That which is continually Present is, by its definition, repeatedly ignored and easily overlooked.
Why the Big Bang and not the Big Silence?
I once heard a lecture by the esteemed Fr. Michael Himes, professor of Theology at Boston College, called “Why We Are a Sacramental People.” He attempted to explain and break down the scientific theory of the origins of the universe with a highly complex matter of religious sacramental theology. In essence, he postulates that everything is implicitly Sacramental.
“God is so wildly in love with you that He refuses to spend Eternity without you!” This is his premise for culminating his theory. And he can prove it.
That which is always and everywhere true, ought to be noticeably present at some point, somewhere. Everything is sacramental, because God is that truth present to us in all things.
What if the Universe exists not for God’s pleasure, but for ours?
Fr. Himes suggests, Rather than thinking of the universe as something God made to manifest himself to us, we might think of the universe as something God made to give himself to us.
God, literally, loved the universe into existence. It exists because God so loved it that we exist. Therefore, His self in all things – this “Grace” – becomes the very presence of God available to us at all times, not by our own desire but His, not for Himself but for us.
Love, literally, is what holds the universe together. God’s love for us.
If we could see this “force” at work around us, we would be witnessing “Grace” at work. We would be witnessing the Sacramental Act of Grace.
The world wants us to categorize and divide ourselves into things secular and non-secular, but this is actually impossible. There is nothing that is secular because there is nothing that is un-graced.
The heart of Aestheticism is to discipline ones self to see what ought to be seen. – Friedrich Von Heigel
The nature of Love is to create others to be loved. God is Love, not as a noun but as a verb.
This origin force is, therefore, ever advancing and multiplying. It is never stagnate; always self-giving; always self-less.
Why is there Something rather than Nothing?
God called everything into existence so God could give God’s self to it. God loves every single creature – you, me, your cat, the pebble on the third moon of Neptune – everything is resting on the love of God.
If we are ever to realize the fullness from which we have been created, and to accomplish the maturity of growth for which we were intended, then we must stop looking in the mirror of our souls and start looking out the window for the sacramental force at work around us and join it.
If were going to really attend to something that is always and everywhere present, then we must learn to not only notice it but to celebrate it.
To look on another human being is to witness the ultimate expression of sacramental love. Every man, woman, child you encounter, is an encounter with the face of the Creator of Creation itself. There is not one particle set apart from Him.
Grace, therefore, becomes not only an expression of love from Creator to Creation but also the Creation to all that has been created.
When we celebrate someone’s birthday, we say that we love them and we really care about them. It’s not that we only love them and care about them on this one day, but rather, because we love them and really care about them always we must give them at least one day to make sure they see it. We have to tell them, we have to pay attention to the fact that love for them exists constantly, somewhere, sometime.
That is the principal behind sacramentality. That is what it means to live under the Law of Grace. “What is always and everywhere true must be noticed and celebrated somewhere, sometime.” Which means, God’s love is something we can absolutely never get away from.
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” – 2 Corinthians 12:7-9
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