Where do you or I fit into the grand scheme of things? Today’s solemnity can help us understand. To understand our place in the big picture, I ask you temporarily to suspend your concerns about your own situation and come with me on a tour of human history. Then we’ll get to you and me.
God created the universe with the Big Bang about 13 or 14 billion years ago. (So, you can see we are looking at the very big picture.) Did God have you and me in mind back then? Our faith tells us, yes! We all know that it took eons for the universe to expand, create stars from star dust, and eventually create planets like ours.
Our planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and a mere 200,000 years ago, science tells us, there lived in
And still God had you and me in mind.
Not until 4,000 years ago did God raise up Abraham and give him a call to be the father of a chosen people, the Jews. He also became the father of another people, the Arabs. God started giving promises to Abraham that included this: that through the chosen people the entire human race would be blessed. And another promise was that this blessing upon the entire human race would come from the land God promised Abraham that his descendants would have as their own promised land, the
And still God had you and me in mind.
500 years later, that is, in 1500 BC, God raised up Moses to lead the chosen people out of slavery to take hold of their promised land. Part of the blessing that would come from the chosen people was a moral code that God gave to the chosen people through the great lawgiver, Moses. This law, or Torah, would give the world its first clear delineation of what was wrong and what was good.
And still God had you and me in mind.
500 years later, that is, in 1000 BC, God raised up a king for the chosen people and also promised David that one of his descendants would be both his descendant and his Lord.
One thousand years later God became man and that man, the Son of David and the Son of God, Jesus, would usher in the Kingdom of God with a new reign of righteousness, forgiveness, peace, redemption, justice and yet an entirely new promise: eternal life for those who believe in Him.
Today’s solemnity of the Epiphany of our Lord shows that Jesus did not come to be savior only of the chosen people, but all the people of the world. He revealed that the way to enter into this Kingdom of justice, peace and love was by way of faith in Him. And with the arrival of the magi, who were Gentiles, that is, not members of the chosen people, God in Christ opened up the promise of the
And still God had you and me in mind.
His Church was born and the outreach to all of humanity was begun. And so spread the Gospel to all the lands of the earth. How? By members of the Church understanding their part in the big scheme of things: each doing his or her own part in spreading the Good News of salvation that can be had in Christ. We are no longer a mere speck of life form on a mere speck of a planet revolving around a mere speck of a star in a far-flung corner of one of but billions upon billions of galaxies. No, we are adopted sons and daughters of this awesome God who has done all of this; and each of us has a vocation to make known the plan of God by the quality of our membership in the Body of Christ, the Church.
And so, yes, God had you and me in mind in the vast scheme of His plan from the beginning of time until now. Let us ask God to give us the grace to measure up to this most noble calling.
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