Session Two: Early World: Genesis 1-11:

 Setting the Plot for the Rest of the Story

·         Creation to 2000 BC

·         Turquoise (the color of the earth viewed from space)

God’s love story:

•  He created heaven and earth (time, space, land) even though He was eternally happy by Himself.

•  He took on the role of our Father. (Genesis 1:1).

• Jesus was there separating the light from the darkness (1:3)

• The Holy Spirit was there too (2:1) in the image of the “mighty wind”.

• All that God gave us is good. (1:31)

• He used His almighty power in creating everything, material and immaterial (angels) from nothing for others.

• He created us in His image with knowledge, will, and the ability to love (free will) and created marriage as a special bond     between a man and a woman. (1:27)

• He intended that we would have a happy existence in His presence. All He asked was that the first man (Adam) and woman (Eve) would till and care for the garden and not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (trust God and follow His ways, not their own). The sign of this first covenant made with Adam (Adamic Covenant) is the Sabbath (rest on the seventh day). (2:3)

• He allowed the presence of evil, the serpent (Lucifer), so that he could test Adam and Eve’s free-will decision to love Him and keep their part of the covenant. (3:6)

• He enforced just consequences for sin: When Adam and Eve broke the covenant, trying to be like God themselves, they discovered evil and the consequences of sin: their intellect was darkened, their will was weakened, and they became self-centered (concupiscent). They also encountered suffering and death. These traits would be passed on to all of their descendants. Adam and Eve would be sent East of Eden and prevented by an angel from touching the Tree of Life (the Cross) and partaking of its fruit (the Eucharist). As a result of their sin, Adam and Eve strained their relationship with God, hiding from Him, rejected loving relationships between other men and women (Cain kills Abel), and abandoned their harmonious relationship with the Earth and all of creation. (4:11)

• He created angels who also have free will to follow His ways or turn away from Him (Lucifer). (3:24)

• He gave us a second chance after the first covenant was broken: He would make the New Eve (Mary) the enemy of the serpent, and her seed, the New Adam (Jesus) would crush the head of the serpent. Then we might inherit the blessings of eternal life like the blessing of Eden with its flowing rivers and tree of life.

• He continued to show His mercy when the descendants of Adam and Eve, from Seth to Noah, continued to turn their backs on Him and His ways until He regretted making man and considered wiping out His creation. He showed His mercy when he chose a new leader, Noah. (5:29)

• He showed His just ways when He imposed a consequence for those who turned away from Him by killing them in a flood, but He mercifully spared Noah and his family and promised Noah a sign (rainbow) of a covenant (second covenant) not to destroy His people by a worldwide flood again.  Even the flood pointed the way to the saving waters of Baptism. He entrusted Noah’s family to repopulate the Earth, one holy family. But the new population focused on building the Tower of Babel seeking material progress and neglecting God, like Adam and Eve, to be gods themselves. So God dispersed the ungodly and sought another just man to follow Him and His ways. (11:1)

Session Two Summary: At the end of Chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis we realize that immensity of God’s love. He (Father (Gn 1:1 as creator), Son (Gn 1:3 separating light from darkness) , and Holy Spirit (Gn 2:1 the mighty wind) decided to share His divine life through creation of the immaterial and material realms. He created the heavens and earth and tested Adam and Eve in the Garden. They gave into the temptation of the serpent not to trust in God but in themselves (pride) and to disobey Him. God imposed severe consequences for this original sin, but He promised that the seed (Jesus) of the woman (Mary) would bruise his heel (crucifixion) when He crushed the head of the serpent (Satan). When the descendants of Adam and Eve turned away from God, He destroyed all life but spared the  just man, Noah, and his family to start over again. When Noah's descendants trusted in their own powers to reach the heavens (Tower of Babel) and turned their backs on God, He dispersed them until He found another just man of faith, Abraham. God always comes up with another plan to redirect His creation back to His original plan, a harmonious relationship with Him. The Creation, The Fall, Curse and Promise, After the Fall (Flood, Babel).

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS ANSWERED

1. The main people are Adam and Eve; Cain, Abel, and Seth; Noah; Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The main events are Creation, The Fall, curse and promise, the Flood, and the people scattered at Babel.

2. "Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness" (CCC 397)

3. When they fail to trust God and follow the Serpent instead, Adam and Eve make a decision to go their own way instead of God's way. has the logical consequence of removing them from God's friendship. Their intellects are darkened, their wills are weakened, and they suffer from concupiscence (the tendency to sin). The Fall brings sin, corruption, pain, toil, and death into the world.

4. From Cain, grows a civilization that is violent and vengeful. By the time of Noah, the world is full of wickedness. Immediately after the Flood, Noah gets drunk, his sons sin, and his grandson is cursed. The people who build the Tower of Babel exemplify the choice Adam and Eve made in the garden: They choose not to follow God, but to go their own way instead.

5. In Genesis 3:15, God announces that the "seed of the woman" will crush the head of the "seed of the serpent"-- in other words, there will one day be a battle in which a human will deal the devil a death blow. The fact that God bars further access to the Tree of Life (see Genesis 3:24) actually offers a second ray of hope to the situation: His children will not be allowed to remain in their separated state permanently.

6. The consequences of the Fall are so ingrained that not even wiping out the "bad guys" and starting over with a righteous man (Noah) makes a difference. The post-Flood population is no better than the people who preceded it. The effects of the Fall will not be limited to those who caused it. This is original sin--the consequences of which are passed on to every succeeding generation. Something more will need to be done.

7. The desire of the people of Babel to "make a name for themselves" sets them against those who call of God's name (like Noah). As a consequence, God confuses their languages and scatters them across the earth. Their inability to communicate and their scattered state are a vivid physical manifestation of their spiritual reality.

8. Answers will vary.

Next: Session Three

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