The first reading for mass on November 15, the one assigned for the Friday of the 32nd Week, is extremely appropriate for the day's feast, Saint Albert the Great. It reads in part:
All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works he did did not discern the artisan (Wis. 13:1).
Saints have always been good at the business of seeing God in the works of creation. There is a large painting in one of our guest parlors depicting monks working with beakers, telescopes and protractors, "seeking God" by deepening their knowledge of God through understanding better the mysteries of the physical world.
Albertus Magnus was born in 1206, in a period when the Churchmen and saints were still the leading lights in the natural sciences. It would be a few hundred years before the terrible split would set in, when certain European scientists would decide that since we can't prove the existence of God through scientific means, it's nonsense to say that God exists. Unfortunately, for a lot of reasons, the Church didn't push back against this belief, but instead withdrew from the natural sciences, leaving it to the rationalists and atheists, saying, "Okay, you guys can have all the physical sciences, and we'll go live upstairs where we'll talk to each other about God."
But, in the 1200's when Albert was born, God was still very much part of the scientists' world.
Albert was interested in everything. He was fascinated by the relationship between faith and science, and studied astronomy and biology, and loved logic and math. He pored over maps and hiked in the mountains to learn more about geography. As a young Dominican he must have challenged his teachers to prepare lessons that satisfied his need to learn.
The oration at mass on his feast day reads:
There's a legend about St. Francis of Assisi, who was born 25 years before Albert, that says that one cold winter's day Francis stopped in front of a bare, dormant fig tree and said "Sister fig tree, speak to me of God." And at that moment, the tree burst into lovely pink blossoms.
We live in an era when the physical sciences are making miraculous discoveries every day, with no reference to God, who is still locked upstairs, out of sight and completely irrelevant to the "real world" downstairs.
So, it's particularly important for each of us to develop the gift that the saints had: the ability to see God's presence in creation all around us. Maybe, like Francis, we can see the Lord in the beautiful colors of a sunset, or, as Albert the Great surely would, see the Lord in the deep workings of atoms and neurons and DNA.
Let's pray, then, that through the intercession of Albert and Francis and all the saints, we too may learn to see God's presence in the wonders that are all around us, so that all of creation can "speak to us of God."
All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works he did did not discern the artisan (Wis. 13:1).
Saints have always been good at the business of seeing God in the works of creation. There is a large painting in one of our guest parlors depicting monks working with beakers, telescopes and protractors, "seeking God" by deepening their knowledge of God through understanding better the mysteries of the physical world.
Albertus Magnus was born in 1206, in a period when the Churchmen and saints were still the leading lights in the natural sciences. It would be a few hundred years before the terrible split would set in, when certain European scientists would decide that since we can't prove the existence of God through scientific means, it's nonsense to say that God exists. Unfortunately, for a lot of reasons, the Church didn't push back against this belief, but instead withdrew from the natural sciences, leaving it to the rationalists and atheists, saying, "Okay, you guys can have all the physical sciences, and we'll go live upstairs where we'll talk to each other about God."But, in the 1200's when Albert was born, God was still very much part of the scientists' world.
Albert was interested in everything. He was fascinated by the relationship between faith and science, and studied astronomy and biology, and loved logic and math. He pored over maps and hiked in the mountains to learn more about geography. As a young Dominican he must have challenged his teachers to prepare lessons that satisfied his need to learn.
The oration at mass on his feast day reads:
O God, who made the bishop St. Albert great by his joining of human wisdom to divine faith, grant, we pray, that we may so adhere to the truths he taught, that through progress in human learning we may come to a deeper knowledge and love of you..."
We live in an era when the physical sciences are making miraculous discoveries every day, with no reference to God, who is still locked upstairs, out of sight and completely irrelevant to the "real world" downstairs.
So, it's particularly important for each of us to develop the gift that the saints had: the ability to see God's presence in creation all around us. Maybe, like Francis, we can see the Lord in the beautiful colors of a sunset, or, as Albert the Great surely would, see the Lord in the deep workings of atoms and neurons and DNA.
Let's pray, then, that through the intercession of Albert and Francis and all the saints, we too may learn to see God's presence in the wonders that are all around us, so that all of creation can "speak to us of God."
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| "The heavens declare the glory of God" Psalm 19:1 |
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