God Sees How Good It Is
February 12, 2013
Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
By Beth
DeCristofaro
God said, “Let the water teem with an abundance of living
creatures, and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky.” And so
it happened: God created the great sea monsters and all kinds of swimming
creatures with which the water teems, and all kinds of winged birds. God saw
how good it was… (Genesis 1:20-21)
(Jesus) responded, (to the Pharisees) “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! (Mark 7:6-9)
(Jesus) responded, (to the Pharisees) “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! (Mark 7:6-9)
Piety
We give thanks for all creation – for the beauty of the
world, for sunrises and sunsets, for trees and flowers, for birds and insects, animals
and fish. We give thanks for our faith, for the mystery of God’s love,
for Jesus who came to save us, for the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Study
Isn’t the story of Creation masterful, so vivid and
compelling? One of the most wonderful
things I ever did was learn to scuba dive.
How AWESOME it is to “fly”,
suspended in water rather than bound to earth amid most outrageously decorated
creatures and plants. The references in
Scripture such as Genesis and There is the sea, great and wide! It teems with countless
beings, living things both large and small. There ships ply their course and
Leviathan, whom you formed to play with. (Psalm 104:25-26) point to God’s love and laughter – joy in
giving life. In the sea God’s attendance is writ is with color, motion, and
sound felt as well as heard.
But how easy it is to be swayed to lose focus on
God for the human traditions, mores, status quo. To hold to the mystery of God who comes to us
in God’s own time and way rather than the “order” we want to impose is difficult. I judge others out of the limited vision of my
place in society. I want to prove a
critic wrong rather than love and perhaps learn something about myself. We hold ourselves to the standards of our
nation, state, city or even parish rather than God’s. We hold ourselves to the rigid structures of
human design rather than the creative, ever unfolding and ever unfinished flow
of God’s presence. In ancient maps, the
unexplored territories held the inscriptions:
There be monsters.
Action
Read the Genesis account, perhaps out loud and
listen as a child might. Envision the
bluing of the sky for the first time.
Imagine floating among the stars in the dome of the heavens. Peer down at the waters gathered in the
immense basin and dive in! Today is
Mardi Gras, party with God’s Creation!
In what way am I hidebound in the expectations
of myself and others rather than the calling of God to love? Ask for God who loves you even more than the
leviathan to lead you rather than following human expectation.
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