Men of Faith, Men of Science

We see that the Lord is master over the laws of nature.

Newton gave us the law of gravitation that suggests that 'what goes up must come down again'.

In Advent we will learn a supernatural law: that He Who comes down must go up again...and come down again. He Himself says, the Son of Man 'must suffer grieveously' and be crucified and be lifted up from the Earth. He must return in Judgment since all men must render an account to their Creator. He must return because He has promised He will and He cannot deceive us since God can neither deceive nor be deceived.

The created thing, on the other hand, like an apple, must abide by a law.

It's interesting that the Creator and Redeemer respects the same law but transforms it. He is Lord of it. We see this too in His miraculous birth. He 'abhors not the Virgin's womb'. His descent into Mary's womb is supernatural, miraculous. His birth is supernatural, miraculous since He leaves Mary's virginity wholly intact, before, during and after childbirth.

He came down from Heaven...He descended into hell...He ascended into Heaven...He shall come to judge...

Why? Magnetism. He is attracted to man, his Creation. We are attracted to Him, our Creator. Though we are poles apart, He longs to make us one with Him and we are made for Him and find perfect rest alone in Him.

 Opposites attract. He does this by making Himself one with us in His life and death. By His Resurrection and Ascension He makes us one with Himself in Glory, taking into Heaven, body and soul, His Virgin Mother, the first of all the redeemed, who from the moment of her conception was a pure dwelling and vessel, made to be the Tabernacle of the Most High and the Ark of the New Covenant. She the perfect creature, He the perfect man and perfect God. Mary is other, in that she is human, yet He takes His flesh in and from Her.

All of this will sound like nonsense to the unbeliever who will say all of these supernatural things are impossible. The truth is that nothing is impossible, certainly not for God. It is just that some men find some things impossible to believe.

We see then that God respects His creation and all the laws that He has instituted and that even when He suspends these laws by His own volition that He does not cast them aside, but transforms them.

We see this in the Eucharist. There is an idea that created matter cannot change substance and certainly not without some action causing it. Yet, water can become ice and water can become steam. Water is transformed into ice in cold and transformed into steam when hot. Granted, it is still 'H20' but the substance changes from solid to liquid.

Why then, by Divine action, the prime Mover, can a new, supernatural law not be believed, that upon the utterance by a Priest of the sacred words of consecration bread and wine is changed in substance to become the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ?

Ah. I see. It is only possible for substance of created matter to be changed if we see it and it is visible to human eyes? How convenient for the unbelievers! But just to show that the Lord wishes to comfort the doubting, He grants to us Eucharistic miracles such as that of Lanciano. God takes bread and wine and at the uttering of the words of the Priest, transforms it into His Body and Blood. Unbelievers might also ask themselves the question whether they, or indeed we who believe, would approach Holy Communion if every time we went to Mass the Priest offered us what Holy Communion really is manifestly and visibly. We would all believe then but who would receive!?

Despite the fact that in Sacred Scripture we see more than one example of men who have died only to come back to life at the bidding of their Creator in the sight of men and women, they say that the Resurrection of the Lord is impossible and unbelievable.

 Yet, here we see a law, that man must die and the Son of God humbling himself to death, 'even death on a Cross' so that man might live. We see that of His own volition the Son of God chooses to subject himself to this law - that all men must die. Yet even when the All Holy One meets and tastes Death, Death cannot remain untouched by its meeting with Him.

When the Lord touched lepers they were healed. When the Lord touched the blind, they saw. When the Lord touched those possessed, they were made well but when the Lord touched Death, its power was destroyed! It could not hold Him for He is Lord of it and by Divine power is the Risen One and while Death remains for us the reality and the law, we now see that Death has been transformed to become the eighth Sacrament, the gateway by which man passes from temporal death to eternal life.

If we persevere to the end, His Resurrection and Glory will be one day, on the Last Day, our Resurrection and Glory. He has united Himself to us so that we might be united wholly to Him.

I mean, why does everything have to be seen in order to be believed? Aside from some carbon dioxide coming from my mouth transformed into what I guess is steam, upon its exit from my mouth and meeting the cold air, the fact that it is absolutely freezing outside is not visibly manifest. I can still confirm and firmly believe and truly that its bl**dy freezing outside!

There are two realms of enquiry here, once concerned with faith and another concerned with perceiving, in the realm of science, the Lawgiver and noting that He has sanctified and does sanctify and transform and renew. He sanctifies, transforms and renews us. It is worth asking the question, however: If that apple had not come down from that tree what would the world of 'science', a word which means only 'knowledge' be like? I refer of course not to Newton's apple but to the Fall.