For the past month, after the Christmas cycle, we have been treated
to the Letter to the Hebrews, a reflection upon Christ the new High
Priest. Today and tomorrow, we are sent way back to the beginning,
to the first Genesis account of "the story of the heavens and
the earth at their creation" (as Genesis 2:4 expresses it);
so we are invited to reflect upon the great mystery of creation
-- why there is something rather than nothing. It is almost as if
God is saying to us , once again, "I am the Lord and there
is no other," and don't you ever forget it! If God just IS
and is the source of everything else that exists-- if there is nothing
on the face of the earth or anywhere in the universe that is not
created by God -- well, then, of course, we owe everything we have
and are to God. Thus, the First Commandment! As Fr. James Alison
has recently reminded us, "For monotheistic Judaism, as for
monotheistic Catholicism, which I take to be universal Judaism,
the principle temptation is not atheism, but idolatry."
So I am inviting us to simply pray over our being God's creation,
God's handiwork, with gratitude, confidence, peace, joy; and then
to examine the idol-making activity of my own mind, my own life.
What are the "other gods" that I have created and given
allegiance to? And a further and much more subtle examination: who
are the others (the "enemies") that I have somehow used
to define my own righteousness and excluded from the blessings of
creation and redemption?
The example and practice of Jesus, so vividly depicted in today's
Gospel reading, can then be a reminder to me that, to be a disciple
of Jesus, I must enter into his ministry of healing and restoring
creation. That means not excluding anyone from the outreach of my
friendship and service. God is One, and I and everyone else and
everything else in creation is the Other, the result of God's infinite
generativity and the object of God's tender mercy and ever-loving
care. For God is the One who makes the sun shine and the rain fall
on everyone and everything, good and bad alike. I am called to be
and to do the same: in the words of Jesus, "Be compassionate
as your Heavenly Father is compassionate."
By this time, we all know that we have much to pray for, both for
ourselves and for one another!