PEOPLE ARE SIMPLY UNIQUE, INCOMPARABLE.

Reflection of Friday of the 5th week in ordinary time (12/02/2021) 

Reading Gen 3:1-8, Gospel; Mark 7:31-37

 By Brother Charles Akaeme SDV

 “Nobody is superior, nobody is inferior, but nobody is equal either. People are simply unique, incomparable” As we can see since this week the church in her wisdom has been presenting to us the book of Genesis, the creation story. In the first reading of today we can see the fall of mankind. The problem Eve had was that she wanted to be like God. She wanted to be another thing apart from what God created her to be. She was not happy, satisfied, she was not contented with how God made/created her; oh she was not happy with herself. Brethren you are unique and incomparable with another person. A person, according to Aquinas, in his Summa (first part), is the whole or totality of the individual in his or her concreteness, uniqueness and unrepeatability. Aquinas also has it that a person is absolutely and relationally constituted. That is, I cannot be you and you cannot be me, you are who you are and I am who I am, but Eve forgot who she was and wanted to be like God. Also in the field of philosophy “Personal identity is the unique numerical identity of person through time.” So what makes you who you are as a person is not what makes me who I am as person, hence, don’t desire to be another person. Be authentic, be real, be the original copy of yourself. Every sin begins with doubt of God’s word. God told Adam and Eve that they shall not eat the fruit in the midst of the garden, even not to touch it lest they shall die, but the devil says that it was not so, that they shall not die instead they shall be like God and Eve doubted the word of God and wanted to be like God. I can say that the sin Eve committed was the sin of “impersonation” she wanted to be like God. She denied the reality of who she was and wanted to be God. The question I should ask myself is how many times have I denied the reality of who I am and wanted to be the other person? How many times have I questioned God, why is it that I am not this person or that person? Another message is that Sin always or sometimes comes packaged as good and pleasing to the eye. In the second reading Jesus healed the man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. Jesus did not come for the righteous or saints but for the sinners. He comes to heal us of our impediments, sins, worry, doubt, and to open our ears, eyes, and our hearts. So that we can say he has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.