Creation as Fundamentally Incarnational: Creation as a Sacrament

Creation is fundamentally incarnational:

Gen 1:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.
Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

John 1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Creation as a sacrament: as an embodiment of God's love; indeed, as an instrument of God's grace and God's love.

If that is true, then, as Gen says, matter is good, earth is good, flesh is good (the Word becomes flesh), everything that is – everything that has come into being – is good.

And yet, it is meant to point us to the love that gave it; otherwise, it "steers us wrong": it can become an "illusion."  

One kind of illusion is when you think you see water, and it isn't really there.  But another kind of illusion is when you think you see a ten dollar bill, and it turns out to be a cigar coupon.  The cigar coupon is real, but you are suffering from an illusion if you think it has the value of a ten dollar bill.  Similarly, bodies are there – they exist, and they are good – but you are suffering from an illusion if you think the body can give you what you can only get from true, honest open love.

So too, the body of a woman is good (indeed, sensual pleasure is good), but it is meant to be seen as the embodiment of – as an outward and visible expression of – something infinite which lies beyond the senses: namely, the infinite dignity and character of the whole human person (all the joys, the sorrows, the thoughts, the hopes and dreams, the feelings, the experiences, the loves of that particular, singular, unique person, which cannot be copied or replaced or fully accounted for or fully comprehended).  And yet, the body is good; the body does reveal the person: it's not a mere distraction from the real person (although, in some circumstances, it can be).

It's not just the mind, it's the whole person.  But it's not just the body, it's the whole person.

It's not simply the card and flowers, it's the love that the card and flowers represent.  But you still have to send the card and the flowers.  But the card and flowers can't be divorced from the love that sent them either.

So also, it's not just "spirit" (while "flesh" and "matter" is evil); sunsets are good, pleasure is good, chocolate is good, beautiful things are good, bodies are good.  

So it's not just the mind (spirit), it's the whole person (mind and body).  And yet, it's not just the body (the sunsets, the pleasures of the flesh, the chocolate, the cars and houses, etc.), it's the body as embodiment of love.  The bodily things can't be divorced from the whole: from the communion of love they are meant to embody or bring about.

Why do we have cars and houses and trees and water and medicine and businesses and governments and all the rest?  They are (meant to be) instruments of love – they are meant to bring about a communion of love.

Why do have fleshy bodies?  They are (meant to be) instruments of love – they are meant to bring about a selfless and committed communion of love between full and complete persons.

Is the sex just a bodily thing?  (Note that I didn't ask, "Is it a bodily thing at all? As though only "spirit" was good, and flesh was bad?  No, rather I asked is the sex just a bodily thing?)

Is the corporation just about material things?  (Again, not, "Is it about material things at all, as though if it made any money, money in and of itself was a bad thing.  No, we asked, Is it just about material things, and not about actual human persons (considered in all their fullness and human dignity)?  

So too, we might ask about sex, Is it just about a material thing, and not about the union and communion of two actual human persons (considered in all their fullness and human dignity)?

In a way, the body reveals the person.  (We reveal ourselves in and through the body.  How else?)  
In a way, however, the body can hide the person.  (We are so much more than simply a body.  Think of a handicapped person: broken body, but infinite spirit.  Think about the intimacy between two old people: Because their bodies are breaking down, does that mean their love or even their physical intimacy is necessarily any less?)

The body reveals the person (the person is revealed through the body); and the yet the body can hide the person (the person is still much more than just the body).

The world reveals God to us (God is revealed in and through the world); and the yet the world can hide God from us (God is still so much more than just the physical, created world).

Thomas Merton:

Theology of Light and the Theology of Darkness: The Way of Affirmation and the Way of Negation

The world, the universe, has a purpose, a meaning: it is a free gift of love, given to us to enjoy – as a means for entering into this eternal communion of love with Father, Son, and Spirit.  

But can we always discern God's purpose simply from looking at the world?  Not necessarily.  God's full purpose and meaning always remains hidden from us (a kind of darkness), because our minds are finite (just as the full depth and reality of a person we love always ultimately remains hidden from us, because we know only finite things, not the infinite whole) – it remains hidden, that is, until we become one with God.  Only then we will know as we are known.

1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see as in a mirror dimly, but then [we will see] face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

How can we make sure we are directing our lives with a clear vision of the truth about ourselves and the world and not based on faulty illusions ?

Habitual reality checks?  How would that work?  What might that look like?

As Thomas Merton points out, we might consider the importance of contemplation .  

And, as Josef Pieper points out, we might also consider, ultimately, the importance of worship.

What is worship?