Each week members at St. Andrews write Justice reflections on the Gospel for the week. This week was mine.
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain;
Matt 5:1a
It’s about perspective.
Instead of going up the mountain to look away from the world to see God more clearly, turn around, and view creation from God’s perspective.
We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. … I would like to live a long life. … But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land.
Martin Luther King, Jr on the day before his assassination
I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of . . . 100,000 miles, their outlook would be fundamentally changed.
Michael Collins of Gemini 10 and Apollo 11
Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994 on a picture of earth taken from Voyager 1, 6 billion miles away
It’s about perspective. Borders fade away. Race fades away. Politics fades away. We are confronted with an infinitely precious blue marble upon which everything we have ever or will ever know or be came forth.
What of justice from God’s perspective? How do we act out justice in a place so infinitesimal and yet so vast, knowing each moment that passes and yet able to taste eternity and not feel incredibly overwhelmed or incredibly petty.
We do so together and with perspective. No one of us can do it all, but each of us can act out our small part by considering God’s perspective with each penny, each moment and each lifetime. And once you’ve climbed the mountain, turn around to see what is there and what is yet to come, and savor the “why” of who God calls us to be, who we are and who we can be.
It’s about perspective.
Instead of going up the mountain to look away from the world to see God more clearly, turn around, and view creation from God’s perspective.
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