Grade 6 – Study Gui de for Ch apter 3 & Chapter 4
v God created humans before he created plants and animals. God created humans as the high point of creation.
v The story account says that God made man from clay from the ground, and blew his breath of life into the man’s nostrils.
v Our soul is the invisible reality that makes each of us human.
v Humans possess a physical body and an invisible spiritual soul.
v Our soul lives forever, even after our body dies and returns to dust.
v God created woman from the man’s rib. This symbolizes that females and males share the same human dignity and are equal.
v Man was to bring new life into the world and create the human family. Man and woman were to be responsible for the earth and all the living things in it.
v God allowed the human beings to name the animals. The ancient Israelites believed that people had authority over those who they named. So humans were called by God to be the caretakers of creation.
v A steward is a person who is given both the authority over what he or she cares for and the responsibility for seeing that it lives and grows.
v Stewardship involves authority and responsibility.
v Conservationists and environmentalists are modern day stewards, saving the planet and protecting creation.
v The Garden of Eden was a place of innocence, holiness, and justice for which God had created. Adam and Eve had everything they needed. They were God’s friend. They were forbidden to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and bad. The forbidden fruit symbolizes that friendship with God depends on complete trust in God and on following his will for us.
v When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and disobeyed God, he sent them out of the garden.
v When the first humans disobeyed God, they turned away from him. They committed a sin.
v Sin is a thought, word, deed, or omission against God’s law.
v This sin of the first humans took away their original innocence, holiness, and justice.
v Their personal sin was the first sin and is called Original Sin.
v Original Sin weakened human nature and brought ignorance, suffering, and death into the world.
v Because of God’s mercy, he did not turn away from Adam and Eve. Instead he promised to show them his mercy.
v Original Sin weakened human nature but did not destroy it. This is why we inherit this sin even though we are not personally responsible.
v Humanity could not undo the effects of Original Sin. God promised to send a Savior to completely restore their friendship with God.
v The prophet Isaiah described this person as the Suffering Servant.
v This Suffering Servant described by Isaiah is God’s own Son.
v The New Testament contains four separate books about Jesus. These are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
v The word gospel means “good news.” The Gospel is the Good News about God at work in Jesus Christ.
v In the Gospels we read about Jesus’ work to bring hope to the poor and suffering, freedom to the persecuted, and healing to those who are sick.
v In Genesis we learn that Adam and Eve had 2 sons. The older son Cain was a farmer and the younger brother, Abel was a shepherd.
v Cain and Abel both made offerings of their goods to the Lord. However, the Lord looked favorably on Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s. It was never explained why one offering was acceptable and the other wasn’t. We learn that we cannot always understand the ways of God and should not try to judge his ways.
v God told Cain to do the right thing and accept this situation, but instead Cain could not rise above his anger. He took his resentment out on his brother Abel. Cain killed Abel and murder, one of the worst effects of Original Sin came into existence.
v Cain realized because of his sin, he was being sent away and would lose God’s protection. Yet God came to Cain’s aid and showed him that he was still protected by God.
v Justice means representing the rights of others and giving them what is rightfully theirs.
v In the Book of Genesis, we find that God is displeased with humankind. They were not faithful stewards of the world that they were meant to be.
v God spoke to Noah, who had great faith in God. God told Noah that he would put an end to all mortals on earth. God commanded Noah to build an ark and fill it with 2 of every living thing, including his family. He would send a great flood and all life outside the ark would be lost.
v God made a covenant or agreement with Noah. God will never send another flood to destroy life on earth. Through Noah God made an everlasting covenant with the whole of humanity.
v God’s forgiveness and love, and humanity’s goodness, can overcome all evil.
v The ark is symbolic of the Church; just as the ark saved Noah, so through the Church we are saved.
v The flood is a symbol of the waters of Baptism. Through Baptism we are freed from Original Sin and all personal sins. We are brought to new life with the waters of Baptism, just as the great flood washed the world clean from sin and evil.
v The story of the Tower of Babel is the last story in the Book of Genesis. This story symbolizes humanity’s loss of unity and the development of different languages. The whole world spoke the same language and were therefore related. They could act as true stewards of the earth. But God’s plan for creation was to spread across the face of the earth. Humans feared this, since moving throughout the world meant facing dangers. To remain safe and together, they decided to build a huge tower and stay in one place. This was a way of resisting God’s plan.
v The tower looked like a ziggurat. A ziggurat is a series of smaller and smaller brick platforms, one on top of the other. In the story, the tower was a symbol of human’s resistance to God’s will. The people building the tower did not trust God and preferred to do things their way. God decided to stop them, so he confused their language. They could not understand each other and the unity of the human race was lost. Humanity began to lose its unity and break up into rival groups.
v God‘s plan to populate the earth was on again. Now people spoke different languages and had developed different ways of living and communicating.
v Throughout history, human’s failure to respect the differences of, and the need to appreciate the dignity that all people possess, has caused misunderstands between people.