This year, the annual Biblical Festival promoted by the Diocese of Vicenza and the Society of St. Paul focuses on chapters 1-11 of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, in order to stimulate reflection on how the Jewish and Christian Scriptures have a great deal in common with our contemporary world. Participating in the Festival are the dioceses of Treviso, Vittorio Veneto, Verona, Padua, Adria-Rovigo, Chioggia and Alba.
The first 11 chapters of Genesis are a narrative that centers on the origins of the world and of humanity–stories that open the door to vital questions with regard to the meaning of life. Themes such as the creation of the earth and the beginnings of the human story, relationships between created entities, the difficulties human beings have always had living together fraternally, freedom, transgression, sin, redemption, work, judgment, faith–all find space in the pages of Genesis 1-11, with clear connections to the present.
The 19th edition of the Biblical Festival raises questions about some of today’s most pressing issues by presenting some of the major events described in Genesis, such as catastrophic weather changes and their environmental, societal and economic repercussions; the overcrowding of certain geographical areas, leading to the migration of peoples; economic inequalities; political instability; the increase of conflicts and wars, etc. All these themes of fundamental importance raised by the opening chapters of the Bible can offer people today valid criteria for discernment in order help everyone realize the need to find and implement new and increasingly-collaborative forms of human resilience.
