Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Recently I’ve been reading a book about all the discoveries that are being made in astrophysics, thanks to a small constellation of various types of telescopes up in orbit. I am constantly amazed at the vast scale of the universe and how incredibly ordered it is. This side reading has brought new meaning to psalms of praise like the one we have today: “When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers…what is man that you should be mindful of him?” Considering that humanity’s best guess is that God initiated the creation of this universe a little over 13,000,000,000 years ago, and that humanity in its present form was created around 100,000 years ago, that the story of Abraham is set about 5,000 years ago, God’s interest in you and I at this moment in time is truly something special. There is a lot of beauty in this huge Universe. So much time has passed. It is far bigger than the psalmist ever knew, and he was already amazed that God cares about us at all. Yet we learn from the Spirit that we tiny little humans are indeed the great treasure of creation. God longs to be in relationship and communion with you and me and all of us as the people of God.
With praise and humility in our hearts, let us ponder today what this says about God. Our Lord creates. From nothing, God brings a universe, light, a planet, and life. This is a generative, fertile, creative love. It is a defining characteristic of the Holy Spirit. God makes more goodness. Praise the Lord, who heaps goodness upon goodness!
In this amazing amount of goodness that our Lord creates, with beauty and order on a truly amazing scale, we are different. How are we different? Pulsars and planetary nebulae are huge and beautiful, but they are not conscious. They cannot know God as we can. They cannot feel or think. God wants to be known in relationship. When we look at creation, we are able to contemplate its beauty. This is a great gift from God. There is no evolutionary advantage to being aware of sunsets, stars, and nature as beautiful. It is simply God’s generosity and love hardwired into our being. Praise the Lord, who has created us with minds to know and hearts to love. May our awareness of who God is help us to know our true place in the universe, and in the creator’s heart.
-Chris Nieport