psalm 8: the work of your fingers - tuesday 5th week

Psalm 8, our responsorial psalm today continues the thought narrated by our first reading, that God made everything and man and woman as the peak of his creation.  However, in this psalm the manner in which God created us is emphasized.  And how is this?

Creation according to psalm 8 was not just arbitrary or random or haphazard. Rather it was careful and meticulous and even painstaking.  In the psalm, instead of calling created things the work of your hands, the psalmist instead said, the work of your fingers.  God designed everything meticulously.  God deliberately created every detail there is, as if he was drawing something or as if God is doing some embroidery work, arranging, organizing, placing things where he wants them to be.  We were not mass produced in an assembly line.  We were not haphazardly and hurriedly done.  There was a very serious effort of going into the details, handcrafting, individually designing so as to fit God's purpose.  That is how valuable we are according to the psalm.  This is the value of every human life.  We cannot kill.  We cannot even take our own lives.  Why?  Because each one of us is valuable to God who made us.  Each one of us was wonderfully created.  Each one of us was even more wonderfully saved by Jesus.  It is wrong to take away life whatever the reason except for self-defense.

Fr. Rene Robert was a priest in Florida in the United States.  He was murdered allegedly by Steven Murray.  He was in and out of prison, a repeat offender and the priest Fr. Robert was working to rehabilitate him.  Now Steven Murray would be charged for murder and would be sentenced a death penalty.  However things are getting complicated because the priest Fr. Robert has signed 21 years ago a Declaration of Life stating that, in the event of his murder, the killer should be allowed to live. This declaration was duly notarized.

Why did Fr. Robert asked for this in his will?  Because all his life he was opposed to death penalty.  A person who seriously reads the bible will become aware of how God created us, the greatness that we have, the dignity and value of each person, the value of every human life.  Hate may overcome us from time to time nga daw mamatay kita tawo, as we say, but in our hearts we know that it is wrong.

"What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him?" We may be from time to time unworthy and undeserving but just the same God loves each one of us.  Either we believe in this reality or we become monsters to each other.  The alternative is grim.