Overview Part 2:
Not Meant To Be Alone
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Imagine what it would be like if you were the only person on the whole planet. Really. Just you. All alone. There would still be animals and plants, rivers and mountains - but you were the only person on the whole planet.
Does it sound lonely?
When God created Adam, He gave him beauty all around him, but St PJP2 noticed something really incredible about Adam. He said that Adam looked around the world at all the creatures and the plants - at all of Creation - and said, "There's nobody like me." And there wasn't. As he named all the animals, watched the world in its awesome majesty - Adam realized that there was nobody like him. Nobody who wondered. St PJP2 said that Adam was the embodiment of wonder.
Why am I here? Who is like me? Does my life have a purpose? What am I supposed to do with my life? Will I always be alone? I love You, God, but I want to love like You. I feel a yearning in my heart to LOVE. What do I do with this LOVE?
See the incredible words of the Book of Genesis:The LORD God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him. So the LORD God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each living creature was then its name. The man gave names to all the tame animals, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be a helper suited to the man.
In all that gorgeous Creation, nothing had a desire to love and understand - TO WONDER - like Adam. God knew what Adam needed - WHO Adam needed - but He had to let Adam understand that for himself. It's easy to get caught up in the details - because God has so much to say to us in these words. St PJP2 pointed out to us the special ORIGINAL SOLITUDE that helped Adam understand that nothing in all of Creation was as unique or wonderful as him.
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Take a look at this amazing painting by Michelangelo. It's called The Creation of Adam. Really look at just how interesting it is - there's a lot happening here...
There's Adam at the left. There's God at the right. He's surrounded by a beautiful reddish cape - doesn't it look like a human brain? And then look to God's left arm. Do you see her? Surrounded by all those angels, is Eve. What's Michelangelo saying? That before God created Adam, before He created all the world, He had already thought that Adam would need someone to love.
Listen:So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman. When he brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man this one has been taken.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body. The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.
One of our neatest friends, Bill Donaughy from the Theology of the Body Institute, really breaks it down for us: Check it out:
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You were created to be not just good - YOU ARE VERY GOOD.
What do you want more than anything else? Do you agree that we want to be really seen? Meaning, that you really want to be known for your total PERSONHOOD? Not just bits and pieces. Not just a brain that thinks things. Or just emotions that feel things. Or just a physical body that doesn't think or feel. Or just a spirit, invisible but that has dignity, beauty, and truth?
No.
We want to be REALLY SEEN. Totally. For our WHOLE SELVES.
We were created to be loved.
Listen to what that would be like:
Adam loved Eve... FOR EVE.
Adam saw and loved Eve not because she was pretty, or nice, or smart - but because she was EVE. Remember that sin hadn't come into the picture to confuse Adam. He saw her for her goodness. For her PERSONhood. And that made him LOVE ALL OF HER. We all want that wonderful, total love that encompasses all we are. And we deserve to be loved that way - the way that God does see and love us. If we can love each other in that holy and beautiful way, Heaven becomes possible for us right here.
Love really means seeing someone FOR WHO THEY REALLY ARE. Seeing people as GOD SEES THEM and US.
Resources for Parents...
If you'd like to read the teachings for yourself, find them by clicking here! -
A TOB Tool Box for Parents: