How big is your God?

Hi folks,

I may have told you all before about one of my favorite things to do while I was assigned as pastor of Emmanuel Church in Albany and Holy Cross Church in Burkesville. I would have a group of students from Holy Cross College in Worchester, Massachusetts come and spend their spring break doing service and outreach work with the poor in Clinton and Cumberland Counties. Most of these young adults were from the cities of the Northeast. So even being in rural Kentucky was quite a big change in what they were used to. I’d make it a point to take them out on one of the nights they were there to a place out in the middle of nowhere to look at the night sky. For some it was the first time they had seen the Big Dipper. For most it was the first time they had seen the Milky Way. For all it was a religious experience as they got a glimpse of the vastness of God’s creation and their humbling privilege to be a part of it.

Again I’m reminded of those students when I read the first line from this weekend’s first reading from Genesis. God makes a promise to Abram (soon to be Abraham). He asks our first patriarch to look up at the numbers of stars in the sky and try to count them. Then He promises him that his descendants will be that numerous. Abram then makes a covenant with God showing that our God will be his only God.

In the Gospel (from Luke 9) God shows Jesus’ favorite Apostles the completion of the covenant that He started with Abraham. Jesus is transfigured before James, John, and Peter. They get a sneak preview of God’s plan for Jesus and us. God shows the disciples Jesus in a glorified state talking with Moses and Elijah about His trial, death, and resurrection in Jerusalem. Then God identifies Jesus to the three followers as His Beloved Son with the instruction to “listen to Him.”

We are part of that same legacy and promise given to Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and the Apostles. St. Paul says that “our citizenship is in Heaven.” When we truly grasp the love that God has for us; when we catch a glimpse that the design of our lives is meant for so much more than what we can fathom; when we begin to see that we too are part of the compassionate and forgiving Body of Christ; then we too begin to live our lives only for God.

Peace and Blessings,
Fr. Chuck Walker