NATURE PREPARES US FOR GOD


THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Eccl 5:1-10; Ps 1:1-4,6; Mk 9:41-50

The Harmony between God and Nature

We have harped that nature bears us like a mother and trains us to live in the House of God. Nature is our mother concerning our natural or material makeup, for as we have read and reflected on the creation accounts in Genesis, we are taken from the dust and shall return to the dust. The same holds for our intelligible makeup, for we are using nature here to refer to the wisdom with which God created and governs the material universe, which is the light he made first and separated from darkness; she bears us and home-trains us before she enrols us in the school of divine law, to whom she hands us over for our higher education. The basic education we receive from nature on generosity, meekness, courage, moderation, etc., is reinforced by the law of the Lord in our relationship with God. The words of Sirach confirm this graduation from nature to the Commandments. “Do not give your heart to your money, or say, ‘With this I am self-sufficient.’ Do not be led by your appetites and energy to follow the passions of your heart. And do not say, ‘I sinned, and what happened to me?’ for the Lord’s forbearance is long. Do not be so sure of forgiveness that you add sin to sin.” Just as nature bids its time before punishing our infringements, the same way the Lord suffers our sins a while before bringing us to account.

The graduation from nature to divine law should not surprise us, for we have understood nature or created wisdom to be the instantiation of the Eternal Wisdom in creation. Thus, when well tutored at home by nature, we easily graduate to religious observances of the Commandments of God. The deficiencies in our basic or home education become glaring when we graduate to religion and worship of God. The focus of divine Commandments is the deficiencies not taken care of by the basic training of nature or wisdom. Sirach, therefore, advises us to submit readily to God’s law to avoid the heavy discipline and toll he exacts on offenders of his law. “And do not say, ‘His compassion is great, he will forgive me my many sins’; for with him are both mercy and wrath, and his rage bears heavy on sinners. Do not delay your return to the Lord, do not put it off day after day; for suddenly the Lord’s wrath will blaze out, and at the time of vengeance you will be utterly destroyed.” We say that nature forgives but does not forget because whatever falsehood or error we sow by our misbehaviour propagates down the line and resurfaces after a while to haunt and punish us. The return is for our purification if we have repented, but punishment and eradication if we have not repented of our evil.

Subsequently, the general rule is that we reap what we sow. Hence, the Psalmist calls him happy who delights in the law of God and ponders it day and night to sow a good seed, the word of God, and not the bad seed of scorners of God. Our Lord teaches this understanding of our graduation in our education and the punishment of our evil deeds in the gospel. “But anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck. And if your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out.” When a soul postpones the acceptance of discipline from nature at the early stage, it deteriorates into disdain for the law of God, leading to the abandonment of God, our supreme Good. Only hell, the unquenchable fire, is suitable for such a soul. We are to accept the salting by natural trials and disciplines God uses to purify us for his eternal home.

Let us pray: Grant us, we pray, almighty God, your grace that we may docilely submit ourselves to the basic and home tutoring by your wisdom visible everywhere in creation and successfully graduate into the higher school of meditation and contemplation of your word that gives life and communion with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.   

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