Daily Retreat 11/17/07
2007 Nov 17 Sat:Elizabeth of Hungary, mw, r M
Wis 18:14-16; 19:6-9/ Ps 104(105):2-3. 36-37. 42-43/ Lk 18:1-8
From today’s readings: “For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew, serving its natural laws, that Your children might be preserved unharmed.... Remember the marvels the Lord has done!... Jesus told His disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary....”
The Mighty Word and Wisdom of God
Although there is a specific book of the Bible titled "Wisdom," every verse of Holy Scripture is, in fact, replete with the Wisdom of God. In fact, part of the Book of Wisdom simply reviews how God's Word and Wisdom is clearly seen in earlier books of the Bible.
So, for example, today's first reading reflects on the events of Israel's Exodus out of Egypt, when all creation "was being made over anew, serving its natural laws, that [God's] children might be preserved unharmed."
As summarized by St. Thomas Aquinas, "Natural Law" is "the participation of the eternal law in rational creatures." In other words, God's design and will can be clearly discerned in the very nature of humans since we have been endowed with reason.
Even though Natural Law thus is the only sure basis for international or any universal human law, atheists and all kinds of secular humanists now object to all appeals to Natural Law because, instead of recognizing such as appeals to human reason (which Natural Law argumentations indeed directly are), secularists dismiss them as appeals to Divine Revelation. In fairness, valid Natural Law reasoning does also reliably conform to Divine Revelation, but that's just because of the harmony of Truth, so really, Natural Law conclusions can be securely established by human reason alone.
St. Thomas Aquinas compared Divine Revelation and Natural Law to a coin, which is stamped on both sides. Whether we see "Heads" or "Tails," we can instantly recognize the value of a coin, and so also, the conclusion is the same, whether God's eternal law is clearly spelled out in Divine Revelation or validly detected in Natural Law.
Wis 18:14-16; 19:6-9/ Ps 104(105):2-3. 36-37. 42-43/ Lk 18:1-8
From today’s readings: “For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew, serving its natural laws, that Your children might be preserved unharmed.... Remember the marvels the Lord has done!... Jesus told His disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary....”
The Mighty Word and Wisdom of God
Although there is a specific book of the Bible titled "Wisdom," every verse of Holy Scripture is, in fact, replete with the Wisdom of God. In fact, part of the Book of Wisdom simply reviews how God's Word and Wisdom is clearly seen in earlier books of the Bible.
So, for example, today's first reading reflects on the events of Israel's Exodus out of Egypt, when all creation "was being made over anew, serving its natural laws, that [God's] children might be preserved unharmed."
As summarized by St. Thomas Aquinas, "Natural Law" is "the participation of the eternal law in rational creatures." In other words, God's design and will can be clearly discerned in the very nature of humans since we have been endowed with reason.
Even though Natural Law thus is the only sure basis for international or any universal human law, atheists and all kinds of secular humanists now object to all appeals to Natural Law because, instead of recognizing such as appeals to human reason (which Natural Law argumentations indeed directly are), secularists dismiss them as appeals to Divine Revelation. In fairness, valid Natural Law reasoning does also reliably conform to Divine Revelation, but that's just because of the harmony of Truth, so really, Natural Law conclusions can be securely established by human reason alone.
St. Thomas Aquinas compared Divine Revelation and Natural Law to a coin, which is stamped on both sides. Whether we see "Heads" or "Tails," we can instantly recognize the value of a coin, and so also, the conclusion is the same, whether God's eternal law is clearly spelled out in Divine Revelation or validly detected in Natural Law.
posted by FrPitstick | 11/16/2007
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