Monday, March 14, 2005 Lenten Fast Begins
The Venerable Benedict of Nursia
6th Hour: Isaiah 1:1-20 1st Vespers: Genesis 1:1-13 2nd Vespers: Proverbs 1:1-20
Genesis 1:1-13, especially vs. 1: "In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth."
Genesis exudes faith in God - complete trust in and commitment to Him, exceeding human intuition, surpassing every
vision of men and the insights of philosophers. Genesis is revelation, God's revelation of Himself, recorded for the world
by His Holy Prophet Moses. St. Basil says of Moses: "It is this man, whom God judged worthy to behold Him, face to
face, like the angels, who imparts to us what he has learned from God. Let us listen to these words of truth written without
the help of the 'enticing words of man's wisdom' (1 Cor. 2:4)." Indeed, Beloved, let us read and feast on Moses' record of
God's Self-revelation. This is a special blessing which the Church sets before us for weekday reading during the Great
Fast. As the title of this book, "Genesis," means "origin," so Moses shares many of the origins which arose by the will of
God. This first week of readings focuses on the origin of the created order, especially the origin of mankind and the painful
realities hovering over our race: sin and death. Genesis starts with God's creation of the heaven and the earth. God spoke,
and as St. Basil says, "The order was itself an operation, and a state of things was brought into being, than which man's
mind cannot even imagine a pleasanter one for our enjoyment." In this passage we learn a great deal about God, even
though much concerning Him remains and will remain shrouded in Mystery. We encounter the eternal God Who is the
Lord of history. We discover that God is "everywhere present and fillest all things," being quite distinct from His creation.
God is the Prime Actor in the Genesis account. In this week's readings He is disclosed as the Creator Who "made" the
heaven and the earth. As St. Basil has us notice, the Word of God is effective, not like human words which are mere
uttered sounds. "And God said...and there was..." (Gen. 1:3). All things were brought into being through the spoken,
creative Word of God, "and without Him nothing was made that was made" (Jn. 1:3). The revelation of God the Holy
Trinity lies implicitly imbedded in this passage, although God as the Tri-Unity of Persons is not explicitly manifest. God
only manifests Himself definitively in the Theophany at the Baptism of the Lord Jesus. Yet Christian Faith affirms that all
three Persons create: the Word of God the Father brought creation into being even as "the Spirit of God moved over the
water" (Gen. 1:2).
Also God is disclosed in this passage as the active Lord of History. Mark two facts concerning the opening line: "In the
beginning God made the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). First, there will be an end to time even as there was a
beginning. Creation is not endlessly repeating cycles of being and extinguishing. It is history, as St. Basil states: "The
dogmas of the end, and of the renewing of the world, are announced beforehand in these short words put at the head of the
inspired history....That which was begun in time is condemned to come to an end in time." Bishop Kallistos Ware states
the same, "God is making the world....Creation is not an event in the past but a relationship in the present." The Word holds
us in being, and we exist! Finally, God is revealed as One Who is "Other" than His creation. Pantheism is brushed aside.
God creates from nothing, not shaping nor forming nor manipulating that which already existed. Bishop Kallistos notes,
"God was under no compulsion to create." Rather, as St. John Chrysostom states, "Thou it was Who didst bring us from
non-existence into being." Creation is "made" by God "from what was not (2 Macc. 7:28). The modern secularists who
dwell endlessly on imagined interactions of existing forces to explain the universe, reveal, as St. Basil points out, "their
inherent atheism...that nothing is governed...and that all was given up to chance."
Glory and praise to God, the supreme Artificer of all that was wisely and skillfully made.