Pope at Mass: ‘God created us as children in His image’
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday said that God created man in His image, made him lord of the earth, and gave him a woman at his side to love. The Pope’s words on these three gifts of God in Creation came during his homily at daily Mass in the Casa Santa Marta.
Listen to Devin Watkins’ report:
The Holy Father’s homily at Mass focused on the verses of Psalm 8: “Lord, what is man that you are mindful of him? Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor,” and on the Book of Genesis’ account of the Creation of man and woman.
God has given us the DNA of children, in His image
The Pope spoke about the first of three great gifts, which God gave humanity in creation.
“First of all, He gave us His ‘DNA’, that is, He made us children, created us in His image, in His image and likeness, like Him. And when one makes a child, he cannot take it back: the son is made, he exists. And whether or not he carries resembles the father, he is a son; he has received his identity. If the child is good, his father is proud of that son, right?, ‘Look at how good he is!’. And even if he is a little ugly, the father in any case says: ‘Isn’t he beautiful!’, because a father is like this. Always. And if the son is bad, the father justifies him, waiting for him … Jesus taught us how a father waits for his children. He gave us the identity of a child: to ‘man and woman’, we must add the identity of ‘child’. We ‘are like gods’, because we are children of God.”
The Earth is entrusted to humanity to preserve it through work
God’s second gift in Creation, Pope Francis said, is a ‘task’: God ‘gave us all the earth’, to ‘dominate’ and ‘subdue’, as the account in Genesis narrates. God therefore has given humanity a certain ‘royalty’, he added, because God does not want a ‘slave’ but ‘a lord, a king’, entrusted with a task:
“As [God] worked in Creation, He has given us work, the work of advancing Creation. Not to destroy it; but to make it grow, to care for it, to keep it and make it carry on. He gave everything. It’s funny, I sometimes think, ‘He did not give us money.’ We have everything. Who gave us money? I don’t know. Grandmothers have this saying that ‘the devil enters through the pocket’. This may be… God gave humanity all of Creation to preserve it and care for it: this is the gift. And finally, ‘God created mankind in His image, male and female He created them.'”
Love: God’s third gift in Creation
Pope Francis went on to explore the third and final gift, love, beginning with the love shared between a man and a woman.
“Male and female He created them. It is not good for the man to be alone. And He made his partner,” the Pope said. In love, God gives man love and a “dialogue of love”, which, the Holy Father said, must have been the first between man and woman.
The Pope concluded with a look at Creation, thanking God for these three gifts given in Creation.
“Let us thank God for these three gifts He has given us: an identity, a gift/duty, and love. And let us ask for the grace to preserve this identity of a child, to work with the gift He has given us and to advance this gift with our work, and the grace to learn to love ever more each day.”