1 Sam 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 / 1 Cor 15:45-49 / Luke 6:27-38
In the Bible, the book of Genesis described the story of creation.
God created the world and everything in it in six days. With each day of creation, the world was getting more and more beautiful.
Finally, on the 6th day, when God created man in His image, God saw that His creation was very good.
Indeed, all creation is very good as it reflects the beauty and the goodness of God.
But when man sinned against God, the image of man became disfigured and distorted.
And man's relationship with God and the rest of creation also became disfigured and distorted.
Though disfigured and distorted, mankind and creation still retained the beauty and the goodness of God.
When we look at nature, it shows us what life is about and also who we are.
For example, life is like a river that is long and winding. And so is life; life is also not a straight and clear journey.
Another image from nature is this: The branch that bears the most fruit bows the lowest. That reminds us of the need for humility in our time of prosperity.
So, nature and creation are reminders of who God is and who we are.
In the emphasis of the care for creation and the environment, it is also a reminder to care for each other.
It is a reminder of who we are and in whose image we are created.
In the gospel, Jesus, who is the True image of God, teaches us how to recover the beauty and the goodness of our humanity.
He teaches us the way of love, but it is the way of a hard and tough love.
Jesus teaches us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, and to pray for those who treat us badly.
That is a hard and a tough love. It goes against our disfigured and distorted tendencies.
But that way of love brings about healing and restores us to the beautiful image of God.
And nature also keeps showing us to go that way of love, if we want to be healed, if we want to be restored.
In the Chinese zodiac, this year is the “year of the snake”.
So let us see what the snake can show us. Imagine being bitten by a snake. Instead of focusing on healing from the bite, we go after the snake to find out why it bit us, and even to teach the snake a lesson so that it won't bite us again.
That may sound rather silly, but that is also how we react to those whom we don't like, or those who don't like us.
It is the way of confrontation and retaliation, but that is not the way of love, because there is no restoration, there is no reconciliation.
In the 1st reading, we hear of that moment when David had the opportunity to retaliate and to eliminate king Saul who was persecuting him.
But David held back and made this memorable statement: I will not raise my hand against the Lord's anointed.
To raise the hand, in this sense, is to harm someone.
Although David could retaliate and eliminate king Saul, he submitted to the authority of God, and respected those whom God has anointed and appointed.
We may not resort to raising our hands in violence and to harm those who dislike us or persecute us.
So, we will raise our voice in confrontation and retaliation. But it will be futile, fruitless and frustrating.
Instead of raising our voice, let us raise our minds and our hearts to God, and speak words of love.
Nature tells us that it is the rain that grows the flowers, not the thunder or the lightning.
May the flowers of God's love bloom in our lives, and bring us healing and restoration to God's image of love.