The second reading from the Office of Readings today is taken from St. Anthansius’ “Discourse Against the Pagans”. There are a couple of catching sentences. I am translating from the Italian text:
“In fact, it is right that creation should be made thus, as it is, and that it is complete as we see it. It is he (Jesus Christ) that has willed that everything should occur in this way and no one has any rational reason to deny it. In fact, if the movement of created things were occuring without reason and the world were to blindly move about, one would not be able any more to believe what we have just said (about our Lord Jesus). But if the world has been organized with wisdom and knowledge, and has been filled with beauty, then one must say that the creator and artisan is the Word of God.”
St. Anthansius, then, offers us a beautiful proof of God’s existence by pointing to creation, its beauty and order and movement. St. Thomas Aquinas would centuries later take up the same argument. I am reminded too, of my Dominican philosophy professor, Fr. Andrew Fabian, who many years ago said: “Some ask me to prove that God exists, and I say: ‘Look!'” as he pointed out the window at the sky, trees, and clouds.
God’s beauty truly is found in all of creation, especially in the life of every human being. We dare not destroy it or them.
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