Today's reflection from Tom McMahon might be seen at first as a giant promotion for National Geographic magazine. That was not the direct intention of Tom's reflection. It is really a giant promotion for the awesomeness of God's Creation! Enjoy!

The Wonders of Our World...

I am tempted to send off this November 28 commentary with just the above National Geographic pictures, letting the caption THIS PLACE IS AWESOME speak for itself. Us old timers might well remember the hymn HOLY GOD WE PRAISE THY NAME, especially sung at Benediction and the final confusing words AWFUL TRINITY. I realize today the word referred to was "Trinity" for which we were full of awe. Creation is an awesome gift. As I view the stars at night I stand in awe of my Creator.

My first liturgical ceremony was a Benediction in my home parish of Mission Dolores in 1953, a year before priestly ordination when I was still a deacon. My friends the four parish priests were delighted to have me do the service in a church at which I had once been a nine-year-old altar boy.

As I look back now I realize the confusing theologies that surrounded Mass and the Eucharist. I was ordained to be a mass/sacraments priest at a time when our seminary system had no idea of how to train a man to be a servant priest or to be aware of the Creator's awesome gifts. Unfortunately we priests got the awe from the innocent lay people and God/Creator was not too well understood. A look at the above pictures of corral reef beauty and lunar landscapes makes up for so much that our past lacked.

Let me again run Michael Morwood's great words that echo the minds of John Muir, Rousseau, Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, etc., etc., etc., ... what a privilege to be alive in this evolutionary era. This "God Presence" has long been alive, right before human eyes.

Morwood: "We are living through the greatest shift ever in Christian thought. New images of our universe and our planet, along with knowledge about the long, slow development of life on this planet provide us with a new context in which to understand the divine presence we call God always present and active everywhere. Reflection on the universality of this presence leads to further reflection on and renewed appreciation of Jesus as revealer of this mysterious presence in our everyday living and loving, rather than on Jesus as the mediator between us and a faraway deity. A Church always in need of renewal must engage, at all levels, this shift in images and thought if it is to have integrity and relevance in the twenty-first century."

I close with two questions.

• How come this awesome beautiful creation has gone unnoticed for so long? And:
• Why the struggle to hold onto the power institution of Rome which seems to be in contradiction to the splendor of creation?

I have ordered the National Geographic WONDERS OF THE WORLD, knowing well that such is a substitute for the marvels that daily surround me, I need go back for a silent walk in Cowell State Park.

[Yes, the ad at the top of this reflection is clickable to the benefit of National Geographic and without benefit to Catholica. We trust that might help satisfy any copyright issues in our use of the images from National Geographic as background for this commentary. The image used in the headline of camels crossing the Sahara desert is in National Geographic's collection of 50 Greatest photographs and is available as a free wallpaper download HERE. ...BMC, Editor]

To complete this reflection we return to a video Tom brought us in his commentary back on the 4th March this year where he asked: can you find the mysterious presence of the Creator in this music video?

Tom McMahon, in San Jose, Ca., in awe of you, me, and the whole of creation! I need set aside time to be at peace with myself and reflect on the awesome power of our Creator. 28Nov2011

[Index of Commentaries by Tom McMahon]