Glory Be to God!

April is such a beautiful month. It’s easy to say with Gerard Manley Hopkins “Glory be to God for dappled things.” I rejoice in the variety of nature. In almost anything else I enjoy variety—food, recreation, work, anything. Our Church Year gives us a variety of saints and sinners in its list of saints from Saint George the Dragon-Killer (April 23) to Saint Mark the Gospel writer (April 25). Even within one gospel pericope or one day on the Church calendar we see great variety. In today’s First Reading we hear of Saul “breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord.” Just three paragraphs later we see Saul—now Paul—proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: “Yes, Jesus really is the Son of God!”

Like Paul we can all change. We can become new beings with the new life of Christ. What variety we find in ourselves throughout our lifetime. Glory be to God!