Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”

The rejection by so many, then and now, of the one who came to bring God's message of love makes you wonder about God's methodology. Why such a chancy way of doing it, appearing in the form of an ordinary man, the son of a local carpenter? Why not paint the message in bright and bold colors across the skies for everyone to see?

If God made this vast universe it certainly wouldn't have been a tiring task to do this. In one part of the sky it could have been in Russian, in another in Arabic, elsewhere in English, and so on. But no, God seems to make it purposely difficult by tying the revelation of God’s love to acceptance of a fellow human being.

That underlines a fundamental truth about God's relation to us. We cannot be related honestly in love to God without a willingness to accept and love our fellow human beings, even the ones we think painful or too ‘different’. We only truly accept God's love if we are willing to see God's love there, to accept assurances of God's love for us in the good actions and care of others.

The other side of this, equally important, is that others will know God really loves them if someone cares for them in their loneliness, their need, their pain, their discouragement and fear, their hunger and homelessness. At the altar in communion we become Christ's body in order to be Christ to and for others.

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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