God's Infinite Generosity

Today’s first reading, Genesis 1: 20-2: 4a, is a continuation of the creation story, whereby God creates an abundance of every living thing upon the earth: birds of the air, fishes of the sea, creeping things, cattle and all kinds of wild animals and says after creating all of them: “Be fertile, multiply,” populate the earth with more of your kind, seeing that all that He had made was good.  Then, God created humankind in His image; the image of the Divine He created us, in God’s likeness, “male and female He created [us]” and said: “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over…all living things that move on the earth.” God also gave us “every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be [our] food [along with] all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air,” the fishes in the sea, and “all the living creatures that crawl on the ground.”  Then God rested and enjoyed all of His creation.

What a generous God, providing everything for us to exist in peace, enjoying fullness of life and delighting in all of God’s creation!  And, moreover, in His creation of us, God made us like Himself. We are created in God’s image. Think of the Trinity, a community of three persons (though one God) relating equally to one another. No one person of the Trinity dominates the other. All share equally the gifts of divinity: the power, the creativity, the Wisdom, the Prudence, the Counsel, the Reverence, and the Courage. And you and I are created in the likeness of the Trinity, of God.  When we live the Trinitarian life, each of us relates respectfully to each other. Each of us relates prudently, lovingly, creatively, courageously, wisely in meeting each other’s needs and being one with the other in holiness and grace, in power and majesty, in love and forgiveness. 

What a generous God, who shows us in the Trinity how to live according to God’s likeness!

Chosen by God to be Part of His Intimate Circle, the Trinity

“I shall not call you servants anymore, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learned from my Father” (John 15: 9-17).  

Imagine being a servant in the Whitehouse. You are one of the waitresses/waiters at the elaborate dinner served to special guests/friends of the first family.  Or you are a domestic servant  and you observe the First Family have close friends over to celebrate one of their children’s birthday.  You watch the interactions in awe of the relationship the President and First Lady have with each of their guests. You are not privileged to be a part of the intimacy that exist among their close friends. Oh, how you would love to be, not a servant, but a friend.

Switch now to today’s Gospel.  You and I are not servants but friends of Jesus, of the Trinity. “I have chosen you,” to be my disciples and my friends, one with us in holiness and truth, in love and forgiveness, in justice and generosity to the poor and needy.   “Everything “ , Jesus says to us, “that I have  learned from the Father  shares with you” (cf Jn 15: 9-17).   So why might so many people not experience this friendship, this intimacy with the Lord, with the Trinity, with God?  Like any other relationship, becoming close friends is not magic or automatic. Lots of time is spent with a close friend. Lots of conversation occurs between friends. A friend wants to know everything about his/her friend. So, when this does not happen between us and the Lord, why is that? I might ask myself: Am I taking time to get to know the Lord (He already knows us intimately)? Do I read about Jesus in the Gospels? Do I take the opportunity my parish offers me to study the Scriptures? Do I take time to gaze upon the Lord in love and let the Lord gaze upon me, as wives and husbands enjoy gazing upon one another in this way? Do I take time to show God love by loving, caring about, supporting others—again, husbands and wives do loving things for one another?

Yes, it is my choice to develop this relationship. God stands at the door knocking. Will I open to Him today?

Created in the Image and Likeness of God

Today’s first reading, Gen. 1: 20-2:4a, is a continuation of the creation story.  On the 6^th day of creation, “God said: ‘Let us make man [and woman] in our image, after our likeness.”  And God looked at His creation of us and “found it very good.”  Every man and every woman reflects the image of God, reveals God’s nature, God’s intelligence, God’s love and compassion for all that He created, beginning with self and others and the animal and plant kingdom as well. 

One of the most expressive images of the Triune God occurs in marriage when a man and a woman  join together to become one flesh.  God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one God in three divine persons. A married couple become one in love and out of that love create a third person, the child who takes on the nature of the father and the mother in its mother’s womb.   A husband and a wife strive to give themselves totally to one another in much the same way as the Father gives Himself totally to the Son, the Son gives Himself totally to the Father, and their complete love for one another is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity. 

O God, may  all of us, married and/or single, imitate you in totally giving of ourselves for the sake of the other. May the love we have for you, the Triune God, bring to fruition in us the self-giving, self-sacrificing, self-effacing love that makes new life a reality all around us.

The Source of all that is Good

In today’s first reading, Acts 14: 5-18, Paul and Barnabas leave Iconium to escape being put to death and go to Lystra.  In Lystra Jesus heals a crippled man through their intercession and are believed to be gods. The people prepare to worship them, to their dismay! “…W]hy are you doing this. We are of the same nature as you, human beings.  We proclaim to you good news that you should turn from…[your] idols to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them.”  Then, Paul and Barnabas, make a powerful statement:  “In past generations…[God] allowed all Gentiles to go their own ways; yet, in bestowing his goodness, he did not leave himself without witnesses, for he gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filled you with nourishment and gladness for your hearts.”

Hear God say to you through Paul and Barnabas: “I, your Creator and Redeemer, bestow goodness upon you. I plant it within you and around you, within others and within all of creation." The good we do, Jesus reminds us in today's Gospel, comes from God, as it did when Paul and Barnabas healed the man crippled since birth.  Anyone who keeps God's commandments  and believes in Jesus, in God alone,  does good here on earth. That good flows from the Trinity dwelling within them and at work in the world through them.  "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him[her], and we will come to...[that person] and make our dwelling with him[her]," we read in today's Gospel.  Yes,  those who follow God's ways, who do  not create false gods as the people of Lystra wanted to do,  will become one with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. Good blossoms  from  Goodness!  And that Goodness is God Himself.  God alone is good, Jesus tells the rich young man in Mark 10; 18.