Monday of the Fifth
Week in Ordinary Time
(Genesis 1:1-19; Mark 5:53-56)
There is nothing new about global warming. In its billions of years the earth has warmed
and cooled many times over. For this
reasons there are petroleum deposits made from a vigorous vegetable life under
the now frozen tundra of Alaska. What is new is the hand humans have played in
the current warming trend. Most scientists
are convinced that by burning fossil fuels humans are causing the rise of temperatures
around the world. They also tell us that
the situation may be stabilized if humans everywhere but especially in the
United States decisively reduce fossil fuel consumption.
The story of creation in Genesis today reiterates how God
created everything good. After He makes
light, Genesis says, “God saw how good the light was.” After He separates the land from the sea,
Genesis repeats, “God saw how good it was.”
And so also, after God created plants and trees and after He created the
heavenly lights, He calls them good. In subsequent
chapters Genesis will show how these elements turn against humans because of their
sinfulness. God will use floods and
draughts, earthquakes and hurricanes to punish humans for their folly,
according to Genesis.
We might dismiss Genesis as poetic fancy saying that God
loves humans and does not punish them. Or
we might take the vision Genesis offers to heart. The latter alternative will move us to heed
the call of scientists to curtail our use of fossil fuel. If we do not, the link between human
overconsumption and nature’s rebellion, as Genesis indicates, may become all
the more tragically apparent.
