21 Jun 2020. 12th Sun OT. Cycle A. Jer 20:10-13 + Rom 5:12-13 + Mt 10:26-33

Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows (Mt 10:29-31; cf. Lk 12:6). Worth even more than sheep (Mt 12:12); more than 200 pigs (Mk 5:12); more than the grass and lilies of the field (Mt 6:30).

God created human beings in His image and likeness.

Created last, yet designated first, to lord over all the first creatures (cf. Gen 1:26-28; Ps 8:5-10). 

Unlike His first creatures, God endowed human being as homo sapiens:

  • With a mind to think and to reason;
  • With ability to write and to read;
  • With a soul to know and to adore God;
  • With sense to know right from wrong;
  • With free will to obey or to ignore God;
  • With emotion to love and to hate;
  • With talent to build and to devise;
  • With skill to produce and to get rich;
  • With aptness to learn from his mistakes,
  • With just but merciful God to his rescue.

Human dignity is to respect a fellow human:

  • Not a property dispensed as needed;
  • Not a thing used and consumed;
  • Not a means satisfying an end;
  • Not a prototype altered when failed;
  • Not a merchandise sold and traded;
  • Not a pest exterminated when profuse;
  • Not a program deleted when infected;
  • Not a gadget disposed when broken;
  • But a fellow equal human with dignity, made in the image and likeness of God. VSS

In May 2016, Cincinnati Zoo keepers shot and killed Harambe, the precious 17-year old gorilla, who dragged an unknown 3-year old boy to his possible death.

I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb (Jer 1:5). Even your name is written at the palms of my hands (Is 49:16; cf. Dt 6:8-9).