practices and cultures of diverse peoples, is not only saved from destruction but is also cleansed, raised up and perfected unto the glory of God, the confusion of the devil and the happiness of man." (Lumen gentium, 17)