23 January 2013

No such thing as naked being

One of the fundamental metaphysical insights of the Catholic faith is that creation is good, all creatures are good insofar as they exist. This goodness is called ontological goodness and is distinguished from moral goodness

Below is an excerpt from an article by Alice von Hildebrand: 

Genesis informs us that when God completed creation, He saw that “it was very good.” Surprisingly enough, these luminous words can easily be misread or misinterpreted. 

God is clearly telling us that every single being to which He has freely granted “to be” is not only benefiting from the nobility of existence, but moreover that all these beings not only “are” but moreover have qualities and perfections which, according to a huge scale, reflect God’s infinite beauty. A star-studded key awakens in us a feeling of awe, but the most modest insect hidden in the grass, also speaks of God’s glory. 

There is no such a thing as “naked” being. Pure being is an abstraction. Let me repeat: All existing beings have qualities and perfections the scale of which is immense – from the awesome greatness and beauty of a star-studded sky to the modest perfection of a gnat. All of them reflect the greatness and glory of God: “Heaven and earth are filled with His Glory.”

Please, do your growth in holiness a favor and read the whole thing!
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5 comments:

  1. My favorite line…
    The Christian message is clear indeed; your love for the sinner is proportionate to your hatred of his sin. A sincere lover of a “pornographer” is the greatest enemy of pornography.

    This means, concerning true love of course and not some goofy concept of it, that one who does not hate the sin in another's life (specific to an individual or in society as a whole), does not truly love that person as God loves. This does not mean they don’t intend to, but simply that they don’t.

    With that knowledge, it is scary to consider how many people actually love me right now as God loves is a bit scary.

    Family?
    Friends?
    Priests?
    Co-workers?
    Politicians?
    Healthcare experts?
    Strangers?

    Michael

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    Replies
    1. Being loved is a scary thing. . .if Love is behind the loving.

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  2. Anonymous6:09 PM

    We also learn from Genesis why Monday is a funked up day, for it was not blessed (Gn 1:5) as the other days were. Not even God could see the first day of the work-week as good! :-)

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  3. Anonymous10:34 PM

    Creation. Reminds me of a recent realization about divine omnipotence: its effortlessness. It took, and takes, God no more "effort" to create the whole universe --and perhaps many others-- than to, say, make a stone or a water molecule. Our perception of "scale" or "difficulty" means nothing to Him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Truth/Goodness/Beauty is diffusive by nature.

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