don't look for it.
Sometimes my imagination races forward out of control. Horrifying images have to be quickly smothered by different ones.
I thought of my first catechism. A small thin blue book. A little wider than a Woolworth diary and a whole lot thinner. Just the size for small four year old hands.
Who made you ? ....was the first question.
God made me. ..the answer.
Why did God make you ?
To know him, love him and serve him in this world and forever in the next.
Catechism was first lesson of the day, every day, immediately after prayers. We prayed in the morning,
before lunch,after lunch and at the end of the school day.
We prayed for fishermen at sea in storms. For farmers who needed a dry spell to harvest.
We never needed to pray for rain. We prayed for black babies.
We hadn't learned to read yet. Catechism questions were read by the teacher and answers rhymed out by the whole class.
We learned how God created man in his own image. Eve was an afterthought. Adam's left rib did the trick.The Garden of Eden was their domicile.
You know the rest. Left to their own devices,they disobeyed the rule they had to live by.
The Lord called them out from where they hid and Adam whined.
The woman made me do it.
And what did The Lord do?
Right .... The Lord punished the woman and every woman thereafter.
We didn't learn that at the time. Previous books of the bible, written by Moses apparently,contained all the details. Our faith was pretty much based on the The Life of Christ and the New Testament.
It's two thousand and seventeen years old. It has stood the test of time.
In short, Man was made in the image of The Lord. Male.
Eve was an afterthought.
Eve committed the first sin . Adam poor boy, couldn't help himself and they lost the Garden of Eden.
That's the current version.
Written by men. Pages and pages of it; Gospels. Epistles. Parables. Beatitudes. Cardinal Virtues, Cardinal Sins, Letters to Corinthians by Mathew ,Mark,Luke and John.
Peter was a fisherman.
It is a fine work of fiction too.
ReplyDeleteHard to believe that there are those that think every word of it is true.