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Did I hear the song of the leaf,
as it danced upon the tree?
I think so. How dear,
pure too. More sublime
for that purity than any
church choir ever I heard,
my Dear, for it sang
not with thought of skill but only
for love of You.
And could I not so sing,
with love, joy, and peace,
a life making Love with You,
if I, like the leaf,
would surrender to the
Wind too?
▪Brian K. Wilcox
St. Thomas Aquinas wrote of the universe, “‘They shall be drunk with the plenty of your house’—that is, the universe.” And ,“each and every creature exists for the perfection of the entire universe.” Likewise, “the whole universe together participates in the divine goodness more perfectly, and represents it better, than any single creature whatever.” And, last, “every creature participates in some way in the likeness of the divine essence.”
An ancient rabbinic teaching about Creation reads:
Creation is the extension of God.
Creation is God encountered in time and space.
Creation is the infinite in the garb of the finite.
To attend to Creation is to attend to God.
The Hindu masterpiece The Bhagavad Gita reads: “Although you are one, you spread throughout the sky and the planets and all space between.” And “the Spirit of the Lord fills the whole universe?” Is this not the Word, Christ?
Meister Eckhart asked, “What does God do all day long?” Eckhart responds, “God lies on a maternity bed giving birth.” Is the process of birthing not the ongoing incarnation of the Word, giving birth each moment to the entire Kosmos?
Scientist Brian Swimme observes:
Even where there are no atoms, and no elementary particles, and no protons, and no photons, suddenly elementary particles will emerge…. The base of the universe seethes with creativity, so much so that physicists refer to the universe’s ground state as ‘space-time foam.’
And what is that ground state? Is it not God, the Triune God, the Infinite Potential manifesting in and through every creature and all Creation together, in all the universes there might be?
Therefore, if God being the One Eternal, being the Source of All, means All is an extension of that Source, then, God is above, around, and underneath us at all times. We cannot not meet God, we can only be unaware or aware of meeting God. For Creation both conceals and reveals the Splendorous Presence. As Matthew Fox says, “Behind and within the depth of the phenomenal world there lurks the divine presence.” And John Scotus Erigena writes, “God is both above everything and in everything, since he, who alone truly is, is the Essence of everything; …”
According to Celtic spirituality, we have a vision of the Sacrament beyond the institutional church. In this Christian tradition the universe itself is the Great Sacrament. Indeed, the elements of bread and wine, or juice, and the water of baptism come from the Great Sacrament that mediates the Presence to every creature, not just humans, and every creature is the means of sacramental Presence.
Therefore, the Church is set within the context of the Church of Creation, which existed billions of years prior to the Church, or any religion. This same Creation is the incarnation of the Word that became, in time and space, Jesus Christ. This same Living, Cosmic, and Ecclesial Christ is referred to in Colossians, in one of the most cosmologically profound passages in Holy Scripture:
Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see…. Everything has been created through him and for him. He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together. (Colossians 1.16-17, NLT)
The Church is great, not for standing over against Creation, rather, the greatness of the Church, as so with the Wisdom of Christ, is intimately one with Creation and finds meaning in the context of the Cosmos.
And the prologue to the Gospel of John has:
He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. (1.3-5, NLT)
The Nature and Intent of Creation is most important? Creation is the manifestation of the Creative Potency of God, as manifested in the Word, Christ, who manifested in time through the perfect union of all Creation, spirit and matter, in one Perfection. The Word is Creation, for Creation entails matter and spirit, and Jesus Christ is the union of both as One Essence in the Triune God be-ing three distinct Expressions—signifying in God Creation is destined to a perfection of loving union, which God is working in every creature. Christ Jesus, the Perfect God Man, is Creation expressing the Omega Point of perfection that all Creation is destined for in the Creating One, the Father, or Source.
Therefore, the salvation of the person is only realized within the salvation of the Creation. If Creation is damned, so am I. If Creation lives in hope of the fruition of the Resurrection of Christ, so do I.
Spiritual Exercise
How do you experience God in Creation?
Today, walk outside, open your arms to the sky, and place your face toward the expanse. Smile. Be in Being, Smile with Love. Rejoice that you are Creation, a special manifestation of Christ, with every elementary element of your body existing in the Word many billion years ago.
Note: Nonscritural quotes are from Matthew Fox, One River, Many Wells.
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