Friday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

Let there be clover.

For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the Body, the Church.

Recently some critics complain about the anthropocentric bent of western religions and philosophy. It seems that our thinking is entirely too much about ourselves. (Anthropocentric means “man-centered.”) At one time we thought our earth was the center of the universe, but Copernicus disproved that. Then we thought the sun was the center of the universe; later the Milky Way was its center. But the cosmos kept expanding and astrophysicists now say there is no center, or that every point is its center. Some will speculate that even our universe is only one of an indefinite number existing in many different dimensions. When there is no center, we’re not the center of anything!

Looking at the earth, these critics suppose the human race might be more blight than blessing. Aren’t we causing massive climate change with our infernal combustion engines? How many species have we wiped out, beginning with the saber-tooth tigers and mammoths of North America? Didn’t the earth do just fine without us for billions of years? And look at the suffering we impose upon animals, even those we choose for pets! The human creature is just one of many millions of experiments nature has tried; and, in the long run, it will be discarded along with the trilobites and dinosaurs.

Arriving at that conclusion they blame our Christian faith for supposing that a man – Jesus Christ – could be at the heart of all creation; or, as Saint Paul said it, For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth….

That the entire universe was created ex nihilo for the sake of one Galilean is, we have to admit, an outrageous claim especially as we gaze upon the night sky and consider its vastness. We may have to pause and ask, “Why are we here and why did Jesus save us?”

I believe the answer lies in the mystery of God. Critics who deny God’s purposes and denounce our Christocentric belief are left with fewer than no answers to such questions. Their nihilism (the belief in nothing) may satisfy the cynic but does nothing for those with a sense of values.

But in many ways the question answers itself: we’re here to ask questions. And we’re here to be awed by beauty. No other creature has capacities for wonder and awe. Some clever animals make tools; some solve problems; but only homo sapiens senses transcendence in the imminence of beauty. First we sense it in the world around us; then we notice our own wonderful ability to see, hear, smell, touch and taste. Unlike other creatures we see more than just the things we need; we hunt for soul food and heart nutrition. Finally we realize how bereft we are when beauty disappears.

The Father has created us through Jesus Christ to see and experience the universe as an expression of God's rapturous joy. Without human beings upon the earth, and Jesus among us, the universe would be without form, and void.