Seeing How the World Turns©

Deacon Tom writes ©

   "Seeing How the World Turns"

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

My daughter, Mary, has a globe of the world that is about 8 inches around. It sits on a small tripod and magically rotates somehow. I wasn’t able to see what powered it, although I look for some energy source. As I watched the world spinning there on its own, I noticed the continents as they passed by… then I began to see the countries…Egypt Spain, Chile, the USA, Australia, Indonesia, China, Russia. It was then that I began to think of all the people in those far away places…

I wonder what God sees when He looks down at the world. Does He see all of those man-made borders sketched out by that dark line on that fascinating globe I described above? Does He see us as Chileans, Jamaicans, Americans, Swiss, or Kenyans? No, I doubt that very much. From whatever vantage point God observes the earth, I believe all He sees is His children, and not as a group but individually. That is the mysterious, profound, unimaginable power of God and indeed, that is a wonder to behold.    

Once we grasp the spiritual reality that we are Children of God, we, like God, in whose very being we live and move and have our being, must see one another as our brothers and sisters and not as citizens of different nation states. We Catholics, especially, as Eucharistic people, must see the world as God sees the world and recognize that in Him we are one people, one Body of Christ.   

The question I ask myself today and ask you to consider is this: Is it possible to see the different peoples of the world as our brothers and sisters in Christ? Is it possible for us to “Love our neighbor” in the broadest sense of the word as Jesus taught us? When we look at or read what is happening in Syria, Iraq, the Sudan and the Ukraine can we honestly be faithful to Jesus’ command to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us? These are some of the most difficult of Jesus’ teachings and I don’t think there is any way we can follow them UNLESS...unless we are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

As summer is drawing to a close in these next several weeks, we will notice the beauty of nature around us begin to change. This provides us a chance to reflect on how we see the world around us and consider how God, the author of all that is, sees it. May He grant us the grace to see with eyes filled with a deep and profound love for all His Children.

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom