"The Lord's is the earth and its fulness, the world and all its peoples" - verse 1 of Psalm 24, the response to the psalm in today's Mass liturgy. It's a verse rich in meaning and suggestion, responding nicely to St Paul's message in the first reading. He reminds us who we are, belonging to Christ as Christ belongs to His Father. This is the context in which we live on this earth and make use of earthly things. Everything is at our disposal, but not in the sense that we can do whatever we like with God's creation - that's a modern corruption that's brought about many of the problems of our age, environmental degradation, wastage, selfish attitudes. Everything can lead us to God, but our human 'wisdom' about things (what's 'convenient', what suits me or my group and so on) is foolishness before God. There really is nothing for us to boast about in anything human, as if it was our own doing or our own choosing. Even the greatest minds and the wisest of leaders are a gift to us from God, just as everything we have comes from His loving hands.

Let this psalm remind us of who God really is, and invite us to kneel in awe and wonder before Him. May "the earth and its fulness, the world and all its peoples" strike us with awe before the Lord, like Peter was suddenly struck with awe at the 'impossible' huge catch of fish that fell at Jesus' feet, appreciating now who He really was.