How do you connect to the people you love, including God? How can you improve this? - Daily Reflections January 9,2015

THAT YOU MAY KNOW

 

There was a time in my life when letter-writing actually happened. I am not referring to texting, chatting or private messaging. I refer to good old letter-writing on real stationery, with real stamps, real envelopes, and real postmen who delivered real letters.

       That you may know! There are many more data we know now, courtesy of Google, that gives us a whole line-up of possible answers even before you finish typing what you want to search for. Google knows much more than we can know in a lifetime, and Wikipedia’s data bank of knowledge continues to grow by the day, thus effectively shaming Britannica and Collier’s out of business.

       That you may know! The Book of Knowledge that we used to consult and keep practically untouched on bookshelves is no longer a book. Scribd and Kindle and e-pub documents can actually mimic real books, except that they aren’t books that you can sniff, smell and smother with highlighters.

       That you may know! People used to write letters not just to inform but to connect, to manifest closeness, and to share one’s deepest richness of personhood. Today, people don’t write letters; instead they post their rants and complaints or tell the world what they had for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

       I was taught long ago that the Bible is God’s love letter to humanity. It is not a source book of trivia but a life-blood of learning that goes beyond merely knowing. It is a running record of God’s marvelous intervention in the life of the world. The world means you and me and the rest of the human family put together. It does not talk to us about God. No, it gives us God at work — in history, in the lives of each and everyone of us.

       Small wonder then that John writes us a series of loving letters — full not of information, but of formation to a loving relationship with God. He speaks about divine intimacy and salvation. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: How do you connect to the people you love, including God? How can you improve this?

 

Thank You, dear God, for inspiring the prophets and evangelists to preserve Your teachings in writing. Thank You because, through the Bible, we know how much You love us.