From the desk of the pastor for August 16, 2026

The Lord be with you! In this article we are starting a new series meant to explain the truths of the Faith in an accessible and clear manner. I have found that homilies are great for moral instruction and explaining the Scriptures, but they are not the right venue for more complicated - or even more basic - pieces of theology. Why? Because such instruction can easily become too dry. Whereas we can always reread a text, if we miss a point while listening we just stay confused. Hopefully, we can go over a lot of theology that we would otherwise never engage with.

Where should we start? St. Thomas Aquinas notes that all theology rests upon Sacred Scripture either directly or indirectly. Accordingly we are going to start with the Bible and its major themes. For a higher level approach to reading and praying with the Bible, see my articles on April 13, 2025; May 1, 2026; June 1, 2025; and June 8, 2025. I will have a link on the website collecting them together.

Those articles did not really go over the major themes in Scripture so we will start with those here. The first and most important theme is Creation. Although this theme is most clearly seen in the first chapters of Genesis, it is also present in almost every part of the Bible. After all, what God creates, He governs.

Let’s take a closer look at the first chapter of Genesis and how Moses first presented creation. Creation is not a singular act but an ordered sequence of events in which God makes one thing so that another thing can be made. The sequence is so important that Moses used the metaphor of days to organize the particular acts of creation. These days must be understood metaphorically since a day requires a planet and a sun, which are not both present till the fourth day! Genesis 1 ends with the highest and most important creature, man, being created on the sixth day.

Then in Genesis 2 God does something rather bizarre: He takes a break. “On the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing; he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation” (Gen 2:2-3). Did he get tired? No. Was he unhappy with what He had made? Certainly not, since He has declared everything good.
The resting on the seventh day indicates a deeper and more profound completion tied to prayer. Stopping and being with God - the essence of the Sabbath - is an integral part of reality.

Moreover, God resting demonstrates that God did not need anything from the cosmos. Whereas pagan creation myths have their gods and goddesses fighting and getting into trouble with the heavens and earth, Genesis reveals that God created us and everything else for prayer. As good as creation is, however, it only imitates the greatness that is God Himself.

In His Sacred Heart,
Fr. John