“There is a God and He is good, and his love, while free, has a self imposed cost: We must be good to one another.”

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word "darkness" on the walls of his cell. - C. S. LEWIS: (1898 – 1963: was a British novelist, poet, & academic)

Gospel Text: (MT 11:25-27)

At that time Jesus exclaimed:

“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,

for although you have hidden these things

from the wise and the learned

you have revealed them to the childlike.

Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father.

No one knows the Son except the Father,

and no one knows the Father except the Son

and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

If I cannot acknowledge my total dependence on God, I live in blindness. If I allow what I have learned and understand intellectually to hinder my “spiritual” eye, I remain in darkness—even partial blindness prevents me from seeing fully the truth in a given encounter. I love this quote I read recently, “Learn your theories as well as you can, but put them aside when you touch the miracle of a living soul” CG Jung. 

Imago Dei; the simple and profound truth of our creation, we are all made in the image and likeness of God. We are one body—united, and our ability to see this is a grace and blessing not only to ourselves but to every person—and creature we encounter. Love personified, the Imago Dei, hidden in plain sight.

We must vigilantly strip away all our prejudices; rout them out as soon as they are revealed to us. As Christians, our desire must be to embrace Jesus’ message of love and mercy even when it is NOT convenient—the message of the cross. “The cross demonstrates two profound realities; the depth of destruction caused by unloving behavior, and the even greater depth of God’s response. Jesus compassionately bestows his Father’s forgiveness on his unrepentant murderers…’Father forgive them’…” (Good Goats-Healing our image of God: Linn, Matthew, Sheila, Dennis. P.23)

As our Psalm for today from Mass suggests, “The Lord will not abandon his people” (94:14); we might ask the question,” have we abandoned the Lord?” Let us rise above the confusion, hate and anger to live in harmony with all of God’s creation. May we step back to see our hope, we are—each of us—the Imago Dei; may we strive to mirror that at every moment. This begins with me!