Feb. 8, 2011 Tuesday: Wonder of God's Creation
Click to hear audio homily
Taking my parents to movies is always a hit or miss. My mom does not understand English, and my dad cannot understand all the nuances of the English language; someone said that you really understand the language when you begin to laugh at jokes. I typically take them to movies that have lots of visuals but little plot and few dialogues. One movie that was a great hit with them was the "March of the Penguins". My parents didn't need to understand Morgan Freeman's narration. They saw it for themselves the beauty behind the penguin parents' love for their baby.
The female lays a single egg, and the co-operation of the parents is needed if the chick is to survive. After the female lays the egg, she transfers it to the feet of the waiting male with a minimal exposure to the elements, as the intense cold will kill the developing embryo. The male tends to the egg when the female returns to the sea, now even farther away, both in order to feed herself and to obtain extra food for feeding her chick when she returns. She has not eaten in two months and by the time she leaves the hatching area, she will have lost a third of her body weight.
For an additional two months, the males huddle together for warmth, and incubate their eggs. They endure temperatures approaching −62 °C (−80 °F), and their only source of water is snow that falls on the breeding ground. When the chicks hatch, the males have only a small meal to feed them, and if the female does not return, they must abandon their chick and return to the sea to feed themselves. By the time they return, they have lost half their weight and have not eaten for four months. The chicks are also at risk from predatory birds. (Wikipedia)
After the movie, my mom said, "Those penguins are better than some human parents." We listen to the Creation account of the Genesis with the same wonder:
God said,
“Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures,
and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky.”
And so it happened:
God created the great sea monsters
and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems,
and all kinds of winged birds.
God saw how good it was, and God blessed them, saying,
“Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas;
and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
Yet the more wondrous creation is what happens next:
Then God said:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air, and the cattle,
and over all the wild animals
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”
God created man in his image;
in the divine image he created him;
male and female he created them.
Sometimes we have to see the beauty of God's lesser creatures in order to recognize the greater beauty and amazement that God has placed in creating us. It is for this reason that we should praise our Heavenly Father as the Psalmist did:
"O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!"
Taking my parents to movies is always a hit or miss. My mom does not understand English, and my dad cannot understand all the nuances of the English language; someone said that you really understand the language when you begin to laugh at jokes. I typically take them to movies that have lots of visuals but little plot and few dialogues. One movie that was a great hit with them was the "March of the Penguins". My parents didn't need to understand Morgan Freeman's narration. They saw it for themselves the beauty behind the penguin parents' love for their baby.
The female lays a single egg, and the co-operation of the parents is needed if the chick is to survive. After the female lays the egg, she transfers it to the feet of the waiting male with a minimal exposure to the elements, as the intense cold will kill the developing embryo. The male tends to the egg when the female returns to the sea, now even farther away, both in order to feed herself and to obtain extra food for feeding her chick when she returns. She has not eaten in two months and by the time she leaves the hatching area, she will have lost a third of her body weight.
For an additional two months, the males huddle together for warmth, and incubate their eggs. They endure temperatures approaching −62 °C (−80 °F), and their only source of water is snow that falls on the breeding ground. When the chicks hatch, the males have only a small meal to feed them, and if the female does not return, they must abandon their chick and return to the sea to feed themselves. By the time they return, they have lost half their weight and have not eaten for four months. The chicks are also at risk from predatory birds. (Wikipedia)
After the movie, my mom said, "Those penguins are better than some human parents." We listen to the Creation account of the Genesis with the same wonder:
God said,
“Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures,
and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky.”
And so it happened:
God created the great sea monsters
and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems,
and all kinds of winged birds.
God saw how good it was, and God blessed them, saying,
“Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas;
and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
Yet the more wondrous creation is what happens next:
Then God said:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air, and the cattle,
and over all the wild animals
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”
God created man in his image;
in the divine image he created him;
male and female he created them.
Sometimes we have to see the beauty of God's lesser creatures in order to recognize the greater beauty and amazement that God has placed in creating us. It is for this reason that we should praise our Heavenly Father as the Psalmist did:
"O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!"
