PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to
listen
21st
Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
August
27, 2017
St. Mark
Church, Fallston
To Stand
in Wonder
By (Rev.
Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Standing in Wonder: The Universe
(Hold up
glasses.) You all know what these are? How many bought a pair and used them
last Monday?
As the solar eclipse was just ending, I turned
on the radio and heard an announcer interviewing people about their personal experience
of the eclipse.
One person said: “It’s just so good to look up, to look beyond ourselves and our world.”
Another said: “It’s overwhelming when you think about it for it shows you how small
we really are.”
And another: “It helps me realize how much we know, that scientists are able to
calculate the exact time this was going to happen and where. Yet, it also helps me realize how much we
don’t know.”
Standing in Wonder: God
What struck me about these comments was what
it means to stand in wonder at the universe, and beyond that, to stand in
wonder at God.
St. Paul beautifully expresses this wonder in today’s
second reading: “Oh, the depth of the
riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!”
It is as if Paul is also looking up and beyond
himself and our world and standing in wonder at the greatness and mystery of
God.
Standing in Wonder: The Son of God
In the Gospel we experience a whole new expression
of wonder.
The Apostles have already stood in wonder as they
saw Jesus calming the stormy lake and healing people. And now Peter says that he believes that
Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the
living God.”
This idea is both simple and simply awesome.
On the one hand, there is the Almighty One, the One
before whom we stand in wonder when we look up to the heavens and beyond
ourselves.
And on the other hand, we have Peter declaring that
this same Almighty One has become one of us.
Yes, along with Peter and the other Apostles, we too
stand in wonder before Jesus.
And, as if that isn’t enough, God in Jesus, shows us
how to live everyday life in that same wonder of the God beyond and the God in
our midst.
Living in Wonder
You
live in wonder before Jesus:
·
When you pray from your heart, and mean what you say
·
When you receive the Eucharist and become aware that
this is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, coming to me as food
·
When I receive the Eucharist and I become the
Eucharist for others
Again,
you live in wonder before Jesus:
·
When you are faithful to your commitments and
promises to one another as spouses
·
When you sacrifice for the good of your family
·
When you take a moment to say something affirming or
supportive to the clerk at the check-out counter who’s having a bad day
Or
you live in wonder before Jesus:
·
When you speak respectfully about others and to
others, no matter what
·
When you do things that promote healing and unity
among people
·
When you build bridges between others and yourself
And
finally, we live in wonder before Jesus:
·
When you look above and beyond your own needs and
concerns to the common good of all … and I mean “ALL” — no one excluded!
·
When you maintain hope based on your faith that God
will see you through no matter what
·
When you cherish human life across the board and
equally, wherever or in whomever it is found
Conclusion
These are some of the ways Jesus shows us how to
live every day in wonder, how to live looking up and beyond ourselves and our
world.
We don’t have to wait for another hundred years to
stand in wonder at the universe.
We can experience some of that same wonder by
looking at Jesus and living out of that experience.
What an impact you can have on our world!
No comments:
Post a Comment