psalm 19 - created things speak of god - 25th week wednesday 2016

Today in this feast of the evangelist St Matthew we hear Psalm 19 proclaim – “the heavens declare the glory of God;  and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.” Our psalm today invites us to open our eyes and see God’s creation around us for they speak of God – his grandeur, his goodness, his power, his love, his beauty.  Nature – created things speak of God.

Months ago I was invited to see a mountain range so big and so vast and a forest which went as far as the eyes can see. The place was advertised on a bus saying:  come and see how little you are.  To be there and to say to God in prayer Lord you are so big and I am so little, so tiny in fact if I consider that the earth is just a tiny speck of this vast universe.  Lord you allowed me to experience your grandeur and majesty.

Fr. Ricky, our guest priest here last week told us of his experience in scuba diving and the beauty that he saw under the waters.  Imagine that, even in the depths, even to a place where only a select few can see, God still reveals his beauty.  Lord God how beautiful you are.

Then we hear of the earth shaking in Italy, or the typhoon in China, and again we are made to experience how vulnerable we are, how precarious our situation is. And we are made to say, Lord God you are our help, our shield, our rock of safety. St Athanasius said: “The sky with its magnificence, its beauty, its order, is an admirable preacher of its Maker, whose eloquence fills the universe.” 

At the end of the gospel Matthew wrote that Jesus sent us all to become preachers of the good news and to baptize all.  We are called to proclaim God’s goodness, power and majesty to all not just in words but by our presence, by our works, by our kindness to others, just as Matthew, and just as nature around us, proclaim God.