32nd Week in Ord. Time, Friday – 17th November 2023 – Wisdom 13,1-9; Lk 17,26-37
Being Cognizant
In the first reading, the author chides the readers to look beyond the beauty, power, and majesty of the created world. If people can admire the beauty, power, and awesomeness of creation, should they not look beyond and admire the Creator? The author mocks those who fail to find God’s presence in the world around them. Instead, they turn to idolatry and make gods of the things of nature. It is one thing to see God in everything and another to make anything god, an object of worship. If the things of the world around can dazzle us with their beauty, what must their Maker be like? However, the author is sympathetic to these kinds of people. They are in search of God, the ultimate source of meaning, but go astray by becoming dazzled by the beauty of what they see. On the other hand, they are blamed, because if they are clever enough to make study of the world in which they live, how come they have been so slow to find the Master, who is behind all these? He condemns them for proceeding so far in intellectual speculation and yet failed to come to an awareness of the God, who alone gives meaning to all they see.
This same argument has been used by St.Paul in his letter to the Romans and St.Thomas Aquinas in his writings. St. Paul criticizes those who, without the help of revelation, fail to find God in the world around them and create gods out of material things. St.Thomas describes ways to know about the existence of God from nature. In one of his explanations, he states that the order and design in the world imply One who orders and designs. As Teilhard de Chardin said, we live in a ‘divine milieu’, in a world where everything is touched by God. He is the very air we breathe. It is a gift and a great source of peace to be consciously aware of this as we go through our life every day.
