I. The operations of God in the seven epochs of creation are a figure of His spiritual operations in the human race. The chaos of the first day and its darkness represent the state of mankind before the giving of the Jewish dispensation. There was no religious organization, and depravity was universal. The first dim light of that day is the law of nature, called by David the light of God’s countenance (Ps. iv. 7). The creation of the firmament and separation of the waters is the segregation of the people of Israel from the Gentiles; for waters signify people (Apoc. xvii. 15). The rising of the dry land and its covering with vegetation are the rise of the Jewish nation into prominence, and its adornment with the holy lives of its heroes. The sun is Our Lord Jesus Christ; the moon and planets which reflect Him are the Blessed Virgin, the Church, and the Saints. The production of life from the waters is a figure of the new birth from the waters of Baptism. The different creatures of the fifth and sixth days are the souls which soar aloft to heaven like the birds, those which remain of the earth earthly, those which grovel in the slime like the reptiles, and the wild beasts are Antichrist and other persecutors. All of these are subdued by the Man made in the image of God, Jesus Christ His Son. The Sabbath is our final rest in heaven. Praise God for all the wonderful works of this mystical creation.
II. The days of creation also represent the operations of God in the Blessed Virgin, by which He prepared her for the advent of the first-born of mankind, her divine Son. The heaven and earth covered with darkness are Saints Joachim and Anne enduring the shame of sterility before the birth of their blessed daughter. Her birth is the foregleam and promise of the perfect light of the Redemption. The firmament raised above the earth is the high grace accorded to her, which raised her above all creatures in sanctity. The waters of the earth gathered into one place and forming the seas (Maria) represent the accumulation in her of all the graces of the saints; and the foliage and flowers are her abundant virtues. The sun and moon are emblems of her burning love of God, and of the faith which shone bright during all the darkness of the Passion; the stars are the celestial emotions of her heart. The beauty of the animals and birds that peopled the earth represents the harmony and sweetness of her life and words. The creation of Adam is the figure of Our Lord’s Incarnation, and the Sabbath is His repose and joy in the only creature worthy to receive Him. “He that made me rested in my tabernacle” (Eccli. xxiv. 12). Glorify God for this wonderful series of His great works.
III. The works of the seven days further prefigure the sanctification of individual souls. Our first state is an abyss of darkness and disorder, but the Spirit of the Lord hovers over us, and sheds upon us the first rays of light and grace. The firmament of the second day is the firm assurance of pardon, rising from the chaos of sin. The gathering apart of land and water is the removal of our sins from us by repentance; the plants are the fruits of virtue which we bring forth. The sun, moon and stars are the light of the knowledge of holy truths, which only come home to us after we have abandoned our sins. The birds are our souls rising swiftly from the waters of devotion towards God; the beasts and serpents are our evil passions subdued to the yoke of reason and grace. We then become perfect men, formed in the image of Christ; and the repose of the Sabbath is that tranquillity and peace with which God rewards those who welcome and promote His spiritual operations in their souls. God is now carrying on this spiritual creation within you. His graces are progressive and each one leads on to others. Take care to accept each degree of light and grace, and act upon it, and thus you will come at last to perfect peace.
I. “On the seventh day God ended the work which He had made” (Gen. ii. 2). He ended it in the sense that He had now completely equipped the earth for the purpose that it was intended for; and thenceforth it was to work out its destiny under the guidance of man. In another sense that work is not ended; i.e. it has not yet fulfilled the aim and object of its being; and it will not have done so till the end of time, when all the results are summed up and the elect are gathered into eternal happiness. Then the Almighty will pass the final verdict on His work and declare that it is good. The end of the material development of this earth has come; there will be no further days of creation, no superior race of beings to succeed man. Evolution indeed goes on, but it is of a kind now that depends on man’s will aided by grace, and not on God alone. It should be an evolution of truth and justice, of the knowledge of God and the perfecting of His likeness in the soul. As this depends on the good-will of man, the result is various: in one line there goes on a development towards eternal life, but there is also an alternative line of deterioration. Each man chooses for himself which he will. It depends on you now to carry on the work of God in your own soul and in others. Go on constantly till you have finished your portion of the task. Imitate the regularity and thoroughness of God, so that He may be able to declare that you and your work are very good.
II. “God rested on the seventh day from all the work which He had done” (Gen. ii. 2). This does not mean that there was any change in God from activity to non-activity, nor that He retired from His creation and left it thenceforward to itself. God is immutable, and there is not in Him, as in us, a change from striving after something deficient, to the fruition that follows attainment. God is always in a state of peace, repose, attainment: at the same time He is always perfect activity; according to the word of Our Lord, “My Father worketh until now, and I work” (John v. 17). The beginning and the ceasing, the change from work to repose, were in the temporal operation of God upon His creatures, and not in Himself. The repose, as spoken of God, was symbolical. Learn to unite in yourself activity and repose. Work unceasingly for God, but work peacefully without excitement or anxiety. Employ all your energies, but do not trouble yourself about success or failure. Leave the results to Him “who giveth the increase.” Be content to have done your allotted task; and then, whatever happens, you have done God’s will, and your work cannot be called a failure.
III. “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” (Gen. ii. 3). The divine action is the rule of ours. We require alternations of activity and rest. The history of creation has been so arranged in Holy Scripture as to point out the due proportions of the two states, and to give a new sanction to the custom and to the division of time already existing. Our physical need of rest coincides with our spiritual need for a season which we may devote to worship and religious meditation. These needs are consecrated and secured to mankind by the symbolical rest of the Creator on the seventh day. Thus God, having supreme repose in Himself, becomes the source of repose for men. Labour is necessary that we may enjoy repose. Repose is necessary that we may be able to labour. God must be the rule of both. Without God, the turmoil of life is so absorbing that it exhausts our energies and destroys us before our time. Without God, repose becomes depravity, and recreation a fierce excitement. The world requires more restfulness, of mind, of heart, and of body. A dominant sense of religion is the only agent that can impart the repose so necessary for wholesome living. God will give you this at present, and a Sabbath of eternal rest in Him hereafter.
I. After the age of the reptiles, there was a long interval not marked by features sufficient to make of it an additional day of creation. The cretaceous beds average one thousand feet in thickness; they consist of the shells and skeletons of myriads of generations of minute animalculæ deposited on the bed of the ocean. After being formed and consolidated during long ages, they slowly rose, till now they form great plains, or hills and cliffs. Then followed the Tertiary epoch, when new species of animals began to appear, the forerunners of existing races, marsupials and mammals. Some of these have flourished, extended widely and become extinct. Such were the Megatherium, eighteen feet in length, the Palæotherium, a compound of rhinoceros, horse and tapir, and the Mammoth. Other species have lasted, more or less modified, into our times. The length of these periods is beyond our computation: we only know that it was enormous. Thus did God carefully, slowly, with enormous power and wisdom, prepare this world during millions of years to be your habitation. You have now to prepare your soul through countless thoughts and actions to be His dwelling.
II. Wonderful is the provision made by God in preparation for man! In every clime there are animals to help us in our work—the horse, the ass, the elephant, the camel, llama, yak. Others provide us with food and clothing—the ox, buffalo, sheep, goat. Some are domesticated to be our companions and guardians. Others are wild and fierce, like the lion, tiger, bear and wolf. Even these have important uses; they keep down the excessive multiplication of the lower animals, or maintain their standard by weeding out the inferior specimens; they exercise the strength and address of man, and furnish him with materials for science and for occupation. Other creatures adorn the earth by their beauty or their song; and others again exhibit to us a marvellous perfection of instinct, and of adaptation to various circumstances, like the beaver and migratory birds. Even down to ants and wasps, every creature, even the most insignificant, has a part to play, and often a most important one, in carrying on the great economy of the world. Though we may at times be unable to see it, everything reflects in some way the perfections of its Maker. Be grateful to God for the extraordinary multiplicity of His benefits. Recognize His hand in all things, and employ them all in His service.
III. The final work of the sixth day was the creation of man. Traces of him are found only in the newest strata, after everything else had been completed. Man is the most perfect, most capable, most beautiful of God’s creatures. He is the image and likeness of the Creator, and His representative towards the lower creation, holding full dominion over the earth, to fill it, and subdue it, and rule over the birds and beasts and fishes. Man touches both terms of being; in his body he is like to the animals, in his intelligence and freedom he resembles the Infinite God. He is the corner-stone which makes both into one; and in him the universe returns to the Lord who made it. The material world is summed up in man and completed in him; thenceforth evolution has passed to a higher plane, it becomes social, moral and spiritual. “So the heavens and the earth were finished and all the furniture of them” (Gen. ii. 1). What a marvellous ladder of progress to perfection from first to last! All the stages are connected, passing into one another by transitional forms, and gradually rising towards man and God. It is your duty to sum up the offices of all creatures by rendering praise and glory for them all to their Creator, and by recognizing the perfections that He manifests in them, His immensity, omnipotence, wisdom, beauty and love.
I. The fifth day of Moses introduces us into new and almost unexplored realms of wonder. Animal life is here mentioned for the first time. This however was not its first commencement. Scripture indicates the infusion of the primitive germs of life on the first day; and in accordance with this, we find fossil evidence of marine life from a very early date. It would appear that the sea was amply peopled as far back as the Devonian era, many hundred thousand years before the fifth day. This is not mentioned by Moses. He speaks only of the more striking and distinct features of creation, such as would have come under the notice of a contemporary observer, such as he felt himself to be during the series of his visions. Notwithstanding the shoals of fish hidden beneath the ocean surface, and a few insects and air-breathing reptiles, this globe was still, to the eye, an unpeopled waste. Now the bright sunshine and limpid atmosphere made the earth rejoice; there was a great outburst of life, and strange new species of creatures suited to the changed conditions sprang into existence. Until a few years ago the passage in Genesis was the only record existing of a most wonderful and quite hidden episode of creation. Geology has now brought to light the skeletons of the animals that Moses saw in vision, and has corroborated every detail of his narrative. Men change, and their ideas, and their science; but the word of the Lord abides for ever. Events always justify those who walk by faith in that word. Have patience, and in due course God will give you light.
II. Our translations do not give the full force of the description of the fifth day. In the Hebrew it runs thus: “God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of the reptile that hath the breath of life, and the fowl, etc. . . . And God created the great sea-monsters and every soul of the creature that creepeth, which the waters swarmed out after their kind, and all flying of wing after its kind” (Gen. i. 20, 21). Here, for the only time in describing so many wonders, Moses seems to express astonishment at the enormous abundance and enormous size of the day’s productions. They must be of some very unusual kinds. It used to be supposed that they were the fish and birds of our present geological epoch. But the words, taken precisely, imply something more than that; and further, it is unlikely that birds and fishes should be placed apart in the scriptural classification from the animals belonging to the same creative epoch. It is more reasonable to suppose that the works of the fifth day are widely separated in character and in their date from those of the sixth day. There are more mysteries in God’s words and works than you can fathom. You see only the surface. Pray God for full intelligence. You cannot attain to it by your natural powers.
III. The modern revelation made by God in science has developed for us the brief revelation in Genesis. After the appearance of the sun, the Permian era began, followed by the Trias and Oolite. This was emphatically a period of great amphibious monsters and creeping things, of gigantic birds and strange flying creatures. The Megalosaurus was a carnivorous land animal, fifty feet long. There was a giant frog, the Labyrinthodon, tortoises twenty feet across, lizards or crocodiles with a length of sixty and seventy feet. There were birds that stood ten feet in height, and flying serpents and lizards, the pterosaurus and pterodactyl. This is the era, naturally unknown in his time, which Moses describes on his fifth day. It is totally different from ours. No species of that creation survive now; none of the mammals of our epoch existed then. That era fell at the end of the Primary and the beginning of the Secondary system. Our present fauna began in later Tertiary times and continue in the Quaternary. How wonderful is the harmony of revelation and nature, of God’s words and His works! Let there be a similar harmony between your words and works, between your faith and your life.
I. On the fourth day, Moses, viewing creation in vision as if from the surface of the earth, according to probability, saw a new revelation of divine greatness, when the expanse of the heavens was opened to him, illumined by sun, and moon, and planets, and the millions of more distant stars. His description is that of an eye-witness, and not of an investigator who goes behind the visible fact. It does not mean that the celestial world was created from nothing at this epoch, nor that it was formed from pre-existing matter at this epoch, but that it appeared in existence for the first time to the visionary spectator. The heavenly bodies were not actually made on this day, for the outer planets of our system were cast off from the revolving nebular mass before our earth; and the glowing matter was probably far advanced in the process of condensation into the sun, even if it had not already formed it, at the epoch when Moses takes up the story of the earth on the first day. The glimmering light of the first three days was probably that of the sun, which could only penetrate dimly through the heavy curtain of vapour round the earth. The actual event of the fourth day, the day that succeeded the Carboniferous period of the great vegetation, was the clearing away of the thick layer of gas and aqueous vapour which had for so many years obscured the heavens, the visible appearance of the sun, and the commencement of the order of days and seasons. Geology witnesses to this. The closer texture of plants, their greater variety, and the appearance of season rings in trees, show that sunshine, as we know it, began only at this advanced period of the earth’s development. God is hidden from many men by the voluntary clouds of prejudice and worldliness. Because they cannot see Him they profess disbelief. But He is there all the same.
II. How glorious this earth must have seemed when the full light of the sun streamed upon it for the first time; and there was none to look upon it till Moses saw it in vision millions of years later. How wonderful is the sun! It is the source, not only of light and heat, but of all mechanical force and motion on our earth. Its attraction keeps the great bulk of our globe moving in its orbit. It raises millions of tons of water daily from the sea in the form of clouds. It puts the wind in motion to convey these North and South, and distribute them in rain and snow. This supplies the glaciers and rivers, which by their motion wear down mountains and continents, and transport their débris to form new strata beneath the ocean. The sun supplies substance to plants, which then nourish men and animals for their labours. It has stored in coal all the heat which we now draw forth for the production of power in our machinery. Yet all this is only one part in five hundred millions of the energy radiated by the sun. And what is this to the total energy of the whole universe? And what is that to the infinite power of God? Wonder at it and worship God.
III. The heavens also manifest the immensity of God. Our distance from the sun is ninety-three millions of miles. Suppose this to be represented on a reduced scale as two hundred feet; then the distance of the nearest fixed star in the same proportion would be fifteen thousand miles. Light moves at the rate of one hundred and ninety-five thousand miles in a second. From the sun it reaches us in about eight minutes; from one of the nearest fixed stars (61 Cygni) it takes ten years; from the Polar Star, fifty years; from the nebulae perhaps five million years. Our telescopes cannot penetrate to the ends of the starry world; yet perhaps this is only one corner of the whole of creation; and all creation is no more than the ante-chamber of the divine infinity. God is greater and far beyond all this. How wonderful will be the sight of Him face to face as He is! We can never adore Him and humble ourselves enough before Him. How can creatures dare to disobey, despise, insult, deny such a God! How much will they lose by that folly and sin!
I. The third day is characterized by two operations: the waters that were under heaven were gathered together so that the dry land appeared, and the earth brought forth the green herb (Gen. i. 9–12). The peculiarities noted by Moses on this day are distinctly marked in the records of geology. In the period preceding this, known as the Silurian epoch, there are no traces of land vegetation or land animals; it is evident also that there was but little light, as the specimens of marine life have no organs of vision. The Devonian system, which corresponds to this day, was conspicuous for great volcanic disturbances and the wholesale upheaval of mountain ranges above the surface of the world-wide sea. The water was still at a very high temperature, as appears from the structure of the fish of that period. They were ganoid, or protected from the heat by a sort of coat of armour of bony material. As the waters gradually cooled these species disappeared and were replaced by others. How marvellous are the records of God’s creative action written in the bowels of the mountains or on the bed of the ocean, and now brought to light with so much ingenuity and patient labour! So God tells us now in another form the same history that He conveyed to earlier men in the simple words of the Hebrew Lawgiver.
II. The second operation of this day was the development of vegetable life from the germs infused into the earth by the spirit of the Lord on the first day. This was supere minently the age of vegetation. The earth was covered with a luxurious abundance of verdure, far surpassing that of the tropical forests of the present epoch. The trees and plants were not those that we are acquainted with; they were chiefly one great family of plants, eight hundred species of which have been identified, while the flora of our times number perhaps a hundred thousand species. Under the conditions of great heat and moisture, subdued light, and an excess of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, thousands of generations of trees shot up rapidly, decayed, and gave place to others. The Carboniferous strata, which contain the compressed and solidified remains of that vegetation, are about ten thousand feet in thickness. The character of these plants as found by us now in coal shows that they did not live in sunlight such as we now enjoy. There are no season rings in them, and their texture shows that the light which fell upon them abounded in actinic rays, but was deficient in the bright ones. Thus did God make provision for the wants of man millions of years before his existence, by the laws which He laid down for the course of nature.
III. This same epoch was marked by the laying down of thick beds of carboniferous limestone; these consist, to the extent of one half, of pure carbonic acid, which was absorbed from the atmosphere. The enormous vegetation that covered the earth had decomposed vast quantities of the same gas and released pure oxygen into the air. By these two means the poisonous heavy atmosphere of the earth was gradually changed into its present condition; at the same time the excess of heat was radiated into space; and thus the earth became a suitable abode for air-breathing animals, the harbingers of man. How wonderful is this gradual progress from stage to stage, during the slow lapse of millions of years, without effort, without error, without the need of interferences and rectifications of the plan and of the laws laid down at first by the great Creator! All was foreseen, all was decreed, and all came about in due course through the action of the irresistible will of God. Do not dare to oppose that calm, eternal, universal, overwhelming force.
I. On the second day “God made a firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament from those that were above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven” (Gen. i. 7, 8). By the “firmament” the Jews understood what we call the atmosphere. Here Moses accurately describes a most important operation that took place early in the earth’s history. At that epoch there was a seething indescribable mass of matter, shrouded in thick poisonous vapours of carbonic-acid gas, which made life impossible for breathing creatures. The forms of life belonging to this geological period include no air-breathing animals. In order to prepare the earth to be the abode of higher creatures, the next step was to dispose of this poisonous gas, and to combine the proper gases into air and water. The formation of the atmosphere extended through this and the following day, but the two stages in which it was accomplished were so different that they may well be considered as different epochs, according to the arrangement of the Mosaic narrative. The work of this second day was the condensation of oxygen and hydrogen into water, and the formation of dense clouds by the evaporation of the water under the influence of the still intense heat. Admire the wonderful and gigantic contrivances of nature, i.e., of the Author of nature, by which He brings about His purposes. Equally wonderful, though more hidden, are the spiritual contrivances by which He leads you to salvation.
II. As the dry land had not yet appeared, the aspect of the earth now presented to the eye would have been as Holy Scripture describes it. There was a great expanse of newly formed waters covering the earth in one universal ocean. From this arose a second great body of water in the form of steam and clouds, suspended high above the surface of the ocean, floating on a thick stratum of the heavier air still intermingled with carbonic-acid gas, which did not disappear till the end of the next period. This was the expanse of the firmament which separated the waters from the waters, the upper ones from the lower ones, or the watery vapours from the actual water. Under the changed conditions, air-breathing animals begin to appear in the strata laid down at this period. Thus did God work a great revolution, changing what was noxious into bright wholesome air, and multiplying higher forms of life accordingly. So in the spiritual order God dissipates the clouds of error and prejudice and sin, and brings you into a new atmosphere of faith and holiness.
III. The atmosphere is a wonderful and beneficent work of God. It extends round the whole earth to a height of perhaps fifty miles, or even as some think to two hundred miles in a very rarefied condition. It moderates the burning heat of the sun by day, and keeps the surface warmth from entirely evaporating by night; thus it prevents extremes of heat and cold which would make life impossible. It is also a shield to protect us from being bombarded by the millions of shooting stars which fall to the earth every day; it reduces them by its friction to gas, which, on cooling, falls gently in a very fine dust. The movements of the atmosphere in the form of winds convey the evaporations of the ocean from the tropics towards the poles, depositing snow and rain, filling the rivers, irrigating the fields, cooling one district and warming another. The air also provides men and beasts with oxygen, which enters the lungs and supplies the fuel that maintains life and energy. Glorify God for all these wonders by adoring His greatness, beneficence and providence. In the words of the Scriptures call on the winds and rains, the heat and cold, to bless the name of the Lord by carrying out His will and manifesting His perfections.
Part 1.
I. Adam and Eve came into existence immaculate, in the state of grace. This was to have been the birthright of humanity; but Adam, at the suggestion of Satan, chose the lower state of mere natural existence, and so lost the power of transmitting what He had rejected. Thenceforth all men are born defective, deprived of supernatural life; and in that fallen state they resemble Satan in his inaptitude for God and propension towards evil. This privation of grace and the higher life is the state of original sin. From this the Blessed Virgin was preserved. She was antecedently liable to it, as being descended by ordinary generation from Adam. She was saved by the Redemption, as we are, but in a better way, by prevention, and not by cure. No act of hers nor of her parents, but the intervention of the merits of her Divine Son, saved her from the torrent which was about to descend upon her. She came into life then, like Adam and Eve, adorned with sanctifying grace, living the supernatural life, possessing God with her. This is her Immaculate Conception. Our Lady can say, and she alone: “I am clean and without sin; I am unspotted and there is no iniquity in me’’ (Job xxxiii. 9). Admire here the great goodness of God, the great power of the merits of Jesus, who is “wonderful in His saints’’ (Ps. Ixvii. 36), and most of all in His Mother.
II. Holy Scripture, in the most significant way, associates the woman with her Child in the triumph over Satan. At the moment of the fall God foretold a second struggle of a man and a woman, which was to retrieve the first struggle with the serpent. A second Adam was to take up that part of the task in which the first Adam had failed, and introduce the strain of supernatural life into the race. As Eve furnished the occasion for the sin of Adam, her sex was to be rehabilitated by the axction of another woman, who was to furnish the material body and blood to the Victim of the redeeming sacrifice. Christ reversed the destructive act of Adam, Mary reversed the co-operation of Eve in it. The woman shares in the enmity of her Child against the serpent and has a part in the crushing of his head. The enmity of Satan was not directed only against the Saviour, but “the dragon was angry against the woman’’; “and he persecuted the woman who brought forth the Man-child’’ (Apoc. xii. 17, 13). Thus strangely does God associate the creature with the work of the Creator, one of the redeemed ones with the Redeemer. No one may put asunder the woman and her Child thus joined together by God. “Christianity requires both the worship of Jesus and the veneration of His Mother. We need both His merits and her intercession.
III. The triumph over Satan is triumph over sin. Union with Jesus in that triumph is similarity to Him in sinlessness. This, even more than the material relationship, was the bond between Him who possessed the Divine Nature, and the Mother who was only human. It would not have reversed the disgrace of Eve if Mary had not been made equal to her at first, but only equal to Eve in her fallen state. The triumph of Our Lord would not have been absolutely stainless, if it could be said that He was the Son of one who had formerly been under the dominion of Satan and sin. The devil would have some compensation in defeat, if he could impugn the character of the Mother of his Conqueror. “But God foretold that the serpent could do no more than “lie in wait for her heel’’; and St. John further tells us how the woman escaped unharmed from all the snares of the dragon, through the protecting power of God (Apoc. xii). The Blessed Mother of God is, then, an impregnable bulwark against the power of hell, and is distinguished by her successful enmity against Satan, and his unchanging hate towards her. This indicates not only her dignity but her office. She is our natural protector. If we be on her side we shall be on the side of Jesus.
Part 2.
I. Science teaches us that, where there is an apparent gap in the chain of life, there must be some being which fills it. There was one important deficiency; there was no example of a simple human being who was sinless and full of grace. The only two who were so created hastened promptly to disembarrass themselves of the great privilege at the mere word of the tempter. The completeness of God’s work in Creation and Redemption required that there should be an example of what His grace was able to effect in human nature, a being that we could look up to as the ideal of simple creatures in the class below the Divine Man. Many had risen to great holiness by repentance for their sins, others by innocence which they never lost; Jeremias and John the Baptist had further been purified from sin before their birth. Still, in one remote corner of human life Satan had found a strong hold; all were, in the first moments of existence, subject to him by original sin. It was necessary in one case to drive him from that last retreat, and exhibit one being absolutely free from sin and full of all human perfection. For the glory of God, the Blessed Virgin was preserved from even the indeliberate inherited stain of sin; she was conceived immaculate. Honour her as the delight of the Almighty, the highest of His works, the fullest manifestation of His power and holiness, the example of perfect human life among mere creatures.
II. “There shall no evil come to thee, nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling’’ (Ps. xc. 10). The dignity of the Son of God required that His Mother should be conceived immaculate. Sin is infinitely hateful to Jesus Christ; it is the direct contrary of God; its action on Him was death-dealing; there could be no possible fellowship between Christ and Belial. It is inconceivable that the Holy One of God could have been born of an ordinary sinful mother, that He could have assumed to His Divinity flesh and blood which had been infected with the horrible putrefaction of sin, that He could have dwelt in a tabernacle which had not been reserved for Him alone, but had been the dwelling-place of the abomination of desolation. The holiness which becometh the actual House of God should be something more than the patched-up sanctity which overlies a foundation of original corruption. Therefore He “set His tabernacle in the sun’’ (Ps. xviii. 6); in a place of brilliant purity. He prepared it for Himself in advance; not merely for a few days or years, but from the commencement of its existence. Learn hence how holy must be your soul if you would have Jesus to dwell in it. The smallest stain in it is loathsome to Him, and impedes the operation of His grace.
III. “Fear not: thou shalt not die; for this law is not made for thee, but for all others’’ (Esth. xv. 12, 13). These are the accents of generosity and love. Jesus could not begrudge His Mother the highest gift of His grace, and bestow it less on her than on His Precursor, Jeremias, and Adam and Eve. He could not cast His Mother to be the prey of the wolves of sin. God the Father had predestined her, the Holy Ghost had sanctified her as His spouse; God the Son could not but bestow this special grace upon His Mother. The magnificent generosity of God, who rewards eternally a cup of cold water given to a disciple, gave of necessity an immense grace to the Mother who gave Him the Precious Blood. How could He leave her a moment without supernatural life, who consented to give Him natural life? She gave herself entirely to Jesus, to co-operate in His work of Redemption, and thereby she merited to receive the first and greatest share in its fruits. The Immaculate Conception was a gift worthy of God; to withhold it would be an economy unworthy of a man and a son. Learn hence that if you be faithful to Jesus, He will grudge you nothing that is in His power to grant, and in your capacity to receive. Thank Him for encouraging you by His generosity to His Mother; rejoice at the high privilege that she was worthy to receive.
I. The word “Creation” means strictly production of being out of nothing; but it is often used in a broader sense as including the subsequent evolution and arrangement of the world which completed it for its purpose. Creative action proper was limited to that enormous antecedent period which is called “in the beginning.” Holy Scripture gives no details of this, but only relates the ordering of our planet during geological time. The surmise of St. Augustine and St. Gregory of Nyssa to this effect has in modern times received scientific corroboration. It is very probable that Moses saw the history of creation unrolled before him in a vision, or in a succession of visions on different days. He then described his impressions in the language of his day, in a way that would be intelligible to a simple and unlearned race, and he so adapted his account as to make it of religious rather than of scientific import. Glorify God for His goodness in granting such a revelation at the beginning of human history. Without it, mankind would have had no conception of many most important truths till their discovery by scientific research in this present century.
II. The days of creation are not the days of men, but of Him who is eternal, and to whom ages are as minutes. Their incalculable duration is a testimony to the infinity of His life. They are not definitely marked successive periods, but they overlap and run into one another. Moses follows the actual order of events as he saw them, noting in particular those which were characteristic of the different epochs; and he summarizes each set of events in a single day, although it may have commenced during an earlier epoch and extended into a later one. Thus each day of the week becomes commemorative of some particular manifestation of the power of the One God; and this served to wean the Israelites from the Gentile practice of consecrating the days to different false divinities. Hence Moses divided the work of creation into seven scenes corresponding to the division of time which had prevailed from the patriarchal ages, and adapted it so as to give a new sanction to the old observance of the Sabbatical rest. Every day should be to you a Lord’s day, consecrated by the remembrance of God’s manifestations in His mysteries or His Saints, and by some special service rendered by you to Him.
III. The first Mosaic day corresponds to the first period of the earth’s existence as a globe. Previously there had been a glowing nebular mass in violent motion; this had gradually condensed, had taken a revolving motion, and had thrown off whirling rings which broke and concentrated into globes. For a long period this earth remained in an incandescent molten state, an unformed chaos without life, and surrounded by a veil of heavy exhalations which the light could not penetrate. While slowly cooling down and becoming solid, “the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Gen. i. 2). “And the spirit of God moved (brooded, Heb.) over the waters” (ib.). This was not the divine Spirit, nor was it the wind, for there was then no atmosphere, but some natural force from God which infused the first germs of life into the chaos. We have geological evidence of the prevalence of darkness in the first stages of the earth’s existence, and of this first beginning of life preceding by a long time the production of fully developed animals. “And God said, Be light made” (ib.). This was the first step in the evolution of the earth. It may mean the definite condensation of the sun, or the first partial penetration of its rays through the overhanging cloud. It was only a half-light and not the full light of the sun. This represents the first glimmer of grace in our souls. By fidelity to this, “the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day” (Prov. iv. 18). Pray God for light, and be careful to follow it.
I. There is a regular progression in the productive activity of God the Creator. First, there is the internal activity of intellect and will, which produced from all eternity and is now producing the Persons of the Blessed Trinity. Then came the external activity of God on the spiritual plane, which produced the angels. Lastly comes the external activity which produced the material universe. After having been the origin of angels and their supernatural order, with its varied life and its laws which transcend our intelligence, God becomes, in the creation of this world, the source of the mundane order. God is the producer of its substance, life, and movement; His infinite intelligence and will, revealed in this world, become the immutable code of natural laws. Thus there are three lines of procession, the one divine eternal and internal, and two external, of which one is spiritual and the other material. The material is brought into union with the spiritual in human nature, and these two, when perfected, return into the higher union with God in the supernatural life of grace and glory. Praise and adore the Lord as expressing Himself in this wonderful triple series of harmonious action. You are one atom in it. Take care to keep your place in it and fill it worthily. Avoid sin, which violates the harmony, and breaks the continuity, and cuts you out from your place in that series.
II. Creation is production out of nothing by God. Although this action lies entirely on the natural material plane, yet it is beyond the grasp of our investigation and imagination. We cannot say what it is or how it is. We can trace the works of God far back through incalculable æons, but we can never see His hand actually forming them. The direct creative action is wrapped in mystery impenetrable. In the long process of creation there is a triad of stages which defy our research. We cannot tell how the original energy breathed forth from the Spirit of the Lord brooding over the abysses, comes to express itself in extended matter. Nor, although science has led us to the very frontier of life, can we detect the action which changes inorganic substance into the living organism. Nor can all our investigations solve the mystery of the origin of reason in a world of irrational beings. Every creature asks the question, Whence did the universe come? Men have forgotten the truth, or perverted it, or overlaid it with their speculations. God, therefore, proclaims to us as the first truth of the natural order and the moral order: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen. i. 1). The deepest gratitude is due for these brief words. They save us from fatal errors; they are the dawn of spiritual light.
III. The universe is ancient beyond what language can express, but it is not eternal. Eternity is a quality of the Infinite alone—of God. The universe is subject to conditions of time and space, to succession and movement; this state is incompatible with the Godhead and with eternity. Secular science can instruct us thus far, that the universe had a beginning and will have an end. Investigations into molecules and atoms show them to be “manufactured articles”; and it is no less manifest that all the conditions which fall under our observation point to an ultimate exhaustion of energy and to extinction. The stages of creation are not supernatural, nor miraculous, nor are they breaks in the natural order. They lie entirely within the limits of the natural plane; they are one harmonious and continuous process, acting in accordance with a supreme law which is invariable and complete, and needs no supplementing, viz., the immutable idea in the divine mind. Man does not know the law which regulated the first appearance of matter, of life, of reason. Each was a new, but still a normal action, induced by God in His character of source of natural order and law. The first intervention of the supernatural was at the infusion of sanctifying grace into man. Worship that infinite power which has “ordered all things in measure and number and weight” (Wisd. xi. 21).
The Angels of God merit veneration at our hands. In the Old Testament we read of God’s servants adoring them or prostrating before them. So did Abraham, and Lot, and Joshua, so also did St. John the Evangelist. We should honour them —
(1) for their sanctity, the most beautiful and admirable of all qualities, and more deserving of reverence than intellectual abilities, or strength of character, or wealth, or natural benevolence;
(2) for the benefits we receive from them. God is the source of these, but the angels are His willing agents in these benefactions, and fulfil their part with zeal and affection; they act as our best friends; and our salvation, under God, depends to a considerable extent on the assistance we receive from them;
(3) their excellence, their high position in the spiritual order, and their resemblance to God claim recognition from us.
As we render filial honour to parents, civil honour to magistrates and monarchs, respect to age, to virtue, to talent; so are we bound to render religious honour to those who are the manifestations of the supernatural perfections of the Infinite God. This is a matter of strict duty for you. You must not allow any class of God’s creatures to pass without rendering to them what their character demands. Have you always paid due respect to so important a body of your fellow-creatures?
In what way ought the angels to be honoured?
(1) By remembrance of them, and by reflection on their qualities and their works, their fidelity to God and to us.
(2) By affections, arising from these thoughts, of respect for their greatness, congratulation on their happiness, admiration of their virtues, gratitude for their assistance, love in return for their love.
(3) By considering in detail and endeavouring to imitate their virtues — obedience, contentment, conformity to God’s will, zeal for His glory, patience with their wayward charges, their sweetness, purity, love, tranquillity, activity, and their constant union with their God.
(4) We should rely on the power of the angels’ intercession with God, for they always see His face and they merit to be heard for their holiness; we should ask them to help us in our needs, and to offer our prayers like vials of odours before the throne of God.
(5) We may honour our neighbour on account of the angel who is always with him, and the dignity he derives therefrom. Recur to the angels on all occasions as being your best friends, your natural protectors, advisers, advocates, assigned to you by God.
In our devotion to the angels we should be mindful of them all, and we shall be able to discover different motives for honouring and asking the assistance of each of their choirs. Principally we should honour our Angel Guardian with whom we have been directly associated by the Providence of God; it is his special duty to help us in all our necessities, and we have already received incalculable favours at his hands. We should also nourish a particular devotion to St. Michael. He is one of the very few whose name has been revealed to us; and he is associated with us as the supreme guardian of the Catholic Church, its protector against the rage of hell, the warrior of the Lord, and the prince of the hosts of heaven.
We may also select any special choir of the angels for particular homage on account of their proximity to God, or supremacy over His earthly kingdom, or for their special relation to God by their characteristic virtues, or the similarity of their functions to ours. By devotion to the angels we verify those words: “You are come to Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels . . . and to the spirits of the just made perfect” (Heb. xii. 22, 23).
In their natural constitution and endowments the angels are far superior to men. The Psalmist, asking what is man or the son of man, answers, “Thou hast made him a little less than the angels” (Ps. viii. 6). They are our superiors even though appointed to be, in a way, our attendants and guards. The angels are more perfect representations than men of the spiritual and intellectual being of the Almighty, so that they are called “the seal of resemblance” (Ez. xxviii. 12). Further, they were created in the immaterial heaven, we on earth. They now see God face to face in His glory; we only in a dark manner by faith. They have the joy of possession, we must have patience in tribulation. They possess a beatified life, our most earnest desire is for a happy death. They live to God, we have to die to the world. They possess perfect justice, we need perfect penance. They have the completion, we the commencement of supernatural life.
Therefore we may say of the angels as compared with men, “The cedars in the paradise of God were not higher than he . . . neither were the plane trees to be compared to him . . . no tree in the paradise of God was like him in his beauty” (Ez. xxxi. 8). Rejoice in the greatness of these noble beings, without envying them or despising your condition. Look up to them as to elder brethren. Venerate them for their nearness to God and the likeness they bear to Him.
In several respects angels and men are alike.
(1) Both classes are from the hand of God and made in His image. “Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?” (Mal. ii. 10).
(2) Both possess spirituality, although in different forms, also immortality, intelligence, liberty.
(3) Both arrive at beatitude by the same means; through faith and love of God, struggle, fidelity and perseverance.
(4) Both depend for being and salvation on the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and are united in Him as members of the one body; they also live by Him, for the sacred bread from heaven given for the nourishment of men is also called the Bread of Angels.
(5) In the resurrection mankind “shall be as the angels of God in heaven” (Matt. xxii. 30); being on the same footing and in the same ranks, enjoying the same inheritance and the same vision of God. Endeavour to make perfect this resemblance to the angels, by living the life of the angels, imitating their sanctity, their unworldliness, their devotion to God and their accomplishment of His will.
There are some respects in which man surpasses the angels.
(1) Human nature and not the angelic has been joined in hypostatic union with the Eternal Word; so that men are specially the brethren of the Son of God. “Nowhere doth He take hold of the angels, but of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold” (Heb. ii. 16).
(2) We have the privilege of undergoing sufferings and pains for God’s sake, and being tried in ways that were not open to the angels; the singular glory of martyrdom belongs to us by reason of our being subject to death; and our carnal state and its temptations afford occasion for the brilliant virtue of chastity, which raises us above our natural level and makes us “like to the angels of God in heaven.”
(3) We have that most happy advantage, not possible in the angels who fell, of being able to repent of our sins and live anew to grace, and even of gaining higher glory after sinning than if we had never sinned.
(4) We shall receive a double reward and happiness in heaven, bodily as well as spiritual, on account of our double conflict and double service; and some of our race will possibly take higher rank and glory in heaven than some among the angels.
Thus you have compensations for your present lowliness and afflictions. Be contented with your lot, and take courage, considering the reward. Before long you will take your place among the choirs of angels.
I. Those spirits are called Guardian Angels who are deputed to take charge of individual men. We do not know to which choirs this duty is committed, but it is generally attributed to the ninth or lowest choir. Even these, however, are princes of the house of God, and are of surpassing splendour and ability. It may be that spirits of higher rank and power are given charge of more distinguished servants of God who have a more difficult vocation than the average, such as Apostles, Popes, founders of orders, Bishops, missionaries, great rulers of men. There are examples in Scripture of other orders of blessed spirits being employed on this earth. Thus, one of the Cherubim was placed at the gates of Paradise with a flaming sword, a Seraph was sent to purify Isaias with a burning ember from the altar, and Archangels were sent at other times, Raphael to Tobias, Michael to Daniel and St. John, Gabriel to Zachary, the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph. Every human being, however degraded and wicked, has an angel as his guardian and companion all through life. Learn hence to esteem every soul without exception as being the recipient of so high a favour from God. Like their angels, never fail in hope and in prayer for their salvation. Learn the same lesson as St. Peter: “God hath showed me not to call any man common or unclean” (Acts x. 28).
II. Our Guardian Angels take charge of us from the first instant of our existence, and remain with us through our whole course up to the moment of death. All through life they are at hand to help us in spiritual, and perhaps also in corporal needs, especially in resisting temptation, picking our steps through the embarrassments of life, keeping up our courage, persevering in fidelity to God. They do not abandon us when we fall from grace and make ourselves enemies of God. Our case may seem hopeless to men, but our guardian never loses hope or relaxes in his efforts. To the very end he watches, intercedes for us, and perhaps is able at the last moment to snatch his charge from the jaws of perdition. He accompanies us before the judgment seat of God to render an account of his stewardship, and witness either for or against us. It is generally believed that our guardian is God’s messenger of comfort and relief to us in purgatory, and that he will be our comrade and inseparable companion for all eternity. You ought to remember always this invisible presence; you ought not to live in utter insensibility to one who does so much for you, and who is so closely associated with your life by God. Your intercourse with him should not be one-sided; you should reply to his care with prayer, confidence and love.
III. The interest of our Angel Guardian in us is second only to that of God, of Jesus Christ, of His Blessed Mother. It does not matter who or what his charge is. Lazarus is as valuable as Dives; the heresiarch or the persecutor, Judas, Simon Magus, Mahomet, Luther, even Antichrist himself is as much the object of his guardian’s care as the Apostle or Martyr. Whether we be lambs or goats, predestinate or reprobate, our angels see in us only a soul created in the image of the Most Holy, bedewed with the blood of Redemption, one capable to the last of becoming a companion of the blessed in glory. So their task is always honourable, always dear to them, always deserving of their most zealous exertions. Even if their efforts prove to be in vain, still they have the assurance of having done their best for their Master and accomplished His will. What comfort and encouragement you should derive from this! God has placed one of His princes at your beck and call; and all his talents and love are at your service. Be true to God and to yourself and you cannot fail of victory and reward.
I. St. Paul says of the angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?” (Heb. i. 14). God employs them as His agents, as intermediate, secondary causes of the works of various kinds which He carries out for the benefit of mankind. God also uses men as the agents of His dealings with other men; to exercise the functions of Providence towards them, enlighten their minds, move them to goodness, help them to save their souls. God uses further the intelligence of man for the material development of this earth, by the discovery of its secrets and the manipulation of its great forces, such as electricity, for example. The angels are an innumerable multitude of immense intellectual forces. Every creature of God has its utilities, and these are proportioned to its nature and activity. The angels have functions to fulfil on this earth, as Scripture itself informs us, and these may be material as well as spiritual. It may well be, in accordance with a widely received supposition, that the Almighty made use of the instrumentality of the angels in the development of the universe, and in the maintenance and guidance of it subsequently. How grand a conception of nature this opens out to us! The possibilities that we can imagine are wonderful, and it is certain that the actual facts are more wonderful still. When we see in God all things as they are, we shall discover for the first time marvellous harmonies of the spiritual and material universes which are hidden from our present science.
II. More important than the material disposition of the universe is that race of beings for whom this earth at least was made. The salvation of mankind is that which most of all contributes to the divine glory, and this must be, consequently, the chief interest of the angels on this earth, and their chief occupation. Men form corporate bodies and societies which have a common action and distinct spirit of their own, and which need a peculiar guidance and graces from God in addition to those which are bestowed on individuals for their separate advantage. It is reasonable to suppose that some of God’s “ministering spirits” are appointed to superintend the life and action of societies and assist them in the universal struggle for right against wrong. This accords with the words of Holy Scripture: “He hath given His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands shall they bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone” (Ps. xc. 11, 12). The prophet Daniel tells us of the angelic Princes set over Israel and the Persians and Greeks. There were also tutelary angels of the Holy Place in Jerusalem. So we may suppose that kingdoms and religious houses and churches have their special protectors, to watch over their spiritual interests, and protect them from the malevolence of the evil spirits. Pay homage to the angels of such places as you live in or of churches that you visit.
III. The universal sense of the Christian people has always clung to the beautiful idea of Guardian Angels being appointed by God to every individual child of Adam, to protect them, pray for them, move them to good, and in every way to promote their salvation. This is a manifestation of the grandeur and power of God, in that He is able to assign such a multitude of glorious spirits to the charge of one department of creation. It shows how valuable we are in the sight of God, and what immense love and care He has for us. There are depths of wisdom, as yet inscrutable, in this system by which God sustains us in our conflict with evil, strengthens us against the malice and fearful power of our tempters, and maintains a just balance of forces in the spiritual world. Glorify God for His greatness as shown in the angels; thank Him for His tender care of you; be always mindful of your companion angel.
