Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - January 2, 2025
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”
As each element in creation is mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis, the author writes that “God saw how good it was.” For many of us who are so easily attached to human life and all its accompaniments, this seems obvious. Who would ever question that babies and starry skies, chocolate and sunny days, pastry and pasta, movies and athletic games, talented people and beautiful smiles, mountains and beaches, autumn leaves and summer fruit, that all these are good? And our list could go on. In many ways we have no problem in believing that creation is good.
At the time Genesis was written there were -- and there have continued to be -- people who believed that all material things were bad. Only the spiritual was good. The Jewish and Christian faiths have never bought this idea. Genesis shows this and for Christians the resurrection of the Lord confirms it. Matter and the body are not simply drags on the spirit from which we have to be freed.
We pray “deliver us from evil” not from material things, not from the earth or body. We praise and worship God through material things, in the body, even by working for better material conditions – cleaner air, conservation of resources -- for our fellow human beings. To be responsible stewards of this creation, is a great part of our task. Our future and that of generations to come, our salvation, all are bound up with the universe, the world around us. We are only able to praise God and do good through and with this body, this material world.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
