In the first reading from Leviticus, God is really repeating himself! He really wants us to love one another. But why? Because God is love! And he loves each and every human being with an infinite love. The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, can be summarized in one word–Love.
At the dawn of creation, the Creator-God lovingly fashioned the human creature from the \”dust of the earth\”. All other creatures came into being by a single, generic and indirect word. Yet God creates humans directly, intimately, with his own hands. God touches and holds Adam, and finally breathes his very life into him by means of a kind of \”divine CPR\”.
Let us ponder the act of creation for it will give us insights into today\’s Scripture readings. God stops what he was doing and humbly kneels down in the dirt. He takes into his hands the dust of the earth which he had created, he mixes it with water and he molds it, that is, he slowly gives it the form he desires. The Hebrew verb \”to mold\”, to model, to give form, always expresses a concrete work, an intense application, a desire for beauty and perfection, a loving gaze upon the figure in one\’s hands. He looks at it; he scrutinizes it with impressive care, until he adds the crowning touch, an exact image of his eternal Being.
Benedict XVI has said that we are all \”a bit of dust that God loves.\” If God loves each of us so tenderly and even \”knits us together in our mother\’s womb\” (cf. Ps. 139:13), shouldn\’t we try to love one another as fellow creatures of the same Father?
Dominican Life on Lotus Lane 