Detail from God the Father with SS. Sebastian, Vincent Ferrer and Roch with Donors GHIRLANDAIO c. 1493 The Beauty and Truth of the Catholic Church Vol. IV B. Herder, St. Louis, MO, 1816 Fr. Edward Jones With Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat, 1916 Sermon
I:
Who is then, my beloved, the One Who is above all these works and is their Creator? It is God. Yes, there is a living God, the Almighty Creator of Heaven and earth. Without Him the world is an unsolvable riddle, with Him the most eloquent speech; without Him it is a labyrinth, to which indeed thousands of ways lead, out of which, however, there is no exit. With God the world is a marvelous book that speaks in thousands of languages and tongues of the living God. And therefore today we will meditate upon the existence of God as exhibited in the language of creation: "For by the greatness of the beauty, and of the creature, the creator of theta may be seen, so as to be known thereby." We will not so much prove the existence of God, which would be superfluous, as show how all creatures praise the existence of God. To be obliged to prove the existence of God would be for those who demand it a clear evidence of their lack of intelligence and moral degradation, since every pulsation of the heart, every minute of life, every view of earth and the heavens speak loudly and eloquently of the existence of God. We will therefore at present meditate upon the language of creatures about the existence of their Creator, the living God. O Jesus, assist us with Thy grace! 1. The royal Prophet David exclaims: "Only the fool saith in his heart, there is no God!" [Ps. 13, 1] Only the fool who closes his eyes willfully against the illuminating light of truth can deny the existence of God and from the effects of his own degraded heart raise a doubt about this truth. But if he dares openly to deny the Creator before the creatures, he will be convinced of his falsehood by Heaven and earth. The existence of God is announced to us by the language of all creation and by individual creatures. They are the book which God has placed before mankind in order that each one may read out of it. Therefore St. Chrysostom asked why God did not from the beginning give to the world the Holy Scriptures, since they are so useful? He himself gives the answer: "Because God in fact wanted to instruct mankind through His creatures." If He had begun His instruction with books and signs they would have been useless for the unskillful. Because of the want of the knowledge of languages, the lack of ability, the desire of contradiction and misrepresentations of written truths, such instructions would have very soon become effaced. It is altogether different with the glorious view of the heavens. All the nations of the earth understand this language. This book lies open before the learned and the unlearned, before the poor and the rich. For this reason the royal Prophet exclaims: "The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of His hands. Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night showeth knowledge." [Ps. 18, 1, 2] He does not say: " The heavens witness, no, they show forth the glory of God." They are the eloquent preachers who have for their audience the whole of humanity. And mankind has as a book the glorious spectacle which the heavens offer them, and they hear their speech by day and by night, and night and day each shows forth a different view. And what is this speech, my beloved? "He has made us and not we ourselves." He who dwells above us, He has made us. Dwellers on the earth understand our language: not we, but He has made us! Yes, every day and every night adds a new syllable to the word that we see written in letters of flame on the heavens, and this word is: God. 2. Another open book is the earth, the earth with its giant mountains and its fruitful plains; with its seas and rivers; the boundless ocean with its rolling waves and its innumerable inhabitants; the atmosphere with its army of feathered beings, the mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdoms, all bespeak the praises of God. They all speak the same language, the same language of one all-powerful Cause as the Creator of so many marvels. But Who is this Cause? Are not these numberless works their own cause? No! Everything answers in the most eloquent language: "He has made us, not we ourselves." St. Augustine therefore beautifully says in his Monologue: "When I sought Thee, O God, I asked the earth if it were my God, and it said: No! The same answer everything gave me that is concealed in the earth and on the earth: the stones, the plants and the animals. I asked the fathomless ocean and its living creatures and they answered: 'We are not thy God; seek Him above us.' And I asked the air and it answered with all its inhabitants: I am not. But whence then are you all, you creatures on earth, in the air and in the firmament? And with a mighty voice they called back to me: 'He has made us; He, the Almighty God.' "-----Therefore, St. Francis Borgia, when he beheld the beauties of nature, exclaimed almost unwillingly: O do not speak so loud! Cry not so loud that there is a good God. I can scarcely bear your loud calling any more." Holy Scripture says: "But ask now the beasts and they shall teach thee: and the birds of the air and they shall tell thee. Speak to the earth and it shall answer thee: and the fishes of the sea shall tell, who is ignorant that the hand of the Lord hath made all these things?" [Job 12, 7, 9] But these voices of the creatures, my beloved, become a true song of praise of the goodness, the wisdom and the power of Him whom they proclaim, if we consider the marvelous in the whole creation. Look only at the insignificant blade of grass at your feet, how tender and fine is each little woven fiber; how artistically veined is the inner woof! What uniformity and perfect art is impressed upon each leaf, each blossom! Look again at the bodies of even the smallest animals, what a depth and a unity of form is observed! Every insignificant insect is a perfect work of art, whose entire make-up is most harmoniously formed. And it not only is born, no it lives in virtue of an art which we cannot imitate and not even understand. In virtue of a wisdom which we can only admire with amazement but which we cannot grasp, this little animal stands in immediate connection with the whole of nature, with all elements, even with the stars of heaven whose light is communicated to it. Now go upward from this insignificant little creature to the giant trees of the vegetable world and to the colossus of the animal world and see how all animate and inanimate creatures move within their own measured sphere; one supplements the other and they gradually become more and more perfect and better formed. Go now from these creatures to the immeasurable canopy of heaven and consider the sun and the numberless hosts of stars in their amazing greatness, in their glorious brilliancy, in their marvelous order and movement. Yes, they are all voices of the eternal wisdom, and goodness and power of God Who made all these things. Therefore the holy King David enthusiastically exclaims: "Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise ye Him O sun and moon: praise Him all ye stars and light: praise Him ye heavens of heavens and let all the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord: let all creatures praise the Lord, for He spoke and they were made, He commanded and they were created" [Ps. 148] The man of good will and clear intellect stands and listens to this universal voice and witness of all creatures to the existence of a living God and Creator. His spirit will be overpowered and his heart will exclaim: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth. 3. The whole of nature, my dearly beloved, is not the only witness to the existence of God, but man's own heart announces it to him. Faith in a Supreme Being is born in man, it is implanted in his heart. Within himself man feels drawn to God, an inclination which springs from the consciousness of his own helplessness, and he looks to God for help. For this reason all peoples have believed in the existence of God. They erred indeed about His being and His attributes, but they always acknowledged His existence. Begin with the cradle of the human race and follow it in all directions throughout the world, let no country, no race escape you, you will find this belief, and traces of altars to the honor of a Supreme Being. They may be represented under the picture of the sun, of the stars or of animals, but the fact remains that such representations are a witness for the existence of God and the powerful inclination in man to believe in God. The powerful passions of man were the cause that the original belief in a Supreme Being which the witness of creation and the voice of reason proclaimed to man, was perverted to idolatry, as St. Paul bears witness: "Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also and divinity: so that they are inexcusable. And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds and of four footed beasts and of creeping things" [Rom. 1, 19-23] And yet even then, when man was sunk in the mire of the most degrading sensuality and the most inexplicable stupidity and had in a certain measure become like unto the animals, even then this secret inclination to God urged him on; the name of God without his will even escaped him and he turned his looks towards Heaven. Therefore Tertullian in the second century addressed the pagans: "Should I prove to you the existence of God from the witness of the soul alone? Very well! Although you are sunk deep in this prison of the earth; although you are chained by a mass of prejudices, enervated by passions and desires, servants of false gods, the soul calls when it comes to itself, as awakening from drunkenness or sickness, upon the name of God, and calls to Him with the one name alone which belongs to Him: Great God! Good God! These words come into the mouth of every man. O testimony of the soul naturally Christian! And when therefore it speaks, it does not look to the Capitol-----the principal seat of the pagan gods-----but to Heaven, because it knows well that there is the seat of the living God, that it comes from there and from Him." [Apology, Ch. 18, 4] 4. This testimony of the soul will be especially augmented by the voice of conscience. This voice loudly proclaims the existence of a supremely holy and just God. It bears witness to a law which a higher hand has written in our hearts. This loud voice is not first planted in the heart of man by education; it is already there and speaks loudly in the child; it can indeed be awakened, but not implanted. It opposes the pet inclinations of man and contradicts him in the most unamiable manner in his secret wishes, a proof that man did not give it to himself but that it originated from a Higher Being, of which it gives testimony. It can indeed be silenced by the turmoil of the world, for a time go unheard in the delirium of sin, but it can never be entirely stifled and condemned to eternal silence. Suddenly it cries out again, and as the forerunner of a higher judgment it calls fearfully in the desert of the sinful heart. But not only does the entire creation, the universal acclaim of man, the witness of the soul and the voice of conscience preach the existence of the living God, but also the evil of the world, the thunder in the heavens, the lightning, the hail and snow, the winds and the storms, the floods and the earthquakes, wars, sickness, famine and want, they all call aloud that there is a God who can control them, who can help and save. For this reason even the heathen in his necessities stretches forth his hands to Heaven beseechingly to the Supreme Being, the infidel blasphemer, then pale and trembling with fear, often ridiculously calls upon that Being whom so long as all things went well with him, he presumptuously denied in spite of the voice of nature and of conscience; a strong proof of the existence of God is hereby proclaimed even by the evil of the world. Holy Scripture therefore says so strikingly: "Only the fool saith in his heart, there is no God." Yes indeed, those men are fools who, scarcely noticeable in this boundless universe, a toy of nature, destined to corruption and dishonored by shameless passions, but nevertheless full of themselves, raise their presumptuous heads and say: "There is no God," while the heavens show forth the praises of God and the earth is full of His glory. Not less foolish are those who proclaim nature to be God and consequently also the creatures themselves, and animals, and therefore like the earlier heathens, according to the words of St. Paul: "They have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds and of four footed beasts and of creeping things." Truly at the sight of such presumption joined with such poverty one is so amazed that he does not know whether to be more surprised at the excess of their audacity, or at the excess of their ridiculous stupidity, cloaked by a pretense of research and enlightenment. Here the words of Holy Scripture hold true: "They are corrupt, are become abominable in their ways;" [Ps. 13, 1] and St. Paul says: "Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed for ever." [Rom. 1, 24, 25] If, therefore, everything is only one voice proclaiming the existence of God, let us also, my beloved, be a voice to praise the existence of God, the goodness and power of God. And we are such voices if we give to Him, our Creator, due honor, by faith, by obedience and love; if we feel ourselves happy in His knowledge and consecrate to Him all our feelings, our hearts and our lives. For only in God, the Almighty Creator of Heaven and earth, do we find rest, and in Him only consolation and peace. Therefore, the soul urges and drives with such a mysterious inclination towards God; yes, she wants to return to Him again Who created her after His Own image. May you, therefore, follow this inclination which leads to a blessed end, to union with God! May you follow this inclination instead of the inclination to sin! What is sin but a practical denial of God as St. Paul writes: " They professed that they know God but in their works they deny him." [Tit. 1, 16] Sin is, therefore, an open protest against the truth that there is a God to Whom we owe obedience. But faith and love and obedience are an open profession that God is, from Whom we and all creatures have life and existence, and to Whom may honor be given by us and all creatures and praise and glory for all eternity. Amen. The forward button takes you to the next chapter of this presentation. HOME----------CHRIST THE KING-----------GALLERIES www.catholictradition.org/Easter/easter6a.htm |