AND
LIKENESS OF GOD
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “I Am Made In The Image and
Likeness of God.”
It’s not our Bible text for today - but in today’s first
reading Isaiah mouths that theme and the beware of other gods’ theme from Genesis 1: 26-27 and Exodus 20: 1-11 where
Moses gives us Ten Commandments.
Evidently the Israelites had tendencies to go to other
gods for extra help in life - especially when tough times were a coming and
occurring.
IMAGE
But let me use the whole text from Genesis 1: 26-27 -
because in this homily I want to connect it to today’s gospel, when Jesus asks,
“Whose image is on this coin?”
When the Pharisees plotted on how to entrap Jesus they
chose a tax question to try to trap him. They asked Jesus, “Is it lawful to pay
the census tax to Caesar or not?”
Jesus says back at them, “Show me the coin that pays the
census tax?”
They hand him the Roman coin.
He asked them, “Whose image is this and whose
inscription?”
They replied, “Caesar’s.”
We would say, when looking at a penny, Lincoln; a nickel,
Jefferson; a dime, Harry S. Truman; a quarter, Washington; and Andrew Jackson
on the twenty dollar bill - the most important president whom my dad named me
after.
And if there is one Bible text that most people know it’s
“Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”
That idea of image appears in another text we all know,
“We’re made in the image and likeness of God.”
In this homily I want to
reflect on the idea of image on the coin and I’m using the text about
image that we hear in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible.
Genesis 1:26-27 goes like this: “Then God said: ‘Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.
God created man in his image, in the divine image he created him; male
and female he created them.”
OVER 200
MEANINGS
Walter Burkhardt - the Jesuit - once gave a course on
this text from Genesis 1: 26-27 where we hear that we are made in the image of
God.
I was able to attend the first two talks he gave. I
remember he said that there are over 200 different interpretations and possible
understandings on what that phrase could mean.
He searched them out from hundreds and hundreds of theologians and
writers in our Church - down through the centuries.
SUGGESTION
I like to suggest that people use a rosary for
prayer - and not just for Hail Mary’s.
I recommend that you take a rosary and say on the 59
beads: “I am made in the image and likeness of God.”
It takes 5 minutes.
Take a rosary in hand - sit in a nice soft chair - or in
your bedroom and on your bed - or while driving.
59 times. 59 beads: “I am made in the image and likeness
of God.”
That’s my homily thought for today.
NO STRANGE GODS
If any of us has a
metal detector and we walked around on the ground in the Middle East we would
get beep, beep, from coins - and nothing for paper money.
We would also come up with small statues of gods - if
they are made of silver or some other metal.
We could have the same experience by walking through any
museum that holds antiquities.
Just as we could see in many homes in Puerto Rico on TV
this past two weeks after Hurricane Maria images of Mary and images of Jesus,
the people of the Middle East and I would say the world - have images of God or
the gods for help in times of trouble. Life has its storms and wars and rumors
of wars and family struggles.
The second commandment screams that these images - these
idols - are not God. “You can’t have strange gods before me.”
So what Genesis is saying is that these tiny statues are
not images of God.
Then it says that the only image of God is us.
We are living images of God.
Our call in life is to show God to each other.
HOW
Let me give a few ways we can image God for others.
For starters, by being creative.
Genesis begins by God being creative - that’s a main name
for God - the Creator.
So grab your crayons and your clay, your paints and your
meal making skills - baking bread and making cakes.
Crafts, crafts, crafts.
Be creative in your speaking and writing.
Is there a poet inside you that is dying to get out - a
poet that’s been in the bottom drawer or under your bed for the last 44 years?
Next love one another. The scriptures tell us God is love
- so when we love we are imaging and imagining
God to one another.
Next God is both humble and powerful. Let use our powers
to make this a better world. Let’s be humble enough to lift the other person up
and put them first.
Next look at Jesus. There was a theology for centuries
called, “The Imitation of Christ.” As
Jesus said to his apostles, “See me, see the Father.”
So by imitating Jesus - going about doing good - we show
the world we move around in: how God looks.
Could we say each day: see me, see God?
See me, see an image of God.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “I am Made in the Image of
God.”
I said a practical prayer trick is to take a rosary and
say 59 times: “I Am Made In The Image and Likeness of God.”
Next I presented a few ways to be like God. Then as Nike
puts it - Nike meaning victory: Just Do It.
