In his Raising of Lazarus, painted in 1890, Van Gogh replaced the figure of Christ at the tomb of Lazarus with Christ, the Sun of Justice. Christ fills the tomb and the world itself with his life-giving light.
The woman with outstretched arms and golden hair is bathed in the light. In the gospel account Martha, the sister of Lazarus, proclaims her belief in the words of Jesus. “I am the Resurrection and the life.”
Van Gogh was a man who experienced the suffering of mental illness. It seems he painted his own face as the face of Lazarus.
On Friday, we remember the mystery of the Passion of Jesus. He is the Sun that never sets. In evening prayer every day, especially on Fridays, the church professes belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus. “We believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.”
“Let us give thanks to the Father, for having made you worthy to share the lot of the saints in light.
He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us in the kingdom of his beloved Son.”
(Colossians 1:12 Evening Prayer, wk 4)
God our Father,
the contradiction of the cross proclaims your infinite wisdom. Help us to see that the glory of your Son is revealed in the suffering he freely accepted
Give us faith to claim as our only glory the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…(Friday evening)
September 3rd is the feast of St. Gregory the Great – greatest of the popes, many say. Gregory’s remembered, not on the day of his death, but on the day he became pope, September 3, 590, which probably was the day he thought himself condemned to death.
Years ago, I lived across the street from Gregory’s home on the Celian Hill in Rome. On my way to school, I would peek through the doors of the library of Pope Agapitus, a relative of Gregory’s, where archeologists were at work learning about what was once the largest Christian library in Rome. Barbarian tribes later plundered the place on one of their regular sweeps through the city.
Bad times. Gregory was called from his monastery, not just to be pope, but to lead a city under siege. He was never healthy and never had much support. Most of Rome’s leading families moved to safer parts; the imperial government relocated in Milan. The burden of the city and the church fell on him.
Called to a position he didn’t want, Gregory drew wisdom and strength from the scriptures, especially from figures like Job and Paul the Apostle. In his Commentary on Ezechiel, Gregory saw himself like Ezechiel appointed the city’s watchman, who had to go up to the heights and see what’s coming,
“I’m not doing this very well, ” Gregory says.
“I do not preach as well as I should nor does my life follow the principles I inadequately preach.
“I don’t deny my guilt, I get tired and negligent. Perhaps by recognizing my failure I’ll win pardon from a sympathetic judge. When I lived in the monastery I was able to keep my tongue from idle topics and give my mind almost continually to prayer, but since taking on my shoulders the burden of pastoral care, I can’t keep recollected, with my mind on so many things.
“I have to consider questions affecting churches and monasteries and often have to judge the lives and actions of others; I have to take part in certain civil affairs, then I have to worry about barbarians attacking and wolves menacing the flock in my care; I have a political duty to support those who uphold the law; I have to put up patiently with thieves and then I have to confront them, in all charity.
“My mind is torn by all the things I have to think about. Then I have to put my mind on preaching. How can I do justice to this sacred ministry?
“Because of who I am I have to associate with all kinds of people and sometimes I say too much. But if I don’t talk to them the weaker kind of people wont come near me, and then we wont have them when we need them. So I have to listen to a lot of aimless chatter.
“But I’m also weak myself and I can get drawn into gossiping and then find myself saying the same things I didn’t care to listen to before.
“Who am I — what kind of watchman am I? I’m not standing on the heights, I’m down in the depths of weakness. And yet the creator and redeemer of all can give me, unworthy as I am, the grace to see life as it really is and power to speak effectively of it. It’s for love of him that I do not spare myself in preaching him.”
You have to admire Gregory. However he felt, he’s the watchman caring for his city and his church. Weakness doesn’t prevent him from serving or being far-sighted. From the Celian Hill Gregory sent monks to England, then the ends of the world, to found the church there.
On his tomb in the Vatican is the simple inscription that describes him so well. “Servant of the servants of God.”
We shouldn’t limit Gregory’s teaching on service to popes, bishops and priests either. It applies to anyone who directs others, like parents, teachers, politicians, directors and mentors of all kinds. You can’t serve others well if you don’t know yourself and your own weakness.
I like the way psalms say it all. “Rejoice in the Lord, you just!” one psalm says. No need to make a prayer up on your own or think hard about saying something to God. Let the psalms help you. “Rejoice in the Lord, you just!”
“Let the earth rejoice in God, our king.” Why not join the earth praying? The “many isles are glad.” Be glad with them. The psalms call you to creation. They’re good prayers for the Season of Creation.
The psalms still our souls and draw them into the quiet grace of God’s presence. We think everything depends on us. No, it doesn’t. God “melts the mountains like wax” and “guards the lives of his faithful ones.” We think we have to know everything. No, we don’t. But God does.
The psalms draw us closer to God. They feed our minds and hearts, little by little. Their special grace is their simplicity as they tell us, for example, “rest in God as a child in a mother’s arms.”
Most of the psalms in our liturgy are songs of praise. “Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.” Other psalms cry for help. Cry to the Lord, they say. “I cry to the Lord that he may hear me.”
The psalms call to a simple, deep prayer. Keep your eye on them in the liturgy of the Mass, Use them in your daily prayer. They’re wonderful basic prayers for everyone.
“Although the whole of Scripture breathes God’s grace upon us, this is especially true of that delightful book, the book of the psalms.” (St. Ambrose)
Every day the church meets the morning praying the psalms; every evening we end the day with these great prayers. A good way to pray always, as Jesus asks us to do.
Van Gogh painted the sower over 30 times. The Sower with the Setting Sun, 1888, is one of those paintings. The sower sows even till night. He passes a dark tree that has been cut, yet it still has some living branches. Perhaps, like the sower, it has borne the burden of the day.
The setting sun, in darker yellow, seems to touch the sower on its course as he ends the work of the day. Like a halo it blesses him as he goes into the night.
This is the message of the church’s evening prayer. It promises that Jesus Christ, the Sun of Justice, will remain with us as we end the day. God’s promise of life is never withdrawn. It’s a promise made to us as individuals and a promise made to the world we live in.
Here is a prayer that ends the church’s evening prayer..
Father,yours is the morning and yours is the evening. Let the Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ,shine for ever in our heartsand draw us to that lightwhere you live in radiant glory.We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,God, for ever and ever. (Tuesday evening, wk 2)
I am reminded of a hymn we often sing at evening prayers, The Setting Sun.
This year’s Season of Creation concentrates on the theme “Living Water”, calling for us all to address the growing scarcity of fresh water and the inequality of access to it. Pope Leo asked for personal action by fixing leaks, taking shorter showers, turning off faucets not in use, and avoiding polluting drains and rivers.
UN agencies report around 2.1 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water, while 106 million rely exclusively on rivers, lakes, or other untreated surface water.
The pope offered this prayer and reflection available on the Vatican website.
Pope Leo asked for an “ecological conversion”today during a Mass for the Care of Creation” celebrated in the Vatican Gardens to begin the Season of Creation: September 1-October 4″ Here are some of his words:
” All creation speaks to us of the greatness of its Creator, if only our eyes and hearts remain open to such a great mystery.
Similarly, the Gospel passage from Matthew (cf. Mt 6:24–34) invites us to contemplate creation, while emphasizing the Lord’s special love for the human person. As we look upon the birds of the air and the lilies of the field with wonder — so precious in the eyes of their Creator — we come to understand the greatness of God’s love for us. If the Lord does not fail to bestow such splendid beauty upon plants and animals and provide for all their needs, how much more attentive will he be to the needs of his beloved sons and daughters!
Today, as we accept the invitation to pause and reflect before the works of God, we begin the “Season of Creation” — a period of five weeks devoted to prayer and commitment to the care of our “common home.” On this Day, therefore, and in the weeks ahead, let us set aside a few moments to pause from the frenzy of our daily lives, in order to savor the profound harmony of which we ourselves are a part. Let us place in “silent mode” the many noises generated by human activity, so that we may hear the melodious voice of creation, through which God, the Author of all things, speaks to us.
This task of contemplation, which disposes us to an encounter with the Lord, is a first step towards an “authentic ecological conversion, where the effects of our encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in our relationship with the world around us” (Message for the Eleventh World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, 1 September 2026).
From contemplating creation and encountering its Creator, there arises an awareness of our particular place within God’s wondrous plan, and of the responsibility that we bear both personally and collectively for preserving the original harmony. Thus, as we become conscious of our shortcomings and failures, we can renew our commitment to restoring the relationships among all creatures according to the will of their Creator.
For this reason, the Message for today’s World Day echoes “the prophetic call to ‘beat swords into ploughshares’ (Is 2:4)… to transform harm into life.” It is not yet too late, and the Season of Creation calls us to a profound conversion: “What has been used for destruction can be redirected toward life, toward the care of the poor, the nourishment of the hungry, and the safeguarding of creation” (ibid.).”
We begin the Season of Creation with Van Gogh’s Sower in the Morning Sun, which he painted in 1888. Inspired by Jesus’ parable, the artist pictures the sower sewing on rocky ground, having crossed the path where some seed has fallen. The birds of the air fly in to devour it.
Behind the sower is the good ground ripe for harvest, but the sower doesn’t see it. He’s intent on the rocky land before him.
The morning sun filling the sky with yellow light is the sun of creation, the everyday sun, beginning its journey from one end of the skies to the other. ( Psalm 19) Like a bridegroom, like an athlete, it’s on its course. “Nothing is hidden from its heat.”
The sun is also Jesus Christ. He is the Sun that never sets.
The church’s morning prayer often reminds us that Jesus Christ is the Sun that fills our day, though we may be hardly aware of his presence, like the sower in Van Gogh’s painting.
Let us give thanks to our Savior, who came into this world as God’s presence among us. –Christ, King of Glory, be our light and our joy. Lord Jesus, you are the rising Sun, the first-fruits of the future resurrection grant that we may not sit in the shadow of death but walk in the light of life. Christ, King of Glory, be our light and our joy. Show us your goodness, present in every creature, that we may contemplate your glory everywhere. Christ, King of Glory, be our light and our joy. Do not allow us to be overcome by evil today, but grant that we may overcome evil through the power of good. (Sunday, Morning Prayer)
In the Season of Creation we bond with creation and advocate for its needs. Let’s remind ourselves of its beauty this month and ask how to care for its needs.
Sunday, “the day of the sun”, is the most important day of our week. We need to rediscover its beauty and our “Sabbath Rest.” For these first days of September let’s look at the sun, source of earth’s life, through the eyes of the painter Van Gogh.
Water is another cornerstone of creation. It pervades creation and blesses us with new life in Baptism.
September 8th is the Feast of the Birth of Mary. Her name identified the plants and flowers that bring healing and joy to the human family. We will remember them in the days of September.
September 14th, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, is a day when “all the trees of the forest shout for joy.”
We’re reading Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians and the Gospel of Luke together these days at Mass. The two may be more closely connected than we suspect. Luke wrote some years later than Paul, but his audience like those in the church of Corinth.
Theophilus, to whom Luke dedicates his gospel, could easily be one of Corinth’s better-off Christians. He would see the lack of concern for the poor in his community that Jesus condemns in Luke’s gospel. That unconcern appeared at table, in the celebration of the Eucharist in the Corinthian church, and Paul condemns it. (1 Corinthians 11, 17-22) In Luke’s gospel, Jesus condemns that same unconcern for the poor as well.
Luke begins Jesus’ ministry in Galilee with his visit to Nazareth (Luke 4, 16-30) where he’s not recognized by his own. They know him too well and are ready to throw him to his death over the hill.
The Corinthians–how many we are unsure– fail to recognize the humble Savior whom Paul preaches. “I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2, 1-5)
In Luke’s gospel, Jesus is teacher and Lord bringing God’s word to the towns of Galilee. He brings God’s word to Corinth as well, but the Corinthians are attracted to various disciples of Jesus, causing “jealousy and rivalry among you…Whenever someone says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ and another,’I belong to Apollos,’ are you not merely men? What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one.”
God plants and waters the growth of his church; the disciples are disciples, only disciples, who must have “the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians, 3, 1-9)
Luke has a church like Corinth in mind when he writes his gospel. How about our church too, as we take sides. “I belong to…” Good to read these two readings together now in a church where so many take sides.
Following the publication of his letter, Laudato si’ in 2015, Pope Francis called for observing a Season of Creation from September I to October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Francis was joined in calling for the celebration by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch, Bartholomew. Later, the World Council of Churches joined in.
Pope Leo recently endorsed Laudato si’ and its call for environmental conversion::
“…given the evidence in various parts of the world, our earth is being ravaged. On all sides, injustice, violations of international law and the rights of peoples, grave inequalities and the greed that fuels them are spawning deforestation, pollution and the loss of biodiversity…
Environmental justice – implicitly proclaimed by the prophets – can no longer be regarded as an abstract concept or a distant goal. It is an urgent need that involves much more than simply protecting the environment. For it is a matter of justice – social, economic and human.
For believers it is also a duty born of faith, since the universe reflects the face of Jesus Christ, in whom all things were created and redeemed. In a world where the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters are the first to suffer the devastating effects of climate change, deforestation and pollution, care for creation becomes an expression of our faith and humanity.”
Now is the time to follow words with deeds.”
I hope to offer reflections on the Season of Creation each day this month.
