Provides For You

Gospel Reflection for Thursday, December 14, 2023

I chose today’s first reading for today’s reflection:

I am the LORD, your God,
who grasp your right hand;
It is I who say to you, "Fear not,
I will help you."
Fear not, O worm Jacob,
O maggot Israel;
I will help you, says the LORD;
your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
I will make of you a threshing sledge,
sharp, new, and double-edged,
To thresh the mountains and crush them,
to make the hills like chaff.
When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off
and the storm shall scatter them.
But you shall rejoice in the LORD,
and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain,
their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the LORD, will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open up rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the broad valleys;
I will turn the desert into a marshland,
and the dry ground into springs of water.
I will plant in the desert the cedar,
acacia, myrtle, and olive;
I will set in the wasteland the cypress,
together with the plane tree and the pine,
That all may see and know,
observe and understand,
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.

-Is 41:13-20

Sometimes, I stop to consider how God provides for the needs of all His creation. It is beautiful extremely complex, but also elegant and simple. As an outdoorsman, I am no stranger to the violence of nature. But, to stand atop a mountain peak and view the valleys below, to slog through a swamp at dawn or dusk or to stand before the ocean with the wind in my face and the gulls flying about… it is all such overwhelming majesty!

I think the swamps, or “marshlands” as today’s passage mentions are often overlooked by many. The vast swamps of the eastern Carolina’s were a nuisance to my ancestors (except, perhaps for General Francis Marion, my ancestor who was called the Swamp Fox in the AMerican Revolution). The land had to be drained for farming and produced disease carrying swarms of mosquitoes, chiggers and ticks. It was literally crawling with water moccasins and copperheads (poisonous snakes) and alligators. But, I know of no more abundant source of wild food. I believe it was the late Cajun chef, Paul Prudhomme who referred to such areas as, “the swamp grocery store.” While it is buggy and dangerous, and most every plant seems to be armed with spines and razored edges, while it is blazing hot in the summer and freeing cold in the winter, every square foot of a natural swamp likely holds multiple edible plants and critters.

About half of my childhood was spent in the coastal swamps of NC and SC, where my family began to settle in the 1600s. The area is especially known for duck and deer hunting and abundant fishing. But, I spent much of my time catching snapping turtles and gigging frogs. I learned to trap and eat snakes, catch crawfish, and run trot and jug lines. Everything was a feast for me, in true imitation of my partial French heritage - if it moves, we eat it! But, I also learned to forage for wild plants and mushrooms. Those swamps were my boyhood paradise…. the sunlight shimmering on ripples of black water, navigating cypress knees, Spanish moss hanging thickly on every limb, gators, wild hogs, huge blue herons.

While it is certainly true that every creature in those swamps… including myself, was both predator and prey, it is amazing how generously God provides for even the most despised man or beast. It is hard to describe the environment to folks who have never experienced it. The last time I was fishing down in the swamps, I stopped traffic to let a prehistoric and endangered alligator snapping turtle, the size of an old VW bug cross the road…. NC is home to the Venus fly trap, the pitcher plant and the jack-in-the-pulpit… even some of our plants are carnivores!

The shame of it is that we so rarely see all the blessings God truly lavishes on us.

The other thing I remember so clearly about living in eastern NC was the crime. For 13 years, my mother and I lived in a town of fewer than 20,000 people, that had a murder rate higher (per capita) than Chicago in the present day! It seemed everyone, was involved in drugs and trafficking stolen goods….. a dozen or so of the local cops were arrested by the FBI for working with the cartels in kidnapping, human trafficking, drugs and prostitution. I remember driving past small houses out in the countryside and thinking that they looked peaceful…. but wondering what hell was going on inside?

I adopted the saying, “People make their own trouble.”

God gives us such beauty and more than enough to provide for all. We screw it up. Whether a criminal, a politician, a parent, a kid or someone in a lab coat, we always screw it up. The other thing I always said as a child was that I would rather spend time with dogs than people. Dogs are honest and loyal. I’m not so much sure that our first parents were expelled from the Garden of Eden as perhaps they simply lost the ability to see the paradise around them. If we could but see all God has given us, we would see all of creation as a reflection of the beauty and generosity of God.

The Bible says that God provides rain for both the evil and the good. He grants His favor and loving care to all. That is hard to understand in the world today, with all of its violence and technological abominations. But, remember, people make their own trouble - it is not God who is to blame.

Now, I want to ask each of you one favor: Buy a kid a fishing pole for Christmas and take them fishing as soon as possible. If a firearm is more appropriate where you live, buy them a rifle or a shotgun and teach them to hunt. If gardening is more appropriate, buy them and teach them the things that will make them love the feel of soil in their hands. If none of that is possible, teach them to cook and tell them where food comes from. Had I not been given the gift of nature, I doubt I would have learned much about God at all. It is no coincidence that our Lord chose fishermen, not the educated or sophisticated, to be His ministers. Teach a kid to fish and tell him or her about God. Many a lesson was learned with a simple cane pole or even a hand line. The best things in life usually cost time and care, not money.

Judson Carroll is the author of several books, including his newest, A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass Readings January-June, 2024. It is Available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPD1DC7Q

and

Confirmation, an Autobiography of Faith. It is also Available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47Q1JNK

His new podcast is The Uncensored Catholic https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-uncensored-catholic