created on purpose

Whenever I give a lecture on our first reading today in bible class I always have the feeling from the way my students look at me as if I am a heretic and had just shattered a long held belief. When I say Genesis chapter one is not factual history I can sense uneasiness. And when I say this is just a story borne out of an imaginative mind, I always get the whole class raising their hands, the atmosphere more akin to the Jaro Coliseum on February 1 than a classroom. Luckily for me today this is a mass and it would be improper to raise your hands and ask questions. So just listen. If you don’t agree, then don’t.
Our first reading does not tell historical facts. History comes from observation as facts unfold or at least from conjectures based on artifacts. But who was there when the Lord created the world out of nothing? Who observed God while he was arranging the universe? And if there was indeed an observer then why did he describe the world as flat and not round, and why did he described the sun moving around the earth and not otherwise?


This is an imaginative story. It does not pretend to tell facts as they happened, but and this is a big but, it tells us the truth - the truth about God, and the truth about ourselves. The creation story may not have happened this way. It may have developed through millions of years and not just in 6 days. We do not know. All we have are conjectures - conjectures, kon sa bisaya pa, palagpat.
But the bible teaches us the truth - the truth about God and the truth about ourselves.
This story read in our first reading today tells us the truth, the truth that God created us, the truth that God created us on purpose, and the truth that God created us on purpose and in love.
God created me. I am not just a product of some genetic mutations that happened in time. No, God created me. And God created me on purpose. I am not just a product of some random molecular upheavals. Out of thousands upon thousand of sperm cells of my father, the sperm cell that was me reached my mother’s egg. Someone purposely made me, paved the way for me, prepared everything for me so that out of a million cells it was me and not the other.
And lastly, God created me on purpose and in love. I imagine that my presence or absence would not make any difference on God. I imagine that the world would have been the same even without me, in fact it would have been better without me. But why me, why am I here. Someone out there loved me so that that someone so powerful created me despite me and in spite of me. Out of the so many possibilities it was me. Somebody out there wanted me so badly, not because that somebody out there needed me, but that somebody out there must have loved me to cause me to be. I don’t know why. The fact is why me? Why am I here?
The first reading is not just the story of Adam and Eve. It’s our story. It’s the true story of every man, of every woman, of every child. Because of this story, because of this faith I am against abortion. Because of this truth I am against capital punishment. Because of this story I have to apologize to people I have hurt, to people I have insulted, to people though how small, I treated like trash.
I very seldom speak against certain provisions which I find repugnant on the RH Bill. I feel I could not use the same argument some people do. I feel if I argue with my kind of argument people would not understand. Then one day God gave me a baby. God sent him to me wrapped in a coarse blue cloth placed inside the dust bag of a Louis Vuitton. God placed him in the public restroom just below a toilet seat. I named him Lorenzo. Because of Lorenzo I have a 57,000 peso debt in St. Paul’s. Because of Lorenzo I have to pay the yaya every month. Thank God somebody shouldered the milk, and at four months he is already enjoying his cerelac. Do I have to speak against the RH Bill? Do I need to say more about the value of human life? Can there be a more eloquent argument? God created me on purpose and in love. Do you believe that God created you on purpose and in love? Do you believe that every woman, every man, every child however insignificant, however burdensome was created by God on purpose and in love? Without this faith you cannot, you can never understand why I am against certain provisions of the RH Bill.
Yesterday because of the recent events we heard on the radio the priests gathered in our monthly recollection spoke about the matter. I wanted to speak too but I could not dare myself to do so. And so I speak my mind today.
I too am highly temperamental. I can be mad and be really mad. Some call it the wrath of God, others call it the ira diablo, the anger of the devil itself. But I am capable of really getting mad and regardless of what I do to control it, it blows up from time to time, as uncontrollable and as unpredictable as Mt. Pinatubo. I am not justifying it, but it is part of my passion for the things and values I love. You take away my temperament and you will also have to kill my passion. After all he who has not loved much has not known real anger. That is why we should be careful with our loves, for what we love can also be our undoing.
My point is, most often I do blow my top but I believe that it should be the reflex and the salvation of every angry man, of every passionate man to be humble enough to apologize. Why should I apologize? Because I am, your are, every man and every woman and every child is created by God on purpose and in love. Each one deserves the proper respect and the dignity that defines us, even before we make mistakes that deserve the anger of another.
But we should also put in mind that we are mistake makers. Even a priest. But my mistakes, do not take away the fact that I am and I remain created by God on purpose and in love. I deserve too to be forgiven and be given another chance.
In behalf of myself also prone to fits of anger, in behalf of my brother priests, I beg for an apology and ask for forgiveness.
Will you forgive us? That is for you to do.