"The merciful love of the Lord fills the earth; by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, alleluia." - Entrance Antiphon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter
The Entrance Antiphon for today may be said to connect two events in the history of the universe, which Holy Mother Church loves to sing in Her Liturgy, especially at Christmastime and Eastertime, these two "lights" of the Liturgical Year. And these two events are the Creation of the world, especially of man, and of the redemption in Christ - the re-creation.
There is an especially famous Collect of the Church of the Patristic Era, attributed to St. Leo the Great, for the Solemnity of Christmas. It is currently used as the Collect for the Mass during the Day on Christmas, and runs:
"O God, who wonderfully created the dignity of human nature
and still more wonderfully restored it,
grant, we pray,
that we may share in the divinity of Christ,
who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever."
A similar Prayer is found in the Easter Vigil Mass, after the first Old Testament Reading, On the Creation, and it runs:
"O God, who wonderfully created human nature
and still more wonderfully redeemed it,
grant us, we pray,
to set our minds against the enticements of sin,
that we may merit to attain eternal joys.
Through Christ our Lord."
Both of these prayers show the connection which has constantly been made between creation and redemption, for in both instances mankind emerges with new life, borne from the mercy of the Lord. For, as we can never tire of saying, within God, the words "mercy," and, "love," are completely interchangeable. God's act of creating the world was an act born from His mercy, for He had no need for the visible or invisible world which He created, but purely out of His love and to manifest His Almighty Power He created the visible world. Yet He also created the invisible world, consisting of the angels and man, who is part of both worlds, both of whom may know God.
The mercy of God is even displayed in the Fall of the Angels, for those who, along with Satan, fell and were condemned to an eternity in Hell were still kept in existence, even though sin is an infinite offense against God deserving of annihilation. God's love is so strong, it is even still present to the demons by holding them in existence, though with the denial of the Beatific Vision which they will forever long for.
The same is true in the Fall of this world, brought about through the Fall of the Angels and Man. For through Adam's sin the world is subject to decay and death. The animals and plants which were given for his benefit become a danger and snare to him. Nevertheless, though they can harm man, God did not take away the great benefits which they can bestow. If He did, they would no longer reflect His beauty and order, and thus could not exist!
Nonetheless, it is in the Fall and Redemption of mankind that the mercy and love of God are most perfectly displayed! We remember back to that moment three weeks ago now, when the Easter Proclamation sounded forth in the Easter Vigil and those glorious words, "O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!" While the Fall of Angels and of the world sees only the preservation in their existence, the Fall of Man sees the Son of God, the Eternal Word, Who, in the beginning, "was with God . . . and was God (John 1:1)," take on a human nature, purely out of love and mercy!
St. John tells us, "He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made (John 1:2)." It is truly by the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, for Jesus is the Word of the Father! And it is through the Word of the Father the heavens are recreated, for it is through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus this comes about!
Within the innermost life of the Trinity there is nothing lacking, there is no outside force which can affect Their perfect and eternal Happiness, for there is nothing outside save by Their decree. Yet in the mystery of God's love for Himself and for mankind, God the Son deigned to take on a human nature, to become manifest to men, so they might know the love of God. And this love is indeed a mystery, for how can we fully understand it? Nonetheless, St. John tells us:
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us (1 John 1:1-2)."
Because God the Son, Love Itself, became flesh we are able to have a deeper understanding of this mystery of God's love. While it is true all His creation in some way manifests the marvels of his love, for as the Entrance Antiphon says, "The merciful love of the Lord fills the earth," it simply gives us theoretical reasonableness. But it is the Incarnation, followed by the Passion, Death, and Resurrection, which show us and provide an experience so that we may know God's love for us.
St. Paul says:
"God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life (Romans 5:8-10)."
The angels worship Jesus because of the great humility and love which He shows through the Incarnation, while theologians believe the demons rejected God because of the Incarnation, for in their pride they could not submit to a God Who would lower Himself to become man. We might imagine them saying, "If God is take not a created nature, the only acceptable nature would be an angelic one." But God went even lower than that. He took on the lowest nature He could while still being acknowledged as God.
And this far beyond the expectations of mankind! Man often looks for God outside the things of this world, i.e. something beyond, yet God, to be known and found by all, entered into this world! He is so near to us, and yet accepted by so few! He comes not in the power and majesty of old, as He did on Mount Sinai, but He comes in our own human likeness. However, in doing so He bestows a gift of inestimable value upon us, for not only does He raise our nature to a new level through its union with the Divine, but He pours the gift of the Holy Spirit into our hearts (Romans 5:5)!
The merciful love of the Lord indeed fills the earth, for all who are born into the life of the Spirit gain the divinity of Christ! When God first made the world, He bestowed natural life upon it, but in the Redemption a supernatural life has been given to us! Man simply longs for a long natural life, but the supernatural life, so far beyond our understanding, is offered to us instead! And yet, as we have already stated, so few accept it. Why is this?
We may suggest it is because of the coldness of hearts. The merciful love of the Lord is so readily poured out upon the world, but only an open heart may receive it. And a heart may only be open to the love of the Lord if it is has experienced the love of neighbor, save through a supernatural grace of God. So few are open to accept the love of the Lord because so few have experienced true love.
In our age so many through around the word love to mean simply an attraction, or a good feeling. The love of God is so far beyond this however! It is a self-emptying. It does not always feel good in the way of pleasure, but it is so much more satisfying. Indeed, we may even call it divine, for it bears a strong resemblance to the Word of God, on account of its "creative" nature.
"By the word of the Lord the heavens were made," and it is through love of neighbor - albeit only true love - that a heart may be opened, that a whole new world may be "created" for that individual! As the Son gives Himself for our salvation producing life within us, so our self-giving in love, will produce an opening for the Lord to pour forth His Spirit into the heart of another!
Let us then both open our hearts for the Lord to enter, but also for the love of God to be poured out, through us upon others. Thus, the God Who created the world in marvelous fashion, and re-created it with even greater marvels, may show the greatest of all marvels to it, by showing all His Loving Face!
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