The Earth Is Full of the Goodness of God

 In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 33, we praise the Lord for the fact that the "earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." God's goodness resides within every human being, within each of us.   We see God's goodness manifested by parents, grandparents, husbands and wives, by children of all ages,  by persons in all professions--lawyers, police officers, scientists of all kinds, psychologists and psychiatrists, journalists, musicians, meteorologists, geologists, foresters, administrators, domestic workers, constructionists, mechanics of all kinds, authors in all fields, and so much more!  We see the goodness of the Lord in all states of life: marriage, single, priesthood, consecrated religious life of women and men. God's goodness is manifested in the universe itself, in plant life and animal life, in the fishes of the sea and birds of the air and all insects, in all minerals, molecules and atoms; in short, in all of creation!

In your life and my life, in the life of all of creation,  "the plan of the Lord stands forever; the design of his heart, through all generations."  What is that plan? That plan, I believe, is that we experience the fullness of life that we are capable of experiencing and of bringing about to the best of our ability. Jesus says to us in the Gospel: I have come that you might have life and have it to the full!  A "full"  life, for me,  is a life in which I discern and accomplish God's will for me, that I grow in love for others, God and self. A "full" life for me means  making life better for those with whom I live and work, developing the talents God has given me and using those talents to make the world a better place.  Living life to the full, for me, means fully enjoying all of creation and co-creating with God, using the opportunities God gives me to bring fuller life to others!  It means accomplishing "far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us" (Eph 3: 21).  It means experiencing being  "strengthened with power through [God's] Spirit in [my] inner self, " and knowing, beyond a doubt, "that Christ [dwells] in [my] heart through faith; that [I am] rooted and ground in love" (Eph 3: 14-21).