— Saint Scholastica —
Ordinary Time Week 5: Tuesday
 

“God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (part 2 of the background of Saint Gregory of Nyssa is found here) offers the following insight on this verse from today’s First Reading:

“Let us carefully examine these expressions. We shall discover this: what is in the image is one thing, what we see now in our unhappiness is another. “God made man,” says Scripture. “He made him in the image of God.” One who is made in the image of God has the task of becoming who he is. Then Scripture takes up the account of creation and says, “God made them male and female.” Everyone knows, I think, that this aspect is excluded from the archetype: “In Christ Jesus,” as the apostle says, “there is neither male nor female.” And yet Scripture affirms that man has been divided sexually. Thus the creation of our nature must in some way have been double; that which renders us like God and that which establishes the division of the sexes. And indeed such an interpretation is suggested by the very order of the account. Scripture says in the first place, “God made man; in the image of God, he made him.” Only after that is it added, “He made them male and female,” a division foreign to the divine attributes.” (On the Making of Man, 16)



Collect
As we celebrate anew
the Memorial of the Virgin
Saint Scholastica,
we pray, O Lord,
that, following her example,
we may serve you with pure love
and happily receive what comes from loving you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen