A reflection on the daily readings, for the Memorial of St. Paul Miki and companions, martyrs, by Father Perry.
+ “May the Lord be glad in his works,” sings Psalm 104 — and we sing along with it.
And then we get the beginning of the beginning of the Bible and of biblical creation. And we say “biblical creation” because it is a story of creation not exactly based in historic or scientific fact.
In fact, in the accounting of these first four days, already some historic confusion — if not outright error — is put before us.
Of course, we know for pretty darn sure that the earth was not the first thing created. Of course, the ancients could never think in or imagine an actual accounting of actual time over which creation took place.
Wikipedia notes that “in cosmology, the age of the universe is the amount of time since the Big Bang.”
The best measurement of the age of the universe is 13.8 billion years (specifically, 13.798 billion years).
In addition to that we have one of the first big scientific errors of the Bible that only got corrected by Galileo, quoting the Copernican declaration the the earth was not flat and that instead of the sun moving around the earth — quite to the contrary — it is the earth that moves around the sun.
Oops! Wow! Yikes!
Genesis is wrong! Well, at least as a scientific story.
As a literary biblical story it is simply trying to assert God’s creative energy and more specifically the goodness and the rightness of creation.
Actually, especially since we could not possibly have imagined billions of anything, let alone years, if they would have fallen to their knees in true adoration of the living God for seven days of creation (now debunked).
Certainly we must figuratively remain forever on our knees for this God who has been working continuing creativity and amazingness over billions of years.
How complex! How astounding! How creative! This is God in God’s great wowness!
+ In its own equally astounding wowness, we hear of the people who recognized Jesus’ arrival by boat at Gennesaret and immediately announced it to all of the surrounding country.
Countless peoples then brought their sick and needy family and friends for healing.
All they had to do was — and they begged Jesus for this — to touch only the tassel of Jesus’ cloak; and they “were healed.”
+ No wonder that Paul Miki, and his companions, and countless others throughout the ages, have believed in and loved and adored our mighty God and the gift of his Son, Jesus the Christ.
And no wonder that we find ourselves singing loudly and proudly the very words of Psalm 104: “May the Lord be glad in his works.”
Because we sure are!
Father Perry D. Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.
