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

The picture modern science gives us of the universe and its development requires that Christians balance an image of God as our friend and love with that of the being who is the source of something as incomprehensibly huge and timeless as the universe. This affects our vision of our fellow human beings, too.

Though looked at in terms of evolutionary time, billions of years, you or I and our friends are indeed like bubbles on the stream of life, still we are vitally important to each other. Whether we can put these extreme poles together intellectually is one question. But, aside from that, it remains true that we depend upon other people, family members and friends, for all that makes life worthwhile or, at times, tolerable.

Love, friendship, closeness, encouragement, a welcoming ear or look, it would take a pretty dehumanized person to consider these irrelevant. “You'd be so nice to come home to,” runs an old song and it expresses an undeniable need. God is made concrete and real to us in the love and goodness that comes to us from others. Similarly, others know and see God's love in what we give them or are to them by our attention and concern. Food shelves and phone calls can make our love real even at a distance.

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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