Challenges of Spring
Spring is a glorious time of year in this part of our country and world. Daylight hours are longer, sunshine is more evident and gradually buds appear on trees and bushes. We can see beauty and life everywhere! Before long we will see delicate flowers and vibrant colors. This life may speak to us of the Creator who yearns to reveal over-flowing love to us.
In our search for discovering the Creator, a related question that surfaces is how would you describe or define the word grace? We speak of the grace of a ballet dancer or a dignitary who fulfills her office with grace. Theologians tell us that grace is simply God’s presence.
A renowned theologian, Karl Rahner, S. J., tells us that humans are gifted with a capacity for God from the beginning. God’s desire was always to be in relationship with creation and humanity, and thus God created us with the ability to receive that gift. We are gifted with the capacity to be in relationship with God! With the psalmist we can gratefully pray that we are “wonderfully made”.
Sometimes that capacity is camouflaged in ourselves and in others and then we are challenged to search for the good. Life is full of paradoxes. God’s overflowing goodness and love is at the heart of Christian revelation. God reveals God-self in creation, in events, and the persons in our lives. The journey of all people of good will is to become ever more attentive to the grace of the moment – the gift of God’s very self to us at this time in our lives.
Margaret Hoey