God kids around with us in the Bible.

Thursday, 2/9/17

Let’s move slowly through today’s readings, seeing what Our Lord presents us with.

The first thing God has to say about his new creation is, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” Now, don’t jump to the conclusion that God is saying he needs a wife. No, before he got around to securing a woman for the man, he tried giving him all kinds of animals and birds for company. Let’s take the obvious meaning for Our Lord’s words. It is that we are social animals, meant to work together with others.

Don’t be surprised at this, but Genesis often slips into childish humor. We are mean to imagine  the man turning down the monkey, the giraffe, the pussycat, each for an obvious reason.  

The happy humor continues when the man sees Eve. We are supposed to hear him shouting, “This one!” and, “No more, please, I want this one!”

The humorous edge is there through the Gospel story. Obviously, Jesus was testing the Syrophoenicean woman; knowing full well how she would react.


And, doesn’t she react cleverly, comparing herself to a dog waiting for scraps under the table?

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