God Sees How Good It Is

February 9 2009

Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

By Beth DeCristofaro

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters….God saw how good it was. (Genesis 1:1-2, 10)

…people immediately recognized (Jesus). They scurried about the surrounding country
and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was…. and as many as touched (the tassel on his cloak) were healed. (Mark 6: 54, 55, 56)

Piety

Bless the LORD, my soul! LORD, my God, you are great indeed! How varied are your works, LORD! In wisdom you have wrought them all; the earth is full of your creatures. When you hide your face, we are lost. When you send forth your breath, we are created, and you renew the face of the earth. I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God while I live. May my theme be pleasing to God; I will rejoice in the LORD.

(from Psalm 104)

Study

…and God saw how good it was. I’ve often wondered which is more wonderful: the incredible beauties of nature or that I can be awed by that beauty and thus find an opening and a joy in myself to praise God. God’ wonders continue to be revealed through the centuries.

The psalmist says Bless the LORD, O my soul!... You fixed the earth upon its foundation,
not to be moved forever; (Psalm :1,5) We know now that the earth doesn’t sit, fixed, at the center of the universe but it is no less wondrous that it revolves and swings around a life-giving star along with other bodies in a dancing, precise system.

We see the crowds gathering around Jesus who heals them. Is this much different from today when we each pray in our own way for healing? We meet the terminal cancer patient who is satisfied with his life and happy that his far-flung family is gathered together. We meet a young adult who is reassessing her life in after emerging from a rehab program. She says that pettiness and selfishness no longer have a place in her life because life is too precious. We meet a parent who rejoices in the joy and closeness that a severely disabled child has brought to her family.

And God sees how good it is…good, not easy. As Joan Chittister, OSB, in The Rule of Benedict, Insight for the Ages says: “It is outrageous to say, even under the best of conditions, that it will be easy. We cling to our own ways like snails to sea walls, inching along through life, hiding within ourselves, unconscious even of the nourishing power of the sea that is seeking to sweep us into wider worlds.” (p. 67)

We can continually let go and accept that God sees how good it is and that God IS, even now, ever now. God is in us, from before human time. We can continue to look and see how good it is beginning with ourselves and flowing out to our neighbors.

Action

Joan Chittister again: “…the human is the only place we can really be sure that God is. It is so easy to love the God we do not see but it is so much more sanctifying to serve the God we learn to see in others” (p. 57). In the spirit and freedom of God’s creation, we can look to see how good it is. In whom do we have difficulty seeing God? Pray for ourselves that our vision may be cleared. Pray for that person for love of God’s goodness and creation.