 |
| Christ the Creator of the World |
O Wisdom, you come forth from the mouth of the Most High. You fill the universe and hold all things together in a strong yet gentle manner: O come to teach us the way of truth.
The first of the seven antiphons addresses Jesus as Wisdom - Wisdom that comes from the mouth of God. Thomas Watson calls wisdom the brightest ray of God attributes.
- God's Wisdom knows the most profound secrets of the universe - even the secrets we each hold un-shared.
- God's Wisdom has found the way to retrieve us - to keep humankind from an eternal undoing. We call it Redemption.
- God's Wisdom knows what is best for me - that there is our evolution, our strengthening and learning through the losses.
- God's Wisdom leaps over the mountains of my personal history to find me and claim me as his own.
- God's Wisdom wants to share with me what my heart needs to know.
- God's Wisdom is discovered most remarkably in creation.
Perhaps strange to most of us, here is an image of Jesus titled, "Christ the Creator of the World," Jesus with a compass hovering over the division of land and water. But I was taught that the Father is the Creator! Indeed, but the Letter to the Hebrews tells us more: that Christ from all eternity was at the Father's side in creating everything known and unknown to us.
"Through the Son God made the whole universe, and to the Son he has ordained that all creation shall ultimately belong. This Son, radiance of the glory of God, flawless expression of the nature of God, himself the upholding power." Hebrews 1:2
And today's Advent antiphon says as much. Of Jesus, who is God's Wisdom made flesh: "You fill the universe and hold all things together..." Jesus is God's agent in creating and creation is the place where God in Christ will workout God's plan.
I want to sing "O" before that revelation! St. John tells us this as well in the Introduction to his Gospel:
At the beginning God expressed himself. That personal expression, that word, was with God and was God, and he existed with God from the beginning. All creation took place through him, and none took place without him. John 1:1-3
And Saint Paul in his Letter to the Colossians 1:15-17:
Now Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God. He was born before creation began, for it was through him that everything was made, whether heavenly or earthly, seen or unseen. Through him and for him, also, were created power and dominion, ownership and authority. In fact, all things were created through, and for, him.
Jesus as God's Wisdom, had a hand in creation, knowing he would walk with us here to reclaim and restore us and everything that comprises this planet. That makes us, who are his brothers and sisters, something like sub-contractors. What dignity we have then. And what a challenge and invitation!
God's Wisdom has created this universe so wonderfully that our earth perfectly orbits the sun such that life forms thrive here in tremendous variety and beauty. And perhaps more wonderful still, we may well imagine there are other stars with their own planets in different kinds of orbits, allowing still other life forms to thrive in their own variety and beauty.
"You fill the universe and hold all things together in a strong yet gentle manner."
"O Lord, how manifold are your works, in wisdom you have made them all." Psalm 104:24
God's Wisdom has created this universe so wonderfully that our earth perfectly orbits the sun such that life forms thrive here in tremendous variety and beauty. And perhaps more wonderful still, we may well imagine there are other stars with their own planets in different kinds of orbits, allowing still other life forms to thrive in their own variety and beauty.
"You fill the universe and hold all things together in a strong yet gentle manner."
"O Lord, how manifold are your works, in wisdom you have made them all." Psalm 104:24
