“Their sturdy backs bent down, by labor and fatigue, their eyes intent upon the earth, sift through stubble discarded by the reapers.”

—Sister Michaela O’Connor

Scripture Reflection for Sunday, August 7, 2022
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In this coming Sunday’s second reading, we are told that Abraham was promised that his descendants would outnumber the stars. To Abraham, the stars were lights on the other side of the dome of the heavens which shone through little holes in the dome, possibly the same holes the rain came through! Just recently the Webb telescope began sending images of the heavens which out-do even the grandeur of the Hubble photos. As many as the stars that the Webb telescope shows us, there are far more that we can’t see yet; and just as we can’t trace all of those who after so many generations are descended from Abraham, the number of stars and the number of descendants could be coming close! But that doesn’t really matter — what matters is getting some perspective on things. Abraham grew from an apparently dead end of legitimate issue to the father of multitudes. Our Universe has grown from millions of stars to billions of stars to untold multitudes of stars. We are really very small, and yet how much we each matter to one another! I noticed a hummingbird while walking between cottages today — one little hummingbird among the thousands? millions? billions? in the world? in the universe? Who knows? But in that chance encounter, we both mattered to each other. Life is pretty awesome! Think about it!