Praise of the Creator

Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

The magnificent doxology that we read from the Letter to the Romans today comes at the end of St. Paul’s discussion of Israel’s place in salvation history. St. Paul draws the words of this doxology from the Hebrew Scriptures, from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and from the Book of Job, as well as from other Hebrew writers whose writings don’t appear in the Scriptures.

All Biblical theology is an attempt to reflect on the ways of God in salvation history or in the history of our relationship with God which is precisely what Paul has been doing in Romans, chapters nine through eleven. When we come to the end of our reflections, we realize that no human being, not even the most illustrious theologian or scholar, can penetrate the mystery of God’s wisdom or the riches of God’s mercy. God’s ways are unsearchable. No theologian can completely understand the mystery of God. St. Thomas Aquinas acknowledged this deficiency one day as he gazed upon the crucifix hanging on the wall, “All my writing,” he said, “is so much straw when compared to God’s act of love for us.” Like St. Thomas, St. Paul realizes this all too well. So he humbly concludes this section of the Letter to the Romans with this doxology.

The wisdom tradition of Judaism teaches that wisdom comes from reflection on life. For most of us, wisdom figures are usually older men and women. At one time, the leadership of Sacred Heart Province decided that each house of formation should have one or two older friars living among the young friars. I remember one in particular who, when he was referred to as a wisdom figure, simply responded, “That only means that I am an old man.” To be honest, the wisdom tradition of Judaism also teaches that the fundamental questions of life, questions of origin and meaning and destiny, cannot be adequately answered by experience alone. It is then that we need to turn to the Creator, who fashioned our reality and in whose mind resides the meaning and purpose of all creation. This is exactly what St. Paul is doing in this passage from the Letter to the Romans. “From him and through him and for him are all things.” It is somewhat important to note that St. Paul focuses totally on God the Creator, which is somewhat atypical of him inasmuch as he usually focuses his attention on Jesus, the Savior and Redeemer.

When St. Peter answers Jesus’ question in the Gospel today, his answer comes back with a sense of certainty. Though this incident is reported in all three of the synoptic Gospels and all three Gospels record that St. Peter called Jesus the Christ or the Messiah, St. Matthew writes that St. Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” While he recognizes that Jesus is the one who has come to save the people of Israel, he also recognizes that this Messiah was acting as the Son of God. He realizes that the Creator has set this plan in motion and that Jesus is the agent of God. Much later, Christians will come to recognize that Jesus is God in the flesh, that the Father and He are one.

St. Paul’s praise of God concludes with a finely honed doxology. It extols God the Creator, who is the source of all that is; it acclaims God the sustainer, through whom all creation continues to be; it celebrates God the goal, for whom all things were made and to whom all things proceed. It is to this sovereign God that all glory belongs. Paul is certainly grounded in a very Jewish understanding of God. What is unique, however, is the way he has interpreted this theology. It is here that Christ holds a constitutive place.