LOI NGUYEN HUU

CREATION
A Homily on Genesis 1: 1-31, John 1: 1-17. Mysterious Creation for the adult in Mount Carmel
Parish.
“This life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness”, “the
glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth”. Blessed Sunday my dear brothers
and sisters of Christ! In today’s Gospel, John tells about a story of God’s creation, which God
created by His word and everything was made through Him, as John calls us to acknowledge
about God’s love and authority, to testify the true light of God and cling, cry out to God so that
we will be received His grace that we should live in this world with gratitude to God through
creatures. The world that we are living and enjoying, because it is the human home and we
cannot live without the world. That we should use our natural home with grateful, praising
heart to the Creator, but not turn ourselves into masters to exploit, to profit according to what
we want. It will then be a disaster as destroying the living environment and life itself.
In every age and place we human beings still wonder where we come from, where we
go, where we come from, what the purpose of human life is, where everything comes from and
where to go, and etc. intellectuallity of human beings, we can only understand economical
creation of God in our own limitation and inadequate. Yet knowing the true source and the
ends of one's life is the two most important things that cannot be separated from each other,
because they decide on the meaning and direction of life as well as human actions. So God
revealed gradually through salvation history, when he chose the nation of Israel and signed a
covenant with them. Finally Christ came to reveal fully and decisively to help us understand
that the source and the end of life as well as the universe is God.
My dear brothers and sisters, we often think that before God created, there was nothing.
However, in the Genesis’ reading today, it tells us that, before God's creative action, there was
something: "The earth is empty, universe had no shape, and darkness covered the abyss. So
there were many things (soil, abyss, water ...), but all were in a state of chaos and darkness that
will bring us into darkness, death. We can aware about this through the life of each of us, our
community life, the world in which we live, if we do not receive the Word of God, so that the
Word of God can enlighten, lead, and form us we will also fall into chaos and darkness, it
means we will into a state of death. We have experienced and are still experiencing this
situation in each of us, community, society, and the world in today and througout ages.
Spiritually, we should let the word of God illuminates our blind hear and our life that is the
experience for God to continue to create in and through us. And the Word of God are given to
us in a generous way during the Spiritual month and every day in the Mass.
God created with words and deeds. God said: let there be light, water… and there was
light… God created through creatures out of nothing by His Word. God also said: gather, reveal
or appear, give birth, reproduce. In addition, God created by naming, blessing. Thus, He created
by giving it a identity, making it different from other things, and placing His life and love in
creation upon blessing; because blessing wants it to exist, to flourish. Dear brothers and sisters,
creativity is not only about making things out of nothing, or making products, but also by
making things and existing creatures have self-aligning, self-adapting, to be able to reproduce,
to arise, to be able to get rid of the state of infidelity through naming, to remove from the
confusion, to order the chaos, and to enlighten the dark.
Therefore, when we look at creatures, they increase, and produce, we are called not
only to see this process as a natural process, but also as a supernatural process. The creatures
interchange and play born according to the Word of God, the nature that we admire exists by
the Word of God that we can say nature is full of God's Word. Let our ears hear “the heavens
declare the glory of God; the sky proclaims its builder’s craft. In particular, may God let us
recognize the gift of creation with the Word of God, still happening with all the meaning of
creative action, in nature, in history, in our lives, and especially in every moment of our short
comings. More than ever, we exist and live by the Word of God we will fully ….
God moreover says: "Let us make man in our image", this is the special and unique way
of God’s saying, when He creates us, God is not alone, because He is love. Here God said and
did it, both by voice and by hand. Especially, God speaks to man, while other species and
animals are not addressed by God, there is no correlation. Thus, humans are created with the
ability to speak (listen, speak) to enter into relationship with God. Thus, in man, converge all
the ways of God's creation. We should contemplate ourself as we are to discover the creative
voice and the creative hand of the Lord. "man is made in the image of God”, it is often
understood that humans are shared by God in one of His potentials, such as wisdom, soul ...
Such understanding is true. Therefore, we are called to let the Word of God guide us and make
ourselves understand what it means to "be created in the image of God." Reading the creative
arts technique, we will realize that all animals are created by type:
Through all animals, heaven, earth and the sea are created according to different
"types". The Word of God repeats the species diversity of the animal world, which is to make
us realize the superiority of man, and the superiority of man is the gift of unity. Man is created
in the image of God, meaning that man is created not like the animal world, including a
multitude of different species, but created by God as one, united, like as the Trinity is one,
unity. God is one; humankind is created in the image of God, also one; instead of being "multi"
like animals. Thus, man has a unique relationship with God that other species do not have; and
it is this relationship that makes man a child of God. But "being one" is also the vocation of
man. How difficult a vocation is. That's why Jesus prayed: "May they be one, as we are one."
Thus, "Man is created in the image of God", which is both identity and vocation. Similar to the
fact that we were born as human beings, but also have to live the vocation of being human, we
must live humanity. We have a perfect model, to live our identity that is Jesus Christ.
I also would like to invite you to reflect upon the gift our daily food and appreciate that
gift. Do we receive as the grace of God? Because the grace of food is given to mankind by God
from the beginning of creation and to be present every day. Indeed, when we pray: "Give us
daily food" and indeed, the food has been given to us on the dining table. We perhaps like Jews,
want to have "bread falling from the sky directly". Therefore, they became blind with food
thanks to heaven and earth, which also existed from God's creative action. And in the gift of
life, the promise of life, "abundant life" has been contained. Because God is the living One,
therefore when giving us this life, He invites us toward new life, to new creation and when we
desire, He will give. "New life" is not life "full of warmth", but life is stronger than death, is
God Himself. Christ came to clarify and fulfill this promise in the Eucharist.
Brothers and sisters, all of creation form a good unity and harmonious, but above all
we humanity made in the image and likeness of God are one family, through that the
relationships are marked by a true fraternity not only in words, but to love other persons as our
sisters and brothers as well, and our relationship with God who is love, fidelity and goodness,
that He mirrors every human relationship and brings harmony to the whole of creatures. We
are called to live in God’s world, the world where every one of us touches responsible for each
other and for the good of the other as oneself as such. Let us continue to ask God’s grace and
love for us to be able to live fully meaning of life together in the world which God has given
us, and cling to God faithfully through our life. May God bless us all!