Nature Becomes a Gospel
Faced with the glory of the Trinity in creation, we must contemplate, sing, and rediscover awe. Contemporary society has become dry, ‘not for lack of wonders, but for lack of wonder’ (G.K. Chesterton). Contemplation of the universe also means, for the believer, listening to a message, hearing a paradoxical and silent voice, as the ‘Psalm of the Sun’ suggests: ‘The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.’ Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. ‘There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world’ (Ps 19:2-4).
Nature therefore becomes a Gospel that speaks to us of God: ‘For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator’ (Wis 13:5). Paul teaches us that ‘Ever since the creation of the world his (God’s) eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made’ (Rom 1:20). But this capacity for contemplation and knowledge, this discovery of a transcendent presence in creation, must also lead us also to rediscover our fraternity with the earth, to which we have been linked since creation (cf Gen 2:7). This very goal was foreshadowed by the Old Testament in the Hebrew Jubilee, when the earth rested and man gathered what the land spontaneously offered (cf Lv 25:11-12). If nature is not violated and humiliated, it returns to being the sister of humanity.
Pope John Paul II, January 2000
