23rd Sunday in Ordinary time, 4/9/2022 Lk 14, 25-33
September invites us to focus on creation and be challenged as to how we are helping it heal itself. One of the ironies of the recent huge rise in prices and in particular the cost of utilities rising over 300% is that we will all be forced to cut down on our usage of utilities and be more careful how we use them. Is God once again bringing good out of the effects of the evil that comes from the war in Ukraine?
Yet, we still have a choice! We can reluctantly cut back on the usage of utilities and find someone to blame for it or we can seize it as an opportunity to show our love for creation and our desire to provide it with the opportunity to heal itself. The recent rain showers, small compared to the water we need, have allowed the grass to turn from a dusty, dishevelled, yellowy, brown to a vibrant green in a short space of time. Just think what our reduction in the use of utilities, including car travel, will be able to do for creation!
However, there is another important invitation in this month of creation and that is to spend time pondering and opening ourselves to the beauty and wonder of the presence of God that it offers us. A vison that is both awe inspiring and breath taking. Creation is the other bible through which God speaks of his wisdom and his love for us and for all creation.
O wise Creator,
We are grateful that from your communion of love you created our planet to be a home for all. By your Holy Wisdom you made the Earth to bring forth a diversity of living beings that filled the soil, water and air. Each part of creation praises you in its being, and cares for one another from its place in the web of life.
But we know that our will to power pushes the planet beyond her limits. Our consumption is out of harmony and rhythm with Earth’s capacity to heal herself. Habitats are left barren or lost. Species are lost and systems fail. Where reefs and burrows, mountaintops and ocean deeps once teemed with life and relationships, wet and dry deserts lie empty, as if uncreated. Human families are displaced by insecurity and conflict, migrating in search of peace. Animals flee fires, deforestation and famine, wandering in search of a new place to find a home to lay their young and live.
In this Season of Creation, we pray that the breath of your creative Word would move our hearts, as in the waters of our birth and baptism. Give us faith to follow Christ to our just place in the beloved community. Enlighten us with the grace to respond to your covenant and call to care for our common home. In our tilling and keeping, gladden our hearts to know that we participate with your Holy Spirit to renew the face of your Earth, and safeguard a home for all.
by Fr Thomas O'BRIEN aa