THE WORD OF GOD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.

BELOVED, WE ARE GOD’S CHILDREN NOW; WHAT WE SHALL BE HAS NOT YET BEEN REVEALED.
WE DO KNOW THAT WHEN IT IS REVEALED WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM, FOR WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS.

You know how it is when you stand in the open air at night and gaze up at the stars. How small and insignificant you might feel. How immense the universe. How incomprehensible that the Creator of all that magnificence cares about each and every one of us.  How remote God may seem, lost in all that starriness. But what a promise John gives us – not only does the Creator care, but we are the beloved children of this immeasurable love. And even better, we shall see him as he is, and in doing so, become like him. Is there anything else we need to know?

Two years ago, on Christmas Day 2021, The James Webb Space Telescope was launched by rocket into that starry expanse, seeking to discover the first light in the universe, the assembly of galaxies in the early universe, the birth of stars and protoplanetary systems and planets (including the origins of life.) Perhaps this huge eye in the sky will discover some facts, but the heart of the matter remains hidden to it – that our God is one who “gets foolishly close,” in the words of our late pastor Fr. Patrick Malone, S.J., in an article first published in the Jesuit magazine, America, and later reprinted in the collection of Fr. Pat’s writings, “Seeded At God’s Hand.” (available from St. John’s Church)

That seemingly remote population of shining stars and planets embroidering the night sky hides an amazing truth – that God is not “out there” but “in here.” The immanence of the Creator of all, revealed in the birth of Jesus, remains.

When I was a very young child, my mother read to me from a book showing Mary teaching Jesus about the night sky and its Creator from the flat roof of their dwelling. I have been drawn to the night sky and to God since then.

Father Pat again: “…faith is what brings us into the deepest truth of our lives. It is a buried truth that says we are in the image of an unlimited, unrestricted, unimaginable love….In whose image and likeness do we see ourselves?....We know we are always held, always invited to feel the healing closeness of Christ. It is hard to explain logically a religion where we have a God who gets absurdly close, so close that (boundaries) between what is human and what is sacred become blurry. So incredibly close that we are forced to discern the face of God in all the mess of creation.”

In Exodus Chapter 33:19-23 there is a wonderful passage I have always been drawn to – Moses asks to see God’s glory but God says he will pass by and Moses is to see only God’s back. There are several interpretations of this passage but I like to think of it as we know God by what he has done – hence the creation speaks to us of him and all living beings echo that love song of God. So the God of infinite love and mercy is there for all to see, and we shall see him as he is.

May we all find God in all things and all events, and know that there is Love, there is Mercy.