• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

The Passionists of Holy Cross Province

The Love that Compels

  • Online Masses
    • Passionist Online Masses and Services
  • 300th Jubilee
    • Opening Mass of the Passionist Jubilee Year
    • Video: 300th Jubilee – English
    • Video: Jubileo Pasionista – Español
    • Jubilee Icon Itinerary
    • Jubilee Resources
    • Jubilee Song
  • Pray
    • Lent 2021
    • Daily Reflections
    • Prayer Request
    • Sunday Homily
    • Passionist Spirituality and Prayer
    • Stations of the Cross
    • Prayer and Seasonal Cards
  • Grow
    • Journey into the Mystery of Christ Crucified
    • Celebrating the Feast of St. Paul of the Cross
    • Subscribe to E-News
    • Passionist Magazine
      • Passionist Magazine, Spring 2020
    • Passionist Ministries
      • Preaching
      • Hispanic Ministry
      • Haiti
      • Parish Life
      • Earth and Spirit Center
      • Education
      • Fr. Cedric Pisegna, CP, Live with Passion!
    • Retreat Centers
    • Passionist Solidarity Network
    • Vision Fulfillment Newsletters
    • Sacred Heart Monastery
      • History of Sacred Heart Monastery
      • A Day in the Life of Senior Passionists
      • “Pillars” of the Community
  • Join
    • Nicholas Divine, CP, Ordination to the Diaconate
    • Are You Being Called?
    • Discerning Your Call
    • Pray With Us
    • Passionist Vocation Directors
    • Lay Partnerships
  • Connect
    • Find a Passionist
    • Passionist Websites
    • Fr. Cedric Pisegna, CP, Live with Passion!
    • Passionist Alumni Association
      • Reunions
      • 2019 Passionist Alumni Reunion
      • Welcome
      • Letter from the Provincial
        • These Men We Call Our Brothers
      • Mission Statement
      • CrossRoads Bulletin
      • Alumni Enrollment Form
        • Alumni Survey
      • Reunion Photo Gallery
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Monthly Giving
    • Leave a Legacy
      • Giving Matters
      • Ways to Give
      • Donor Relations
      • Testimonials
    • Prayer and Seasonal Cards
    • Privacy Policy Statement
  • Learn
    • Our Founder
    • History
    • The Letters of St. Paul of the Cross
    • The Diary of St. Paul of the Cross
    • Mission and Charism
    • Saints and Blesseds
    • FAQs
    • Find a Passionist
    • STUDIES IN PASSIONIST HISTORY AND SPIRITUALITY
  • Safe Environments

Daily Scripture, February 9, 2021

Scripture:

Genesis 1:20-2:4a
Mark 7:1-13

Reflection:

Imagination and Creation

With a beautiful imagination the author of Genesis shows us God creating. The author of Psalm 139 puts words of praise on our lips as we express our feelings to God as we see ourselves, ‘I thank you that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works.’ Another poet takes a deep breath and challenges us, saying, ‘God scatters beauty before us like a gambler who throws dice, only we do not see, we do not see.’ So beautiful all of it.

Imaginations work before our understanding, they are fed by the world that surrounds us. A glance can tell us what we like or don’t like. In the pronounced divisions that are becoming part of our lives today, it seems we are not very successful at building bridges. It is awful to think of living as if we were on the Western Front during WW I, unable to move forward in a lifeless, unfriendly world. We need new visions that are created and nourished by our imaginations.

A good example, appropriate during this Black History month, are the works of the author James Baldwin. He reverently opens the lives of our black brothers and sisters, revealing holiness, struggle and love. Our imaginations become portals into a beautiful world kept closed by racial prejudice. Or on your computer visit the Museum of Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. You will enter a new world as you are surrounded by an environment meant to affect our imaginations. These examples of imaginations drawing from what is read or seen to create new visions, are at the same time de-creating of other visions that divide and do not move us to praise and wonder.

The sacredness of imagination is present when our children turn the kitchen into a wing of an art museum, showing their artwork on the refrigerator door. How symbolic is that, displayed on the place we go to for nourishment? The little ones labor with the crayons, paint or pencils until they know it is just right, it is done. It is good. Can we see something of God looking at the finished work of creation and saying, ‘so good.’

All creation is sacred. I stood on a corner with a few people waiting to cross a New York avenue. As the traffic went by a friendly sized rat made a dash across the street. There were oohs and ohs as it dogged and darted and disappeared under the opposite curb. We laughed, we checked to see if we were part of a Disney movie, we were happy it made it to safety to live its life. Creation is good, good even for those alive on the lower rungs of life’s ladder.

Today in the gospel Jesus challenges the vision of the Pharisees. Their vision is not the vision of God’s love revealed to Israel. What is the vision of the Pharisees or anyone whose imagination does not value loved ones perhaps humbled by the burden their years? Does that vision merit praise, or give the feeling of, ‘it is good’?

The imagination that allows us to create our visions is a gift of the Creator. Does the great mystery of creation flows from God’s imagination? This gift of imagination is greater than we can imagine! Praise and wonder lead us to it.

Fr. William Murphy, CP is the pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Jamaica, New York.

Footer

Facebook Feed

Support the Passionists

Contact the Passionists

The Passionists of Holy Cross Province
660 Busse Highway | Park Ridge, IL 60068
Tel: 847.518.8844 | Toll-free: 800.295.9048 | Fax: 847.518.0461
Safe Environments | Board Member Portal | Copyright © 2021 | Log in