God's Dwelling Here on Earth

In today’s first reading, 1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30, we ask:  “Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?”  If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built!”

God’s love is so magnanimous, so selfless, so giving that He created an entire universe to reveal His beauty, His love, His magnificence. The crown of creation is His creation of humankind in the image and likeness of God, male and female He created them—He shares Himself in that each of us reflects the Godhead as much as a child reflects his/her parents.  All of creation God proclaimed good; humankind “very good.”  No part of creation is made for itself. All is made to glorify God!  Churches and temples, also, are not made for themselves but are places in which, through prayer and worship, we are reconsecrated to the Lord and sent forth to proclaim God’s glory by our works of love and selfless giving to one another, to the world, and, yes, the universe itself, beautifying it to glorify its Creator.

In the Gospel, Jesus points out that laws and traditions are not above integrity of persons, of the call to honor the Lord with hearts open to respect, love,  and service to one another  through the commandments, summed up as loving God with our whole hearts, our whole mind, and our whole soul and our neighbor as ourselves.

“Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?”  Look around!  Do you see God reflected in your neighbor? Do you reflect God to your neighbor?

The Incarnate Son of God

Today’s first reading, 1 John 5: 5-13, opens the liturgy with the statement: “Beloved: Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”   At the foot of the cross, after seeing Jesus die, the centurion professed this faith, saying:  ‘In truth this man was Son of God’” (Mk. 15: 39). 

  Just as Jesus was like us in all things, fully human, except sin, so, too, are we like Jesus except for the weakness in our wills whereby we have a tendency to rebel against God. For those who believe in Jesus, however, this tendency to choose one’s own will over God’s, this tendency to commit sin, loses its power in their lives. We become victors over the world of rebellion through Christ Jesus! And Jesus tells us that there is immense joy in heaven over one sinner who repents  and  chooses to bring his/her will in harmony with the will of God as modeled by Jesus, who was obedient to the Father even to the point of death, death on a cross.

Am I willing today to conform my life after the life of Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God,  who “emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross” (Phil 2: 7-8).  What am I willing to accept as I follow Jesus’ example today?  To what do I need to die in order to rise above sin and death today and give birth to Christ?

God's creation of us

In the psalm of today's liturgy is Psalm 139.  One of its verses reads:  "Truly you formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb.  A birthday prayer/reflection might go like this:  “Thank you, Lord, for the gift of life. You shaped me in my mother’s womb and brought me into existence on (the date of your birthday).  Now you shape me in the womb of this earthly life."  Another verse of this same psalm reads: “…[C]lose behind and close in front you fence me round,  shielding me with your hand” (Ps 139: 4-5).  “You know if I am sitting or standing, you read my thoughts from far away;  whether I walk or lie down, You are watching,” (Ps 139: 1-2), just as a parent watches every step a toddler takes.  God's care for us is profound. God's loving us is incomprehensible, infinite.  God watched the bones of each of us take shape.  God guided them. God guided the formation of each of our physical systems: hearts, lungs, eyes, ears, brain, etc.: all of it working perfectly. God breathe into each of us His  Spirit, creating us in God's likeness.  Each of us is an image of God that no one else reflects.  Yes, each of us God is created  as one of His masterpieces (Eph 2: 10)--and that creation is ongoing. 

I encourage you to reflect on all of Psalm 139 today--it's about God's intimate involvement in your life and His phenomenal love of you as His special creation.

Bearing good fruit, nourishing our faith

Saturday, September 10, 2011:  Today’s liturgy speaks about a good tree bearing good fruit and a bad tree bearing bad fruit.  In every fruit-bearing tree is a seed: apple, pear, plum, chestnut, apricot, banana, breadfruit, mango, oranges, etc. The fruit does nothing but await the nutrients the tree feeds it: water, sun’s rays, and its own sap or the nutrients from within the tree. Within you and me, a seed was planted by God’s creation of us. We are all created in the image of God. That image grows at its own pace, as does the apple, orange, mango, etc.  Besides the gift of being created in God’s image is the gift of faith given many of us at our baptism.  This seed also grows, if we give it the nourishment  it needs. And it grows, also, at its own pace. My faith today is very different than my faith as a adolescent, for instance.  The question is:  Am I providing the nourishment my faith needs every day to grow into a “strong oak”: prayer, solitude, the sacraments, reflection on the Scriptures, and relating to others in the events of each day in a way that my actions and attitudes are life-giving and flow from the power of the Spirit at the core of my being?