If we use the short time we have in this Earthly life for the glory of God, for love of Him, we can have the privilege of pleasing Him.
As I stood near the door during the prayers of Thanksgiving in Mass this morning praying for my family – and yours – I turned my head just a little and saw a fabulous large bouquet of very unusual looking daisies with majestic long stems, forest-green foliage, maroon petals and bright lime green centres.
My goodness they looked beautiful!
There they stood in their vase, in front of the large picture of Saint Mary of the Cross Mackillop and as I said my prayers of thanksgiving and petition, the beauty of those flowers seemed to inspire in me a truth that I had never before acknowledged…
For God – WE are those flowers.
Flowers need to grow in their fields before we even see them arranged into their beautiful bouquets. While they are in their fields they are provided with rain and nutrient-rich soil and protection from pests, or they cannot grow.
There are fields of a sort for humans too – their mothers’ wombs. There they grow, before we even see them, and in some cases, even before we know they are there. Like the flowers of the fields, humans are provided with everything required so that they will grow strong and healthy enough to be born.
However, just as not all flowers survive, it is the same with humans. Many die before they are ever born – abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth…
Those humans – who we never see – are like the flowers that live and die in the fields. They are no less beautiful or important because we did not see them because God – who sees all – saw them.
Just as flowers can be harmed by pests and drought and flood and a million other dangers – humans can be harmed by sin. For through sin all that is bad can happen in this world and even more, through sin we can die eternally through eternal separation from God in Hell!
Flowers are plucked from the fields and sorted into bouquets to give pleasure to the beholder. They are literally cut from their roots as the cord that binds a mother to her child is severed.
Those flowers are placed into a vase of water to give pleasure to those who view them.
We, who are living this Earthly life are sitting in our vase now. Like those flowers in the Church today, the water in the vase becomes murky and the longevity of our lives inside the vase is affected by the impurities in the water, which for us are the impurities of sin.
It does not take long for the flowers to die once they are cut and prepared in their vase. It is the same with us. This Earthly life is brief!
And yet, while they bloom inside the vase, for the short time that they have, those flowers can give great pleasure. Their beauty in the eye of the beholder is wonderous.
So too, can we give pleasure and glory to God. Though our Earthly life is shortened through Original Sin, during the time that God has provided for us in our vase our bloom can GIVE HIM GLORY.
It is as Saint Padre Pio said – “We are dying little by little in our physical lives, and that is an ordinary law of providence. Similarly, we need to make our imperfections die day by day as well.”
So, the next time, I see a flower in a vase, perhaps I will think a little more on death and a little less on life – or of this life anyway.
Perhaps I will be able to reflect on the dying of this Earthly body and all its imperfections day by day so that one day – when the time is come for my wilted bloom to be returned to dust from whence it came – perhaps then, I will be able to experience a true miracle.
Perhaps I will be able to kneel at the gates of Heaven – just inside the door – with all the other faded blooms have no right to be there, and who are allowed in, not because they are worthy, but only because they wished to give a little pleasure for this short time to an Almighty God!
For with prayer everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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