Word to the Wise
Saturday, March 1, 2025 - Saturday in the 7th Week in Ordinary Time
[Sir 17:1-15 and Mark 10:13-16]God, from the earth created man, and in his own image he made him. He makes man return to the earth again, and endows him with strength of his own. Limited days of life he gives him, with power over all things else on earth. [Sirach]
The French philosopher, Voltaire, once wrote that God made man in his own image and man has been trying to return the favor ever since! But that effort has only resulted in the abuse of the power that the human being has for good or bad. Note that the grant of power is tempered by the limits of age. Even the worst dictators, unlike God, do not live forever. Some clever wag once responded to some lines on a wall that said, "God is dead! (signed) Nietzsche" by writing under it: "Nietzsche is dead! (signed) God!"
The human being can unleash great powers in nature for good or bad. The climate crisis that one hears about every year now is largely of human making. New avenues of healing in diseases like cancer or other viral scourges are discovered in genetic research. But humans can be like the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" who tries to use his master's spellbook to make a broom do his duties only to discover he couldn't stop the broom!
We are not God. No idol can replace the God who created the heavens and earth and the human being. When, with the brain power we have been given, we make discoveries of great significance, we need to remember where the brain came from. That brain will not live forever, but it's Maker does. AMEN