Word to the Wise
Friday, November 13, 2009 - St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
[Wisdom 13:1-9 and Luke 17:26-37]For if they so far succeeded in knowledge that they could speculate about the world, how did they not more quickly find its Lord? [Wisdom]
There are several places in the United States that are great favorites of mine because the natural beauty of those places communicates God's Wisdom to me. I find that I am more able to feel "in touch" with God in those places than in others. This is not unusual, since the same thing has been noted for centuries. One of the Psalms cries out: "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork!" (Ps. 19). Retreat houses try to locate in places of natural beauty in order to facilitate a prayerful environment! For some folks, a scene of natural beauty means little. The Grand Canyon becomes just a big hole in the ground. Others see the Grand Canyon or any environmental beauty as simply a business opportunity - a resource to be exploited. Or if they do think that "hole" is magnificent, they praise the power of water to wear things down. There is nothing "beautiful" or "transcendent" in what they see. Others see such places as truly beautiful and may work hard to preserve these places in parks but still see nothing more than "natural beauty" and go no further. They see no reason to think about the creator who is the source of all of this and who is the one who makes it possible for humans to even think of "beauty!" Others make a religion of natural beauty and worship it (pantheism) or worship the God they believe is inside it (panentheism). The Book of Wisdom today simply makes it clear to us that we should indeed see the power of the Creator in what has been created so that we can worship the Creator and not the creation - no matter how beautiful that creation may seem to us. God is the measure of all beauty. AMEN