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Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
For: Saturday, May 22, 2010
Solemnity: Pentecost (Vigil Mass)
From: Romans 8:22-27
Christians are Children of God (Continuation)
[22] We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; [3] and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. [24] For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? [25] But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it in patience.
[26] Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. [27] And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Commentary:
19-21. To make his point more vividly St Paul, in a metaphor, depicts the whole of creation, the material universe, as a living person, groaning in pain impatiently waiting for a future event, raising its head, straining to see something appear on the horizon.
The material world is indeed, through God’s design, linked to man and his destiny. “Sacred Scripture teaches that man was created ‘in the image of God,’ as able to know and love his Creator, and as set by him over all earthly creatures that he might rule them, and make use of them, while glorifying God” (Vatican II, “Gaudium Et Spes”, 12). The futility to which creation is subject is not so much corruption and death as the disorder resulting from sin. According to God’s plan material things should be resources which enable man to attain the ultimate goal of his existence. By using them in a disordered way, disconnecting them from God, man turns them into instruments of sin, which therefore are subject to the consequences of sin.
“Are we of the twentieth century not convinced of the overpoweringly eloquent words of the Apostle of the Gentiles concerning the ‘creation (that) has been groaning in travail together until now’ and ‘waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God’, the creation that’ was subjected to futility’? Does not the previously unknown immense progress–which has taken place especially in the course of this century–in the field of man’s dominion over the world itself reveal-- to a previously unknown degree–that manifold subjection ‘to futility’? …] The world of the previously unattained conquests of science and technology–is it not also the world ‘groaning in travail’ that ‘waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God’?” (John Paul II, “Redemptor Hominis”, 8).
Reestablishment of the order willed by God, bringing the whole world to fulfill its true purpose, is the particular mission of the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life, the true Lord of history: "‘The arm of the Lord has not been shortened.’ God is no less powerful today than he was in other times; his love for man is no less true. Our faith teaches us that all creation, the movement of the earth and the other heavenly bodies, the good actions of creatures and all the good that has been achieved in history, in short everything, comes from God and is directed toward him.
“The action of the Holy Spirit may pass unnoticed because God does not reveal to us his plans, and because man’s sin obscures the divine gifts. But faith tells us that God is always acting. He has created us and maintains us in existence, and he is leading all creation by his grace towards the glorious freedom of the children of God” (St J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 130).
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – St Jerome
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