Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - July 5, 2024
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
The newspapers carried stories for several days about a baseball coach who came to practice daily with an announcement that God wanted Luke Towey on first base, Ted Lopez pitching, not Al Johnson. This was picked up by the media, of course, as a bit peculiar. It is hard to see God's stake in the summer season of the Berryville Bears. Scripture speaks the same way but usually about more world-shaking events. The Psalms say that God gives wealth or poverty; that God chose the Jews; God led them out of Egypt, set up judges, gave the Israelites Saul as king and so on. Both the coach and Scripture are leaving out the immediate causes and referring everything back to God.
Undoubtedly, daily observation could tell the coach that Ted would be a better pitcher. Similarly, economic conditions, ingenuity, health might all be involved in that one person becomes wealthy and another poor. Referring everything back to God is understandable and Scripture praises God this way. But we can't ignore the human factors. God works through our intelligence, discussion, talents, even through committees.
Though we suspect God doesn't think much of some world leader, he or she is removed through elections, coups, legal means, not through a zap by God. Any willingness to ascribe all that happens to God shouldn't obscure what we humans do in our particular spot on this planet. What we do, how we do it, is vital. God can comfort the sorrowing and desperate through us or, apart from God, we might show the same people further evidence that this is a harsh world. We can be signs to others of the world's hostility or instruments of God's loving care.
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!”
