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n. 4
aprile 2010
Altri articoli
disponibili
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Italiano
«... what is man?»
A responsible person of creation
KARL GOLSER
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The
question of the title is taken from Psalm 8 that says exactly, «I look
up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers, at the moon and the stars
you set firm- what are human beings that you spare a thought for them,
or the child of Adam that you care for him? Yet you have made him
little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and beauty, made
him lord of the works of your hands, put all things under his feet».
Thus, the question is an expression of wonder before the power given to
man, the power to dominate the works created by God. Psalm 8 echoes the
words that we read in the first page of Sacred Scripture, «God said,
‘Let us make men in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves and let
them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle,
all the wild animals and all creatures that creep along the ground”. And
God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God He created
him, male and female He created them. God blessed them saying, ‘Be
fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of the fish
of the sea, the birds of the sky and all the living creatures that move
on earth’» (Gen 1,26-28).
A
wounded and redeemed creation
The first Biblical approach is, therefore, that of a praise to God the
Creator and Saviour, of stupor for His wonderful works in the different
aspects of the universe and the life of every human being (See Psalms
19, 104, 139, 147, 148). However, the dimension of sin always enters the
Biblical vision of creation. Man, whom the Bible speaks of, is the one
who sinned, and his sin consists in wanting to be like God, denying of
being a creature. Thus, the first sin of man has necessarily some
consequences on the relation of man with nature (See Genesis 3,17-19).
The progressive spreading of man’s sin on earth leads us even to what
the Biblical anthropomorphic language calls repentance of God –for
creating man of earth (See Genesis 6, 6) – and to the universal deluge.
However, punishment is not the last word of God: every Biblical talk on
sin and its consequences starts always from the vision of redemption.
Thus, after the deluge, in his covenant with Noah, God solemnly
promised, “As long as earth endures: seed time and harvest, cold and
heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.» (Genesis
8,22), and placed a rainbow on the clouds as a sign of the covenant. We
may perhaps need to highlight that the reference to God the Creator and
the guarantee of life are the foundations in the darkest days of the
Israelite history. The Deutero-Isaiah, who writes during the exile of
Israel, announcing the freedom to the people, cannot but recall the
greatness of God the Creator (See Isaiah 40, 12-27).
We find an analogous argumentation in a personal disaster: before the
call of Job, in whom the chaotic powers of sorrow entered and whose
faith was strongly tested, God answers with the admirable order of
creation (Job, chapters 38-41)
New
relation with God
The writings of the New Testament presuppose faith in God the Creator
and Redeemer developed in the Old Testament. In Jesus himself, in his
preaching, his healings, but also in his passion, death and
resurrection, the work of God the creator and redeemer is realised in a
definitive manner. The reflection of Paul opens us to the conviction
that creation is made in view of Jesus Christ. This link is expressed in
the first letter to the Corinthians, «..for us, there is only one God,
the Father, from whom all things come and for whom we exist; and one
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things come and through whom we
exist» (1 Cor 8,6; cf Col 1,15-16). The Letter to the Romans, whose
first chapter speaks of the possibility to know God through creation
(See Romans 1,18-32), in Chapter 8 states that the entire creation
enters the saving history worked for men, and assigns to it half
participation in the glory of the Risen Lord (see Rom. 8,19-23).
The Bible does not know the modern approach –too much centred on
causality- that discusses whether the origin and the development of the
universe are due to chance or whether there is a providential design
behind everything. The Bible starts from a faith relation with God the
Creator, and it asks itself about the scope God had in mind with regard
to creation and redemption. The unique answer, repeated in many ways,
is: because God is merciful, because He is love, because He wants
everything to share his love in the fullness of life.
The specific love pre-supposes a being endowed with reason, but all
other created beings, in their own way and existence, reciprocate the
love that created them; they are for the glory and praise of God. In
other words, the concept of creation is a concept of relation: to say
that God has created all beings on earth and in heaven means that God at
the same time has entered a relation with them and that the creatures,
in their turn, refer to God the Creator.
Man
is responsible
If we shift our sight from God the Creator and Redeemer to the created
and redeemed man, we find today’s humanity in full crisis with regard to
his behaviour towards the created world. In fact, we cannot deny the
exploitation of the earth, with its consequent ecological degradation,
which undermines the very survival of live. We find the root of all this
in the wrong attitude of man towards nature. The Human beings should
first of all feel integrated in an admirably ordained cosmos, which
allows the life of all men and women, while this relation has become
unbalanced in our human history, above all in the Western thought. Man
has placed himself at the centre of creation, seeing nature only as a
resource to be exploited for his own purposes of dominion and
possession.
Modern man must learn afresh how to open his eyes before the wonders of
life, particularly of human life, so that behind this stupendous and
immense miracle he may recognise its Author to praise and thank Him (See
for instance Psalm 8). Here we have the virtues of a respectful
approach, as capacity of admiration, praise and thanksgiving. Moreover,
the attitude of “care” and the re-discovery of the sciences of life are
very important. The world and life are entrusted to our care and custody
(See Gen. 2,15) and we know how vulnerable they are in their balances.
Lastly, the gravest defect of modern thought is that of conceiving the
human subject as totally autonomous, forgetting his relation with God
creator and redeemer and with the entire created universe. In the
general audience of August 26, 2009, with reference to numbers 48-51 of
his encyclical Letter Caritas in veritate, Benedict XVI expressed
his concept about it, «Is it not true that the careless use of creation
starts from the place where God is marginalised or where they even deny
His existence? If the relation between the human creature with the
Creator is missing, matter is reduced to a selfish possession, man
becomes its “ultimate issue” and the purpose of our existence is reduced
to a breathless racing to possess as much as possible». On the contrary,
-the Holy Father continued- “the development of the alliance between
human beings and environment is indispensable, and must mirror the love
of God the creator”, recognising that all of us come from God and are
journeying towards Him ». He concluded his speech with the words of St.
Francis in the “Cantico
delle creature”:
«Altissimo, onnipotente, bon Signore, tue so’ le laude, la gloria e
l’honore et omne benedictione …
Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, cum tucte le tue creature».
Karl
Golser
Bishop of Bolzano-Bressanone
Piazza Duomo, 1- 39100 Bozen/Bolzano
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