Today’s reflection is centered on today’s Responsorial Psalm: Blessed are the people that God has chosen to be his own. We notice that God is the one who chooses; it is God’s invitation. Who are those invited persons God has chosen? It is important to remember that in the creation story, God made human persons in God’s own image.

So who are these people? They are Christians, members of other religious traditions along with agnostics and atheists, women and men, saints and sinners, those who wage war and those who seek peace, those who ignore the poor, the refugee and the immigrant, and those who work for justice for those on the periphery, and those who actively seek to promote God’s Reign. All the men, women, and children on the face of the earth are created in God’s image.

In the United States and worldwide, negative sentiment continues to rise. It is manifested in how we relate to refugees, those who continue to need help from the government to survive, prisoners, members of the LGBTQ+ community, Native Americans, and people of color, and so on and so on. If we honestly saw each of these men and women as created in the image of God, our attitude would hopefully change.

When we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, we join with all creation in praising God through Jesus. This Jesus came from the Father to announce the Reign of God, which would return our relationship to the intimacy of God and God’s creation described in Genesis. In the liturgy, we pray that all of us will be one as we consume the Body and Blood of Christ together and follow Jesus’ aspiration. May you be one as the Father and I are one.

Let Us Pray:

God of all creation. All that you brought into existence was good, but throughout human history, we brought hatred, division, and harm to all that was good. Inspire me with abundant grace to bring peace, unity, and wholeness to my place and time. Feed us with the grace of the Eucharist to fulfill our mission. Amen.