Human beings have accumulated vast knowledge in the humanities, languages, social sciences, natural sciences, and various other fields. When humans become puffed-up by all that knowledge, we make the mistake of thinking that we can know the world by reason alone. The truth is that faith, not reason, is the only way that we can know some things about the world. We may have the ability to know the entire world, but we must rely on the Divine Light of God, who has “laid the foundations of the world and arranged the changing of times and seasons. (Roman Missal)”
What has been revealed about the world and humans? We believe that God created the world and all its wonders. He has formed humanity in his image and granted us the power to rule over all he has made. We are called to praise him for his mighty works and to live our lives in his name. The Church lives as she prays, and all those points are contained in her prayer:
“God laid the foundations of the world and has arranged the changing of times and seasons; has formed man in his own image and set humanity over the whole world in all its wonder, to rule in his name over all he has made and forever praise him in his mighty works, through Christ our Lord.”
Preface V of the Sundays of Ordinary Time
Through faith, we come to understand the mysteries of God’s Creation, our place in it, the parts of it that he must explain to us, and how to treat it as he intended. To deny faith is to also reject the fundamental facts about the world that God has revealed to us.
0 Comments