psalm 145: DOM 5th week easter tuesday

You all have probably encountered the acronym DOM.  DO you know what it means?  Well some people take it to mean Domdoma Otong Mo.  Others take it to mean with something I cannot mention in the pulpit.  But the real meaning is Domino Optimo Maximo – it is a dedication with means "To the Best and Greatest Lord." It is a dedication we find most often in a lapida.  And so it can mean that this lapida with its epitaph is dedicated to the person buried, referred to as lord in small letter D, or this person buried is dedicated to the best and greatest Lord referring of course to God.  But what makes the Lord our God the best and the greatest? 

There are 150 psalms. The last 5 psalms are called the doxology psalms, psalms of praise to mark the end.  Psalm 145 therefore summarizes all the psalms – all of the 144 psalms - contained in the book of psalms.  And what is the summary – that the Lord is Dominus Optimus Maximus – the Lord is the best and the greatest Lord.  So, going back to the question, what makes the Lord our God the best and the greatest? 

He is the best and the greatest because he created the earth and all that is within it.  We had a wonderful topic for our recollection two months ago when Niki Perlas talked to us about the new trends in science.  He said that more and more science and more and more scientists are discovering God in their work.  Studying the earth and how it works and how it supports life, scientists are beginning to discover that our world, our earth and therefore our life, cannot just be a random work of nature.  The conditions for life on earth are so accurate that even just a fraction of a percentage lost there could not have been life on earth.  Somebody in his great wisdom has created and is sustaining the earth.  And this what the psalm is also telling us by calling God the best and the greatest Lord.  You are wonderfully created, you are wonderfully sustained.  So please put that always in mind, in how you look at yourself, in how you look at other people – your spouse, your children and especially your subordinates.  Put that also in mind in how we take care of our surroundings – the earth, the environment, how we use things and the resources of the earth.  Remember all are wonderfully made, all are wonderfully created, so take care of the world, take care of your life, take care of each other.

And yet St. Chrysologus says, that there is still something greater than the great and wonderful things that God has created.  And what is this?  Greater still, he siad, is God's mercy towards us by saving us through Jesus Christ.  God did wonderful things in creating and sustaining us, yes, but more wonderful, far greater is his mercy that saved us through Jesus Christ.

This is what we many times forget – the greatness of God is in his mercy, in his capacity to forgive, in his capacity to save.  God is the greatest not because he creates but because he saves.  God is greatest not because he is creator but because he is savior.  Aton ya lain no.  Kon indi sia nami patya a.  Sa Dios iya lain  - salbara sia – that is greatness!

Now what is that to us?  Kon kaisa ukon sa masami our relationship with God is a relationship between creature and creator, between sustained and sustainer.  Ang aton prayer permi lang pangayo sang kinahanglanon sa aton matag-adlaw nga tanan – food, job, health, money, problems.  We seldom relate to him as savior – as somebody who lifts me up from the mud, as somebody who lifts me up from the dirt that was my former life.  Lord tudloi man ako magmangin mapinasensiahan.  Lord buligi man ako nga mangin mapinatawaron.  Lord baylohi ining ako nga tagipusuon nga puno sang kaugot, puno sang kaakig.  Lord kuhaa sa akon ang kadalok.  Lord take away my lust, my impurity, take away my sinfulness especially my pride.  To relate to Jesus as savior rather than to relate merely to God as creator and sustainer.  Only then can we relate to God the way the psalm wants us to relate to God – a God who is a DOM – the best and the greatest Lord.