Most of us think of Mondays (or
Sundays) as the beginning of the week.
The weekend is over and many are back to work, and routines of
life. It’s not very often that we sit quietly
and meditate on the beauty that is around us.
There’s a hymn we learned to sing many years ago entitled “For the Beauty
of the Earth”.
For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
For the joy of ear and eye,
for the heart and mind's delight,
for the mystic harmony,
linking sense to sound and sight;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
For the joy of human love,
brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth and friends above,
for all gentle thoughts and mild;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
For each perfect gift of Thine,
to our race so freely given,
graces human and divine,
flowers of earth and buds of heaven.
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
What strikes me in the words is
the amazing array of beautiful gifts God has given us. We have the beauty of nature that makes a new
picture every day. We have the beauty of
the human body God has made for us with ears, eyes, and a mouth to sing
grateful praise. We have the beauty, and
joy, of human love in family and friends.
Every gift of God is freely given, with graces human and divine. To these all, we can say “Lord of all, to
thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise”.
I have been on a mission this
Lenten season to meditate on something other than “giving up”. While I am giving up something, I’m also
trying to “put into” my life some other things.
Lent is the season to behold – as the hymn reminds us – mystic harmony.
In the 4th century, Gregory
of Nazisazen arose to become a brilliant Bishop who both expanded the faith of the
Church and brought orthodox language to the person and work of Jesus Christ. The heresy that threatened the church was
called “Arianism”. I won’t get into the
nature of the heresy, or his work in battling the heresy at this time. Instead, I want to share with you Gregory’s
words on God’s beauty and our responsibility to it:
From a sermon by Saint Gregory of
Nazianzen, bishop, “Let us show each other God’s generosity”.
Recognize to
whom you owe the fact that you exist, that you breathe, that you understand,
that you are wise, and, above all, that you know God and hope for the kingdom
of heaven and the vision of glory, now darkly as in a mirror but then with
greater fullness and purity. You have been made a son of God, co-heir with
Christ. Where did you get all this, and from whom?
Let me turn
to what is of less importance: the visible world around us. What benefactor has
enabled you to look out upon the beauty of the sky, the sun in its course, the
circle of the moon, the countless number of stars, with the harmony and order
that are theirs, like the music of a harp? Who has blessed you with rain, with
the art of husbandry, with different kinds of food, with the arts, with houses,
with laws, with states, with a life of humanity and culture, with friendship
and the easy familiarity of kinship?
Who has given
you dominion over animals, those that are tame and those that provide you with
food? Who has made you lord and master of everything on earth? In short, who
has endowed you with all that makes man superior to all other living creatures?
Is it not God
who asks you now in your turn to show yourself generous above all other
creatures and for the sake of all other creatures? Because we have received
from him so many wonderful gifts, will we not be ashamed to refuse him this one
thing only, our generosity? Though he is God and Lord he is not afraid to be
known as our Father. Shall we for our part repudiate those who are our kith and
kin?
Brethren and
friends, let us never allow ourselves to misuse what has been given us by God’s
gift. If we do, we shall hear Saint Peter say: Be ashamed of yourselves
for holding on to what belongs to someone else. Resolve to imitate God’s
justice, and no one will be poor. Let us not labor to heap up and hoard
riches while others remain in need. If we do, the prophet Amos will speak out
against us with sharp and threatening words: Come now, you that say: When
will the new moon be over, so that we may start selling? When will the sabbath
be over, so that we may start opening our treasures?
Let us put into practice the supreme and primary law of God. He sends down rain on just and sinful alike, and causes the sun to rise on all without distinction. To all earth’s creatures he has given the broad earth, the springs, the rivers and the forests. He has given the air to the birds, and the waters to those who live in the water. He has given abundantly to all the basic needs of life, not as a private possession, not restricted by law, not divided by boundaries, but as common to all, amply and in rich measure. His gifts are not deficient in any way, because he wanted to give equality of blessing to equality of worth, and to show the abundance of his generosity. (1)
Peace
1 - From the Divine Hours, “Office
of Readings”, at divineoffice.org
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