Thursday, 5th Week of Ordinary Time (II)

February 12,2004

by Rev. Herbert Nichols

Most of us have never been to the Holy Land, to the site where the magnificent Temple of Solomon once stood; now the location for the Dome of the Rock, a Moslem mosque; and perhaps most of us have never been to Lourdes, where the healing power of God through Mary intercession is evident. And certainly, most importantly, not one of us has been heaven, not yet.

An early American poet probably known well for her name, Emily Dickinson, really lived a very sheltered life composing some beautiful poetry like this one in which she wrote:

I never saw a moor. I never saw the sea.

Yet know I how the heather hooks and what a wave must be.

I never spoke with God, nor visited in heaven.

Yet certain am I of the spot as if the chart were given.

The point is that God is all around us wherever we are. Solomon, exultant about his temple, realized that it could not contain God nor limit him to a single place. God is everywhere in the work of his creation.

The woman in the gospel today, A Syro-Phoenician by birth, not a Jew, also realized this. She responded to a movement of the Spirit given to her by God and approached Jesus to ask that he drive a demon from her heart. Jesus granted her request "because of her faith," not because of her religious doctrine or code of ethics, but because her faith led her to relationship with Him.

As I said yesterday, God responds, not because we have a right, either by birth or by merit, but because of who we are in the fabric of Divine "I Am-ness." You may be a mender or a snarler, but God values you none the less.

What matters is that we are open to God. And in His way He will instill in us the proper sense of values; and we will find happiness and serenity in God living his will day by day.