STANDING IN AWE:

It seems to me that there is only one focus that encapsulates the experience and the mood of everyone this week and that is the wonder of the almost total eclipse of the sun which took place on Wednesday evening. Fr Joe Musendami took some wonderful photographs and videos on his phone, which are even more dramatic because of the partial cloud cover we had here in Liverpool. I must say I was moved by the remarkable media coverage and the excitement and wonder expressed by all those who were interviewed. Sometimes the last gift of the Holy Spirit is referred to as the “fear of the Lord”, but “wonder and awe” express much more accurately the nature of the gift and it seems to me that this week’s event provided a much-needed reminder of the enormity and mystery of the universe and the remarkable giftedness of human beings. Yet while in every generation we learn more and more about ourselves and the world in which we live as well as the entire universe, we also realise that there is so much that we do not know and cannot explain. I am amazed that astrologers can predict to the last second where and when eclipses will take place as well as look back and tell us when they have taken place in the past. Indeed, we even have a dramatic reference to an eclipse in the Scriptures and Archbishop Patrick Kelly, whom Fr Joseph, Bishop Ralph and I visited the day afterwards pointed us to Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 24, verse 29. It speaks to us of the Second Coming of the Lord and Fr Nicholas King, translating from the Greek, puts it this way: “The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” When we look at a moon and starlight night again, may we renew our sense of awe and wonder and beg the Lord to help us and the whole of humanity to look after one another and his amazing creation a little better than we seem to be doing at the moment.