Looking at Work From God's Point of View - Part 4
Last time we looked at passages from Genesis that help us understand this broad statement by Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski in Working Your Way into Heaven:
First, let's acknowledge that in and of itself, God's Creation was not some half-finished work in need of skilled labor to complete the task. He didn't need us to complete His Creation; He wanted us to work with Him and so designed His Creation such that we could participate with Him - in a sense as partners - in completing the work He began. To be clear, our relationship to God here is decidedly not one of an old-fashioned assembly line worker with God providing the brains and we the brawn. Instead, human work, of its very nature, calls for our physical, mental, and even spiritual efforts, which incorporate all our talents, skills, and every drop of our creativity, along with a prayerful spirit. We engage with the world through our work; we engage with our work as, in a sense, creators with a small "c" under the watchful eye and following the Plan of the Creator.
Cardinal Wyszynski looks at this from an even more fundamental level, providing us with a down-to-earth, practical perspective:
We Catholics understand that exploiting God's creation for our own enrichment or amusement is by no means acceptable. But we need to work to develop those parts of the world that are, in a sense, "raw" creation into something more amenable to human sustenance and growth. People aren't a virus to be eliminated; we're the crown of Creation, destined for Heaven. And the earth serves as our home, albeit a temporary one, a place in which we work out our salvation. The more we can rationally develop and improve our home such that it supports our efforts, as well as help those around us, to get to Heaven, the more human activity serves God's plan for Creation. Doing so isn't difficult or complicated. Treat the environment as you would your own home. When it's dirty, clean it; if it gets too cluttered, straighten it out. Imagining a world clean and orderly shouldn't be a fantasy. It's within our power, and we should strive to see it come to fruition.
This matches perfectly with what we saw last time in Genesis. God laid it all out, then created Adam and Eve. He gave them the charge to "Fill the earth, and subdue it." We, their descendants take up where they, and all after them, left off.
Note the difference between God's charge and those environmentalists who would fill the earth with everything but human beings. They would prefer a world of jungles and wild deserts. Some (if not most) see no problem with abortion and contraception, making human beings the only acceptable "endangered species." Save every baby but the human baby. Contrast this with how we should envision the world. In Cardinal Wyszynski's words,
Human work is...a further stage of God's creative work; it is the process that completes the act of creation.Here now some additional details.
First, let's acknowledge that in and of itself, God's Creation was not some half-finished work in need of skilled labor to complete the task. He didn't need us to complete His Creation; He wanted us to work with Him and so designed His Creation such that we could participate with Him - in a sense as partners - in completing the work He began. To be clear, our relationship to God here is decidedly not one of an old-fashioned assembly line worker with God providing the brains and we the brawn. Instead, human work, of its very nature, calls for our physical, mental, and even spiritual efforts, which incorporate all our talents, skills, and every drop of our creativity, along with a prayerful spirit. We engage with the world through our work; we engage with our work as, in a sense, creators with a small "c" under the watchful eye and following the Plan of the Creator.
Cardinal Wyszynski looks at this from an even more fundamental level, providing us with a down-to-earth, practical perspective:
The world is perfect in itself, but without the work of man it would not achieve its aim. It would not attain the measure of perfection proper to itself; instead it would change into a jungle or a wild desert.When we think about all the nonsensical, even dangerous ideas put forth by those who take an "anti-human" attitude towards Creation, we can appreciate that what the Cardinal said really needs saying. Too many influential voices categorize human beings as an incursion on Creation, a kind of virus that must be treated, possibly even eliminated. While a critique of activities that have polluted or in any other way damaged the environment may be necessary at times to redirect human action to its proper role in God's Creation, some critics paint a picture of a world that would be a natural paradise if it weren't for us humans. If not outright espousing a culling of the human herd, they at the very least want our numbers limited. For those allowed the gift of life by these self-appointed masters, interactions with the environment must be tightly controlled by special guardians of the environment who feel that God's mandate (if they even believe in God) to "increase and multiply" applies to every life form but us.
We Catholics understand that exploiting God's creation for our own enrichment or amusement is by no means acceptable. But we need to work to develop those parts of the world that are, in a sense, "raw" creation into something more amenable to human sustenance and growth. People aren't a virus to be eliminated; we're the crown of Creation, destined for Heaven. And the earth serves as our home, albeit a temporary one, a place in which we work out our salvation. The more we can rationally develop and improve our home such that it supports our efforts, as well as help those around us, to get to Heaven, the more human activity serves God's plan for Creation. Doing so isn't difficult or complicated. Treat the environment as you would your own home. When it's dirty, clean it; if it gets too cluttered, straighten it out. Imagining a world clean and orderly shouldn't be a fantasy. It's within our power, and we should strive to see it come to fruition.
This matches perfectly with what we saw last time in Genesis. God laid it all out, then created Adam and Eve. He gave them the charge to "Fill the earth, and subdue it." We, their descendants take up where they, and all after them, left off.
Note the difference between God's charge and those environmentalists who would fill the earth with everything but human beings. They would prefer a world of jungles and wild deserts. Some (if not most) see no problem with abortion and contraception, making human beings the only acceptable "endangered species." Save every baby but the human baby. Contrast this with how we should envision the world. In Cardinal Wyszynski's words,
Those countries that are wild today are certainly the sites for future states and rich cities.Next time we continue our discussion with exactly why it's important to develop those "wild" areas.
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