I BELIEVE IN MAN

I believe in man! I find it important to state my belief in man, the human beings God created, to occupy the world, and to govern it hand in hand with him in order to bring it to its perfection and to live in it happily, possibly for long, long years. So my belief in man is not a stand against God. It is because I believe in the true God, the holy and living God, that I can state frankly: I believe in man!

Why do I believe in man? My answer is: Because God believes in man! If God believes in man, what is to keep me from believing in man, in my brothers and sisters, and in myself?

How do I know that God believes in man? The Holy Bible inspired by God tells us about his love for mankind. Indeed, the Bible is a love-story between God and humanity. God is always taking the initiative to share his love with us (he is the lover), and our response to this love is often weak (we are the loved ones). God is always faithful in his love, we are often unfaithful.

Let us have a look at the creation story. It tells us that God took on the role of a sculptor. With his own hands God took clay from the ground and formed man out of it. He then blew into its nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Sculptors and painters normally use live models to guide them in their work. What model did the sculptor God use to form man? None other than himself! In fact he is reported as saying: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. Look at human artists and how much dedication, love, attention to detail they give in order to creat the best work they can produce. Imagine God’s total dedication to the creation of man. The same thing he did when creating woman. When he wanted to provide man with a suitable partner, God put man into a deep sleep. He took one of man’s ribs, he closed up its place with flesh, and then God built up into a woman the rib he had taken from man.

I like to imagine God taking all the trouble to form man out of the clay of the ground and to build up woman from the man’s rib. So much love went into the creation of man and woman! He made them male and female. He blessed them. God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good (Gen 1:27-28. 31).

It is interesting to think that the author of the Book of Genesis, in his rendering of the creation story, did not use the same command God used repeatedly to create all other things. To create all things, God said: “Let there be...” lights in the sky, and living creatures on earth, in the waters, and in the sky. To create man he first discussed its creation, then he modelled man and then he breathed him to life. This shows how much love God invested in the creation of humankind. Pity that we often choose to follow our dreams than to search for truth and real life. The devil tempted man with the illusion that he could “be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3, 5). Humanity lost faith in itself, but God continued to believe in man. That is why he decided to send his Son incarnate in order to invite humanity to recognize its dignity as his sons and daughters.

When we celebrate and meditate the two main mysteries of our faith, Incarnation and Redemption, we realize to what extent God was ready to go because of his love for man. Saint Catherine of Siena tells God the Father: “By Mercy You wish to converse with Your creatures. Oh, Loving Madman! was it not enough for You to become Incarnate, that You must also die? Was not death enough... namely, to leave Yourself to him in food, so that we, weak ones, should have comfort, and the ignorant commemorating You, should not lose the memory of Your benefits” (Dialogue 30). She also tells him “Your love for me is ineffable, as if You were mad with love for Your creature” (Dial 167).

Do we need to say anymore for us to believe that God believes in man? I will say no more. Only that I believe in man, too. Do you? Do you believe in yourself? Do you believe in the other men and women? Do you believe in humanity?

The way we answer these questions will show us the path we have to walk so that, together, we may arrive to the truth and the life we desire and which God thought and prepared for us all.

Jesus told us: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14, 6). St. Augustine comments: “He said, I am the way, whereby you would go; I am the truth, whereto you would go; I am the life, in which you would abide. The truth and the life every one understands; but not everyone has found the way” (Quoted by St. Thomas, Catena Aurea on John, Ch 14). St. Theophilus of Antioch wrote to Autolycus: “If you say, “Show me thy God,” I would reply, “Show me your man, and I will show you my God”.

It is to be desired that all of us would live in such a way that whoever sees us could love, long for and “always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Col 1, 3).