S
TRENNA
2007
by Pascual Chávez Villanueva
LOVING LIFE
NEW ADAM
NEW CREATION
“And the Word was made flesh”and came to live among us (Jn.1,14). “I came so that they may have life abundantly” (Jn.10,10).
When and how this world began is one of the many things we don’t know. The book of Genesis, in an expression of the faith which brings together the history of Israel, reveals “who” created everthing that exists. Science for its part, tries to find out “when” and “how” what exists began. It is a question of two different approaches to the same thing which don’t cancel each other out, in fact they complement each other. However, we know with absolute certainty that what exists had a beginning and will have an end. In this case too, faith declares that God will make “all things new”. That is the happy conclusion of creation, as it is presented in the Apocalypse: «I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” » (Ap 21: 1-5).
The whole of history, from its very beginning, is directed towards Jesus as the one who gives it its meaning, and in the meanwhile, this universal history moves on from Him towards its definitive destination. There is only one conclusion to this stupendous project: the entire history of the universe can only be Christocentric. “In him all things were created” (Col 1,16). The first to give this interpreatation to history is St Luke who, in the Acts of the Apostles (13,16-33), presents Jesus to us as the “yes” of God to his promises, according to the words of St Paul (2 Cor 1,20). However, the conviction that Jesus represents the ’summit’ of history is common to the whole of the New Testament which shows how his resurrection is the beginning of a new creation. The author of the letter to the Hebrews begins by stating: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets ; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world” (1,1-2). As though to say that after the resurrection of the Son, that was his supreme revelation, there is nothing further to add. If the great question mark hanging over life is death, and this has been conquered, there is no need for any further revelation, but only thing is to make the resurrecton a forma mentis.
The Jesus event represents “the fullness of time,” to indicate not so much that history is ready to accept the Revelation or that human moral weakness has reached its peak, but simply rather that the hour willed by God to “remake” his creation has arrived. Nevertheless St Paul is the only sacred writer to call Jesus the “new Adam” or the “last Adam”, pointing out that while the first was “a living being”, “taken from the earth”, the second is “a life-giving spirit” and “comes from heaven” (1Cor 15,45.47). We who are born, like the old Adam, from the earth and sinners, are called to become similar to the new Adam, Christ, sharing in his glory. This theme of life as the purpose of the mission of Jesus is particularly dear to the fourth evangelist and to his community. We read, in fact, in the passage about the true shepherd of the new people of God: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (Jn 10,10). And in the prologue of the first letter: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands , concerning the Word of life – the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father was made manifest to us – that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you may have fellowship with us;” (1Jn 1,1-4). This means on the one hand, that God is a God who loves life, who believes in it, creates it and in his Son re-creates it when it is lost; and on the other hand, that man cannot quench his great thirst for happiness, for life and for love except in Jesus, to the measure in which we shape our life to his the new Adam, the “life-giving spirit.” In Jesus we find the original plan of God and its fulfilment.
