The goodness of creation clearly, simply flows out of the very goodness of God

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

A reflection on the daily readings, for the Memorial of St. Scholastica, virgin, by Father Perry.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

Creation and re-creation: Maybe that is one way of looking at and listening to the word of God today.

Now, as we enter the book of Genesis and the beginning of the Bible, we look also at the “beginning” of the earth as we know it, and the beginning of all things — that is, the genesis of all things.

We see God’s active and solo creation of all things, and his seeing of it as good. And this is also the first of two stories of creation within the first two chapters of the Bible; the goodness of God and the goodness of creation fills this first chapter. One could say that the goodness of creation clearly and simply flows out of the very goodness of God.

Our responsorial psalm follows these first days of creation, singing out —

“May the Lord be glad in his works.”

These two stories that we will hear answer many questions about God and us, and are an important set of reflections to begin our journey with God and to understand some of the mystery of us.

Then, we see into the mystery of the Holy One of God, the Christ. Barely one-third into the Gospel of Mark, we see the increasingly wonderful re-creating power of the Christ as he took the infirm and those whose lives became entangled with every kind of illness and disease and discomfort.

He re-created or healed them; he made them new again!

As the word says —

“They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.”

The sick were carried all over the countryside, as if they were in personal and family ambulances, so they could get well. The people stacked the sick (so to speak) in the marketplaces and begged Jesus to touch them or let them touch him. They believed (which was a very big part of the equation) that if they just, “might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.”

The story of the woman suffering for 12 years with hemorrhages (in Mark 5:25-34) who thought that if she just touched the tassel on his cloak — and then she did, and was healed; and she was told to tell no one, and she must have told everyone — might set the stage for today’s Alleluia passage.

In any case, they kept on coming, and he kept on healing. Clearly, the messiah’s moment was in full force!

Alleluia!