In today's first reading, Isaiah 45:6b-8, 18, 21c-25, the Lord affirms his identity and the sanctity of the earth itself:
"I am the Lord, there is no other; I form the light, and create the darkness, I make well-being and create woe....[Furthermore, God proclaims that He is the] creator of the heavens,...The designer and maker of the earth..." Whatever God designs is sacred, is not to be exploited, abused, trampled upon. In God's words, the earth is not "to be a waste, but...to be lived in"! The earth, the universe in all its grandeur, is a gift to us and reveals the glory of God, as does each human being! God says to us: "To me every knee shall bend; by me every tongue shall swear, saying, 'Only in the Lord are just deeds and power. Before him in shame shall come all who vent their anger against him (and such is done when we abuse the earth or anything in it and anyone who shares life with the universe). In the Lord shall be the vindication and the glory of all the descendants of Israel.'"
In the Gospel of today, Luke 7: 18b-23, Jesus models how we are to be responding to each other: "...the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, [and] the poor have the good news proclaimed to them." May others have the good news proclaimed to them that every creature, the earth itself and all that is on it, is a creation of God whose purpose is to reveal God's glory. We are here to reveal God's presence and respect God's presence in all! God forms the light and creates the darkness according to His will for His redemptive purposes. He also, I believe, does so through us, as God respects our free will to that decree, not that He wills us to "create darkness and make woe." But God uses whatever we create for us to learn what is right and good, what is evil and woeful and so turn to Him as our Savior, as God says to us in the responsorial psalm: "Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the earth, for I am God, [your Savior]; there is no other."
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