Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns; She has dressed her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table. She has sent out her maidens, she calls from the heights of the city; "Let whoever is simple turn in here; to him who lacks understanding I say, come eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.(Prov. 9:1-6). Wisdom and folly are represented as matrons, each inviting people to her banquet. Wisdom offers the food and drink of divine doctrine and virtue which give life (1-6).
Genesis states: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God from the beginning, and through him all things were made, without him nothing was made. "Gospel Text": (John 6:51-58). I myself am the living bread:
come down from heaven.
if anyone eats this bread
he shall live forever;
the bread I will give
is my flesh, for the life of the world.
At this the Jews quarreled among themselves saying, " How can he give us his flesh to eat?" thereupon Jesus said to them:
"Let me solemnly assure you,
if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood.
you have no life in you.
He who feeds on my flesh
and drinks my blood
has life eternal
and I will raise him upon the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood real drink.
The man who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me, and I in him.
just as the Father who has life sent me
And I have life because of the Father
So the man who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and died nonetheless,
the man who feeds on this bread shall live forever (51-58).
When the disciples heard these words, they remarked:
This sort of "talk was hard to endure!"
This message started back in the Garden, where we recall their are lush and pleasant plants, rivers, animals. There are two human beings, male and female. There is the "Serpent", who claims to know about God and therefore to have the key to "Knowledge," but being sly, he intentionally gets it wrong, also there are two signified trees: The tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. To begin with, these trees seem unconnected. It is only the tree of knowledge that Adam and Eve are not to eat. " On the day you eat thereof you shall surely die," Adam was told. But, the tree of life despite it's wondrous qualities and gifts, even eternal life, does not seem to have concerned God at first, nor are we told that it tempted humans. Apparently it seemed no different of other trees of the Garden from which man and women were permitted to "freely eat."
Why did God prohibit eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? What was the knowledge that God wished to keep from the humans? Why did the tree of life become a problem for God after Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, so that God expelled them from the Garden, lest they become like God and " live forever." There are a number of possibilities, perhaps the knowledge in question is about human obedience to God., so it was not they, but he who was "uninformed" God did not yet know, as it were, whether humans would choose God (obedience) or evil (rebellion). God did not know how they would responded to the knowledge. When our children were born we did not know how they would turn out. We did not know how the knowledge taught to them; was for their (Good) or (evil), or was it the knowledge they needed for their life. Perhaps, God's commandments
was intended to deny them the knowledge of evil, the potential for malice and misuse inherent in all knowledge. When Adam and Eve knew about evil, a knowledge that the serpent depicts as wisdom, they become ashamed, self- conscious, alienated from each other and from God, even the pastoral Garden and the natural world. Yet God is not portrayed as wishing to deny knowledge as such to his human creatures after all, the tree of life also represents knowledge and the "magical" possibilities open to humanity. But by using knowledge that runs counter to the purposes of the creator-evidence by eating from the tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve have given God, as it were, disturbing "knowledge" of their dubious intentions, should they be given access to the fount of wisdom. Lacking self-control, will they not use the life giving properties of the "tree of life" for evil purposes? Humans must be kept away from the magic of the tree of life. If they live forever, their creativity can contain havoc, chaos, will bring into the world. Through God's command, the tree of knowledge set limits within the world. However, the tree of life pointed to the "magic" potential for knowledge that humans possess, in the Bible at least, humans who eat of the tree of knowledge of good and Evil, are kept away from the tree of life.
Herein lies our true worth. We are made in God's image and are therefore valuable to God and others. God loves men and women, far beyond His love for animals, plants,, inanimate matter, moreover, He feels for men, and women, identifies with them in Christ, grieves for them and intervenes in history to make each one of us into all He has determined we should be. We are God's unique and valued companions. In support of this we have only to think of the image of the New Testament teaching concerning Christ as the "Bridegroom" and the Church as his bride.
After this, we may be tempted to say, " Why bother with all that ancient history? Is it important for today, Moses and the Red Sea, Jonah and the whale, Adam and Eve, the snake? We have Ten commandments, and that's enough. well, suppose you wanted understand the life of Abraham Lincoln. could you ignore everything before 1809, the year he was born? The cold and fear of "Valley forge," the long debate over the Constitution? A development of a " North and South, a world of 13 colonies, slave ships from Africa. While all this was going on , the people of Israel were waiting, longing, for the Messianic Age." And there waiting among the poor of God is a girl of " Nazareth" the virgin womb of Israel, prepared by the Prophet, Priest, and King. In somewhat parallel way we can not come to know Jesus as He really is, unless we have what His conscious was as he heard the beginning and the story of his people read in the synagogue all His life, unrolling of the scrolls and He saw himself as the future through His vocation. John tells us Jesus is the "Living bread" offering himself to God in death, releasing His life for the life of the world
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