In the beginning -SoiwktVis , Arthur CT — I Hie. -AlW £?<•/ 43 IN THE BEGINNING *<9 * Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/inbeginningOOsawk IN THE BEGINNING by Rev. Arthur J. Sawkins, Pastor of Immaculate Conception Church, Toledo, Ohio Four addresses delivered in the nationwide Catholic Hour (produced by the National Council of Catholic Men, in cooperation with the National Broadcasting Company) on Sundays from June 2 through June 23, 1940 Page The Uncreated One 3 The Creation of the Angels 10 The Creation of Our World 18 The Creation of Man 26 National Council of Catholic Men 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D. C. Printed and distributed by Our Sunday Visitor Huntington, Indiana Imprimatur : Hh JOHN FRANCIS NOLL, D. D., Bishop of Fort Wayne THE UNCREATED ONE Address delivered on June 2, 1940 I am not, at this time, addressing the atheist. I am not undertaking just now to answer the man who says, “there is no God.” It can be done; but why do it here? Those who do not want to believe in God are not listening anyhow; and you who are listening know there is a God. It seems as unneces- sary as proving that each of us had a father. We may not know Him very well; we may never have spoken much to Him; He may even seem like a stranger to some of us; and of course, we have never seen Him. But, somehow, perhaps only in a vague way that we have not analyzed, we are cer- tain there is a Supreme Being. I am sure we all want to know Him better. Therefore, I am addressing myself to parents first of all; but also to children, for this is something that children have a right to know, just as they have a right to know their own parents. I am ad- dressing, too—I hope—the young men and young women who are no longer children ; and also the old people who are drifting toward the undiscovered country; and especially all those, whether young or old, who are solitary, sick, or unfortunate; and fin- ally—so I trust—the thinker, the professor, and the scientist. This will be no argument, but a description and a narrative. For each statement that I shall make there exist arguments and proofs—and I shall be glad to provide them to anyone who cares to write for them, I will not give the arguments here ; 4 IN THE BEGINNING these radio talks will be, rather, a sort of serial, in four parts: The most stupendous story ever told, with an almost incredible principal character, hav- ing the most adventurous, fascinating, and aston- ishing accomplishments. Since the principal character of our story is invisible, we have to open up with an inquiry, a little detective work, as it were—to see if we can discov- er some clues, traces, footsteps, or finger-prints of His presence, His activities, perhaps even His char- acter. For that is the purpose of this story: To discover Him. I suggest that we begin with an examination of such a common thing as water! Every schoolboy knows that one of the laws of nature is that heat causes matter to expand, and cold causes matter to contract. We count upon this as an invariable fact. The blacksmith counts upon it, so he heats the iron tire before he shrinks it on the wooden wheel. That is the reason why we put the furnace in the cellar, so that the heated air or water will rise through the house. That is why a balloon goes up. We regard it as a universal law. But now we find, in the case of water, that the law has an exception. To a certain point, indeed, the law holds even for water; but then, oddly enough, the law stops and reverses itself—a thing unique in the universe. For, as water grows colder it also con- tracts, but at a point just a few degrees above freez- ing temperature we note that the contraction stops —and then, although the temperature continues to go down, expansion begins again. And what is the result? The result is that ice does not sink : it floats. Now this is a marvellous thing. For if that law had no such exceptions, the globe we live on would meet with disaster in just a few days. The rivers, THE UNCREATED ONE 5 the lakes, and the seas would soon be filled and chok- ed with ice from the bottom up to the surface. All marine life would be extinguished. Even shipping would become impossible except in the warmest climates and in the shallowest boats, for the sum- mer sun would not penetrate far below the surface of the frozen waters; and even the tropical zones would be infested with giant icebergs, and the sun- ny south would be shivering in the very midst of summer. So here is our first clue. It looks suspic- iously as if someone has been here, doing some care- ful planning with an eye to our well being. Let us leave this and follow another clue. Noise and friction in machinery are signs of waste mo- tion. Our experts and engineers are constantly ex- perimenting to eliminate it from trains, autos, ships, and planes. Smoothness and silence are what we want in machinery; but if we really admire it, let us take a look at some real machinery! Nor do I care whether we use a telescope or a microscope. Let us gaze into the sky and study the complex machinery of the solar system, where eight other ponderous planets are sweeping at unspeakable speed around the sun ; and all without a sound, with- out a jar, without losing a second in a century. Gaze into another world, through the microscope. The same thing is duplicated in the atoms of mat- ter, on a scale so small that the finest lens can hard- ly detect it. Each atom contains a kind of solar system, with a nucleus and a set of electrons, in a state of the most intense activity. Here then is more evidence. Not only is the object of our search a planner, but a most skillful and ingenious one. However it seems we do not need either a tele- scope or a microscope. We actually carry around 6 IN THE BEGINNING with us, in our own bodies, some of the most won- derful manifestations of wisdom, skill, and ingenu- ity. Take just one thing among many—the device for maintaining the temperature of the body. What an astonishing thing it is that a healthy body keeps itself at a precise degree of heat, even to a fraction like 98.6; and this it does regardless of the cold or heat around it. Your house is 70, your kitchen is 80, the cellar is 50, outside may be zero ; but no mat- ter where you go your body remains at 98.6. And so delicate is the balance that a variation of one degree shows there is something wrong within. Without doubt, Someone who was interested in us took the trouble to invent that human thermostat, that bodily temperature control, and He possessed the ingenuity to make it work perfectly for years and years without attention on our part. That Someone is the principal character of our story, the object of our search. Let me mention one more example of His con- cern for our needs. A scientist recently pointed out, in answer to an inquiry about life on the planet Mars, that our kind of life is impossible except on a planet that possesses air and water. Hence we could not live on the moon, nor on the sun; nor on Pluto, Jupiter, or Saturn; nor on Venus or Mercury; and unless Mars possesses air and water, we could not live there either. Has it ever occurred to you to wonder just why it is that we happen to be here, on this particular little planet in the midst of a universe of countless other spheres, precisely where the right amount of air and water are available, to say nothing of just the right temperature, instead of being stranded where such necessities are want- ing? Someone with great power and wisdom must THE UNCREATED ONE 7 have planned this for us ; certainly we ourselves had nothing to do with it. A very learned man once said to me that it is not correct to define man as the “animal that thinks”; it would be more exact to say that “man is the animal who could think if he wanted to try.” If he does try, he has the ability to discover in- numerable evidences of the intelligence, wisdom, power, and foresight of Someone whom we cannot see. But this is no place to stop; this is only the beginning of our inquiry. The trouble with many an investigator is that he quits thinking before he gets very far; he goes only half way with his clues and footsteps and fingerprints. If we stop now, we quit on the verge of a great discovery. We shall miss the thrill of the revelation that this unseen hero, so solicitous for our needs, is our own father, God; we shall miss the realization that many of us have been living in His house, under His very eye, with- out being aware of Him, without even a word of greeting to Him in the morning, or a word of grati- tude in the evening. If we will not shirk the effort, we can go on and discover additional facts about Him such as these four — First: He must have existed before anyone else, or any other thing, began. The long stretches of cosmic time, before the human race appeared on the earth, may carry us back through thousands and even millions of years; but it can be demonstrated to the satisfaction of any logical mind that eventu- ally we come to a beginning. Anything that is changing or moving, had to have a beginning; and therefore had to have someone to set it in motion. 8 IN THE BEGINNING God was there to do so. He was always there. He alone had no beginning. Ancient as the universe may be, God is more ancient still. Second : God must be present everywhere. Many people think of God only as the One who started the universe; they forget that He operates it too, every last particle of it. Nobody knows how big it is. Every new telescope reveals more of it; the new glass giant will reveal far more; but no astronomer expects to see the edge of the universe. Wherever it may be, God is there. He must be there—His presence is necessary in all created space, for without His supporting hand every creat- ed thing from the blade of grass to the remotest star would at once fall back into nothing. Third: The power of God must surpass all the exuberant energy and life of the universe, be- cause He is the source of it all. Man builds a great bridge over the Golden Gate, and looks on his handi- work with pride. But what is a bridge compared to a mountain range? And what is a mountain range compared to a planet? And what is a planet com- pared to a solar system? And what is a solar sys- tem compared to the constellations and nebulae in the Milky Way, and then to the galaxies and island universes beyond? Man, the engineer, plans his bridge after long study and laborious thought; he cannot execute his plan without the help of many others, striving through months and years of pat- ient toil. God, the Creator, plans without labor, acts without effort, and executes without aid, in an instant. Man cannot produce without materials to work with. Man cannot build without lumber and masonry and steel. Man cannot produce power without finding a source of power. Man must dig THE UNCREATED ONE 9 the coal out of its hiding place, penetrate the earth for oil and gas, harness the water-fall. Man needs materials and time and help. God, the Creator, out of nothing, in a moment, with no aid, produces a stupendous universe, and by a mere flash of His will endows it with enormous energies and latent powers of development and transformation. Fourth: The beauty that is in this unseen Father of ours must excel all the beauty that is vis- ible in the world. The flashing curtains of rain and the glistening jewels of hail and snow, the delicate coloring of the flowers and the dark solemnity of the towering redwood forests, the movement of the mighty rivers and the still majesty of the regal mountains, the purple splendor of the rising sun and the golden glory of his setting, the exaltation of the glowing dawn and the mystery of the starry night—all this, taken together and multiplied, is only a faint reflection of what you and I shall see when the veil is drawn back from the hidden face of God. My friends, is there any reason why every man and woman in America should not know these things? And what is more, is it not an astonishing and tragic fact that these things are not being taught to even half our boys and girls, either at home or in school or college? Those boys and girls have a right to know them from childhood; they have as much right to know God as they have to know their own natural father. And believe me when I say this: If one wants to stop perjury, dis- honesty, sexuality, divorce, injustice, oppression, and all the other iniquities of our so-called civiliza- tion, one will never make any headway with a na- tion which does not know God, love God, and serve God. THE CREATION OF THE ANGELS Address delivered on June 9, 1940 I make no apology for telling you today the marvellous story of the angels. Perhaps you do not believe in angels. Possibly you regard them as mythical or legendary beings, like Santa Claus or the fairies or the men from Mars. You may be thinking: “Did anyone ever see them?” Well, we won't argue that point; although I think you will agree that there is such a thing as discovering an entirely unknown object by deduction alone, as Sher- lock Holmes liked to do. Three of the planets are recent discoveries. A British astronomer found Uranus by accident in 1781. Neptune was discov- ered in 1846 by a young Frenchman as the result of intricate mathematical calculations, which many at the time regarded as the greatest triumph of the human mind. Watching Uranus, out on the cold frontier of the solar system, he noted some mystify- ing disturbance. Was something, as yet unseen, out there beyond that last visible planet? He told a German scholar where to point his telescope — and there it was, another giant planet. Ten years ago, Pluto was revealed by an American in the same way. Now suppose I could take you to the summit of a high mountain, and show you all the creatures of the universe. You would find them grouped and graded in order, arranged on a vast staircase, one higher than the other. At the bottom are those without life or motion, like the stones, the minerals, the mountains. On the next level is another group, still without life, but endowed with movement, like THE CREATION OF THE ANGELS 11 the air and the water. One step higher, and you would note the beginnings of life, without sensation, but with the power of growing. Another step, and there is the world of animal life in all its countless forms—insects, and birds of the air, and beasts of the field, and denizens of the deep. And now we arrive at a stage where we behold the highest type of life on earth—a creature possessing all the pow- ers of those below him, but also something more. Man is the only visible creature who is part matter and also part spirit. Now then, above man, be- tween man and God, but as yet unseen, is it not likely there is another world of beings, endowed with enormous powers? If not, there is an empty gap in the ascending scale of creation. The fact is, we know a great deal about the angels. They are the oldest living beings—far old- er than the redwood trees of California, more an- cient than the human race, and perhaps more an- cient than the stars. But they had a beginning. Unlike man, they probably all came into existence at once. Being spirits without a body, they passed through no period of infancy or youth, but began life in full enjoyment of all their powers. What were these powers? First, of all, intelli- gence—decidedly inferior to that of God, and yet immeasurably above our own. They have a know- ledge of created things that is far superior to that of man. They have a knowledge of history and the course of events on earth; they understand the secrets of nature; they can forsee, better than we, certain events of the future. They surpass man, not only in knowing more, but also in the manner of acquiring knowledge. We learn by long applica- tion to study, by slow degrees, and with much labor : 12 IN THE BEGINNING the angels see at a glance, by intuition, all they wish to know. We, in order to recover from our weariness, spend much of our time in sleep; the angelic mind is forever in a state of unwearied act- ivity. They live in the immediate presence of God, they see Him clearly, face to face, and they can penetrate far more deeply than we can into the mysteries of His nature. Yet there are many things which even the angels do not know. The date of the general judgment is unknown to them; they cannot read the secrets of our hearts if we choose to con- ceal them; they are unable to sound the full depths of the perfections of God. There will always re- main, throughout eternity, much for even the great- est angels to learn. Secondly, the angels possess the power of free- will, but in a more perfect manner than we do. Just as they know more clearly, so they resolve more firmly, and they abide forever by their decision. With them, there is no hesitation before making a choice, and no reconsideration afterwards. (The consequences of this we shall see a little later on, when we speak of their fall.) The angels, of course, have no bodies; and therefore they are not subject to the limitations of human beings. Consequently they are invisible, just as the human soul is invisible. They are not slow- ed down in their movements, as we are; they are not affected by hunger or fatigue or heat or cold; they have no emotions, like fear, sadness, anger, affection, desire, joy, such as we experience; they are not touched by any bodily impulses or tempta- tions; they do not suffer illness, weakness, old age, or death. For all these are experiences that belong THE CREATION OF THE ANGELS 1.3 to the body, and the angels are pure spirits without a body. This does not mean that they are disembodied souls. I have met people who imagined that the angels were the souls of departed human beings. This is not true. The angels have never been men, and men will never be angels, either here or here- after, any more than trees are animals, or animals are man. They are essentially different creatures by nature, and always will be. Of course angels have no wings, any more than they have hands or feet; but our imagination sometimes represents in- visible beings as though they were visible; and wings serve to picture the spiritual nature of the angels, and their superiority to man. Although they are spirits, it is probable that they have some physical power over material things; thus angels slew the first-born in Egypt, destroyed the army of Sennacherib, and scourged Heliodorus when he intruded into the temple. This power over material things undoubtedly includes the ability to assume a visible form and would explain the apparition of the angels at various times. Such an apparition would not necessarily be a human body, but certain substances combined into the appearance of a human body. What is the number of the angels? Wonderful as they are in their endowments of intellect, will, and spiritual powers, God was not content with cre- ating only a few of them. He chose to show His magnificence in the enormous multitude of the works of His hands. Daniel the prophet was grant- ed a momentary glimpse of the angels in heaven, and he tells us that “thousands of thousands min- istered to him, and ten thousands times a hundred 14 IN THE BEGINNING thousand stood before him” ( Daniel 7:10). This immense mutitude is divided into three great hier- archies, and each hierarchy is again divided into three choirs ; so that there are nine choirs altogeth- er (and this is indicated clearly in both the Old and New Testament). The first hierarchy comprises those spirits who are devoted to the immediate service of God, who are in personal attendance upon Him; and includes the nobles of all the angels, namely the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones—distinguished for their love, their understanding, and their humility. The second hierarchy includes the Dominations, the Virtues (or Forces), and the Powers. These are associated with the external rule of God over creation. Their interest is the universal sovereign- ty of God over all things, zeal for the maintenance of His authority, resistance to usurpation by all those forces which seek to thrust themselves into the place of God. They are defenders of the rights of the Most High. And now we come to the third hierarchy, which seems to have been entrusted with executive pow- ers over the external world. They act as guides, directors, and messengers in carrying out the divine decrees regarding the visible world. In this divis- ion we find first the Principalities, as they are called in Holy Scripture. These are the great spirits who have the guardianship of nations and peoples: for not only individuals, but nations, appear to have guardian angels. Thus the prophet Daniel speaks of one of them as “the prince of the kingdom of the Persians” ( Daniel 10:13). Next below them we find the Archangels, described as “the seven who stand before the Lord They seem to be the cap- THE CREATION OF THE ANGELS 15 tains or immediate chiefs of the last order of heav- enly spirits. They have been chosen for some of the most important add momentous missions to mankind. Three of them are known by name — Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel. Michael was the leader of the faithful angels against Lucifer, the leader of the rebellious spirits. Raphael was sent as the guide of the young Tobias. And Gabriel had the distinction of being assigned particularly to the events connected with the coming of the Redeemer. Five centuries before Christ was born, Gabriel ap- peared to the prophet Daniel in answer to his earn- est prayer, and told him how much time would still have to elapse before the hope of the nations should appear. It was Gabriel who appeared to Zachary, and promised him a son, who proved to be John the Baptist. It was Gabriel again who shortly after stood before Mary at Nazareth, and made the great announcement : “Thou shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus” ( Luke 1:31). It was this same archangel, without doubt, who ap- peared more than once to Joseph, and directed him how to provide for the safety of the Child and His mother. Last of all the nine choirs, the third group in the third hierarchy, are the angels in the strict sense of the term. To these is committed the guard- ianship of individual men. They are the ordinary messengers of God. They are the “ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). These are the ones referred to in the 90th psalm: “He hath given his angels charge over thee ; to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands they shall bear thee up; lest thou dash thy foot against a stone” 16 IN THE BEGINNING (Psalm, 90:11-12). Although they are the least of the celestial spirits and inferior to the others in their endowments, yet they far surpass in holiness and power and beauty and intelligence anything that we can experience or conceive—so much so that those to whom they have appeared sometimes thought they had seen the Divinity Itself. If that be true of the lowest, what must be the ineffable splendor of the highest! And what the indescrib- able glory of the One who created them all! Why did God create these glorious beings? Did He need them? Certainly not. God was under no obligation to create anything. God did not require anything. He was rich in all good, enjoying im- movable repose and perfect activity, a solitude with- out loneliness. But God wished to share what He had with others; and since there were no others, He created them. Out of the void He would call them. Immortality and eternal happiness He would give to them. But He would not force it on them. They must choose it freely. And that meant that they must be tested, and tried, and proved. What was the trial of the angels? That is a secret which God has not revealed. Of course it could not have been a test like that of Adam and Eve, which was based upon the denial of a bodily appetite. The angels were not capable of carnal desires or physical temptations. Some have sup- posed the cause of their fall was an unbridled de- light in themselves, in their talents, their dignity, their beauty, as expressed in the boast, “I will be like the most High” ( Isaias 14:14). Another pos- sible cause might have been the spirit of self-suf- ficiency and independence, an impatience of all authority and restraint, an attitude of defiance and THE CREATION OF THE ANGELS 17 revolt, expressed in the cry, “I will not serve.” Again it has been surmised that the revolt was con- nected with the coming incarnation of the Son of God ; that the angels were required to recognize the Second Divine Person in His human nature, and to pay Him homage; and that, seeing the Divinity in a form inferior to their own, they refused to hum- ble themselves. Whatever the trial was, it was a test of their spiritual powers of mind and will; and therefore their sin, though not so degrading as some that man is capable of, would be far more grave and damnable. An angel sees every aspect of his action at once; whereas we see only gradu- ally, one aspect at a time. An angel does not re- consider, does not have change of mind, and there- fore does not repent. Consequently there could be no second chance for him. He would ask no par- don, he would be promised no redeemer. That one sin settled his fate forever. The Son of God says: “I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven” (Luke 10:18). The fall of that high spirit drew many others down with him. It was the saddest and most colossal disaster of all ages. The stage was now set for another tremendous drama. Who would take the place of the fallen angels in heaven? Who would occupy those va- cant thrones? Would God design a new and differ- ent world, and call another personality “out of the everywhere into the here”? And if so, what would Satan do? Having chosen to be the enemy of God, would he also be the enemy of all the works of God ? The answers to those questions will be discuss- ed on the coming two Sundays. THE CREATION OF OUR WORLD Address delivered on June 16, 1940 Last Sunday, we saw how the disastrous re- bellion of the angels had opened the door for an- other episode in the tremendous drama of Creation. Today, before the actors appear, we shall be privi- leged by special permission of the Great Producer to watch the setting of the stage before the second act begins. Up to now, no piece of physical material, large or small, has ever existed. The angels are immater- ial bodiless spirits, and so of course is God. There is no space, and no time ; in all the “shapeless, scope- less blank abyss” no stars, nor sun, nor moon, nor planet—nothing that can be seen. Suddenly, quiet- ly, smoothly, without an effort, almost without a word, something is there! Something indescribably vast, but nevertheless in motion; something with- out form, and without life. It is the beginning: Space and time and matter have begun. While we are intently watching to see what the silent power of the unseen hand shall unfold, while immensely long periods of time are going by, the vast mass of moving nebular matter begins to come apart; it divides and subdivides. Stupendous forces springing from some mysterious source are set in operation—gravitation, explosive heat, magnetic, electric, and atomic energies. Great sections separ- ate to unbelievable distances, without ceasing to re- volve, without going astray, without getting out of control. It seems as if a mighty plan is revealing itself. Space seems to extend without limit. Galaxies THE CREATION OF OUR WORLD 19 and spiral nebulae and milky ways appear. Blue stars, and white stars, and red stars; heavy stars and light stars, all in magnificent motion. What an indescribable spectacle ! More ages of time go by. We now notice one star in particular ; not the largest, nor the smallest, but nevertheless unique. While we were watching elsewhere, this star has completed the early stages of its evolution. To see stars in pairs, swinging round each other, is nothing rare. But here is a star, far, far away from any other star, with a whole family of planets swinging in giant circles around it—four quite close and comparatively small, four very large and very distant, and one dim, dark, lonely planet far out on the frontier. And now we try to inspect more closely. One of the smaller planets, the third from the sun, has a special interest for us. We strive here to see every detail; but details are not easy to discern. Appar- ently at this moment our planet is void and empty, still scorching hot, hidden completely beneath dense clouds of gas; a vague rotating sphere without life or light, slowly cooling and becoming solid. Some creative force from God moves or broods over the dark surface. Now the first glimmering of diffused light appears, but only a half light and not the direct light of the sun. In the second stage of trans- formation, we see the formation of some kind of atmosphere, evidently a most important operation in the early history of the earth. At this epoch, so it seems, there is a seething, indescribable mass of matter, shrouded in thick, suffocating vapors of carbonic acid gas, which makes life impossible for lung breathing creatures. No air-breathing animals are seen. Possibly the work going on in this second 20 IN THE BEGINNING period is the chemical combination of oxygen and hydrogen into water, and then the continual forma- tion of dense clouds by evaporation under the in- fluence of the still intense heat. Beneath this un- broken cloud a great expanse of newly formed waters is covering the earth in one universal ocean. In the next geological period, a marvellous change takes place. Great volcanic disturbances and whole- sale upheaval of mountain ranges bring the dry land into view. One particular mighty sierra rears itself across several continents in a series of moun- tain chains from the far north to the very south pole. And now, the temperature has moderated to such a degree that the earth becomes covered with a luxuriant abundance of verdure, far surpassing that of the tropical forests yet to come. Thousands of generations of gigantic plants shoot up rapidly, disappear, and give place to others. This vegeta- tion, becoming compressed and solidified, slowly forms into coal beds. We are tempted now to glance into the future. Is this being prepared for someone to come in that distant day? But look, at this same time, the heavy, carbonified poisonous atmosphere is being cleared and purified, and the earth gradually becomes a suitable abode for a new type, the air- breathing animals. In the fourth stage, we see an- other spectacular thing. The dense cloud of vapor which darkens the earth begins to break up; and through the openings the sun, the moon, the planets and the millions of more distant stars appear in the now visible sky. This does not mean that they are created from nothing at this time, for the stars, the sun, and even the more distant planets are older than the earth; but they now become visible, and the order of days and seasons begins. How glorious THE CREATION OF OUR WORLD 21 seems the earth as the full light of the sun streams upon it for the first time ; but as yet there is no one there to look upon it. The fifth day or period is now at hand; and animal life is noticeable for the first time. This indeed may not be its first commence- ment. The sea has been alive for ages. But to the eye of the watcher, this globe has been still an un- peopled waste. Now there is a great outburst of animal life anew. It is a period of great amphibious monsters and creeping things, of gigantic birds and strange flying creatures like serpents, giant frogs, lizards as long as a locomotive. But the great rep- tiles die out, followed by a long period during which various distinct species of animals appear, and slowly disappear. Is this to be all? It is now time to pause, and consider what that scene reveals. This is what Moses, in some way, saw over 3000 years ago, long after it all happened. Perhaps Moses had the privilege of actually seeing the his- tory of creation unrolled before his very eyes in a vision, or in a succession of visions. It may be that each day there was pictured before him an entire geological era. Whatever the manner of its happen- ing, this great revelation was not lost, but was care- fully preserved for all mankind to read; and so “he summarizes each set of events in a single day, al- though it may have commenced during an earlier epoch and extended into a later one.” The first Mo- saic day can readily correspond to the first period of the earth’s existence as a globe. At the begin- ning of this day there was no light. At the dawn of the second day there was no water and no air. On the morning of the third day there was no visible land, no trees, no plants, above the universal ocean. At the break of the fourth day, the universal cloud 22 IN THE BEGINNING had not broken to let in the light of the sun, and moon and stars. Opening the fifth day, animal life had not yet appeared upon the land. But all these came in their proper time. You have heard the story as told by the scien- tist. Listen now, to that classic narrative of the in- spired Moses ( Genesis 1:1-24) written long before Cicero and Homer were born. “In the beginning God created heaven, and earth. And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters. And God said: Be light made. And light was made .... and there was evening and morning- one day .... And God made a firmament .... And God called the firmament, Heaven; and the evening and morning were the second day. God also said: Let the waters that are under the heaven, be gather- ed together into one place: and let the dry land appear. And it was so done. And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And he said: Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was so done .... And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said : Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seas- ons, and for days and years : To shine in the firma- ment of heaven, and to give light upon the earth. And it was so done And the evening and morn- ing were the fourth day. God also said: Let the waters bring forth the creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth under THE CREATION OF OUR WORLD 23 the firmament of heaven. And God created the great whales, and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind. And God saw that it was good .... And the evening and morning were the fifth day. And God said : Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so done.” Such are the words of Moses. And now, as the sixth day or geological epoch begins, the time has come for the creation of man. Hitherto the earth has not been ready for him. At first it was too hot for any form of life. Then, through long ages, the air had to be purified, and the minerals deposited, and the coal-beds prepared. Then the giant pre-historic animals for some reason had to have their day, and disappear, to make room for the smaller species more useful and more ser- viceable to the master whose day is about to dawn. Meanwhile the earth has settled into an orbit about 93,000,000 miles distant from the sun, just the right distance for our kind of life, neither too near for comfort, like Venus and Mercury, nor too far, like Mars and the greater planets. It is rotat- ing on its axis—not too slowly, like the moon, nor too fast, like Jupiter. Its axis is not erect, not straight up and down, but tilted—not, however, completely sidewise, like Uranus ; but about 23 degrees, a most carefully calculated angle, amazing in its varied and complex effects especially in the temperate zones, just the right amount of inclination to provide a regular and moderate change of seasons, and also afford the widest possible zones for human habita- tion. It is not too much to say that the whole course 24 IN THE BEGINNING of history was to be affected by that single calculat- ed angle. The stage is now set; the properties are all as- sembled ; everything has been thought of. The sec- ond episode of the great drama is about to begin. While we are waiting, let me ask one question : Have you ever been disturbed by those who like to startle us by the loud declaration that science and religion are in conflict? Here is one example; about 16 years ago I attended the summer school of a well- known mid-western university. The Catholic Chap- lain told me that the president not long before was addressing the newly admitted freshmen and advised them in substantially the following words: “You are entering a new environment here. Some of you are bringing with you certain cherished religious convictions. Perhaps you will find in this univer- sity that some of the teachings of science cannot be reconciled with your convictions. In that event, what are you to do? My advice to you is, that you give up your religious convictions.” So spoke that university president. Now it happened that the Catholic Chaplain knew a few other things in addi- tion to theology : he had been a lawyer. Later on the president retracted his advice publicly. Such advice of course was an absurdity, to say nothing of being a criminal deception of credulous minds. I say to you, that the only ones who fear any conflict are, first, those who do not know true science, or secondly, those who do not know true religion. I am told the spirit of antagonism between science and religion is a thing of the past: that the trend is the other way. I would like to be convinced of this. There are signs that it is becoming true. There are more and more like Pasteur and Marconi, THE CREATION OF OUR WORLD 25 more and more like Abbe LeMaitre, Father Hub- bard, the scientists at Catholic University, and the seventy members of the Pontifical Academy of Sci- ences; but so far, I believe, only among the keener intellects. The great crowd who depend upon others to lead them, especially the youth, are still aglow with the superstition that science is all the re- ligion they need and want. To believe some writers and talkers, you would think that Christianity was trembling on the brink of dissolution because of the advance of science. I cannot speak for the non-Catholic believer in Chris- tianity ; but I know that no intelligent Catholic fears for one moment the investigations of geology, or of any other science. Why should he? All the sciences only serve to enlighten him still more about the marvellous works of God. The farther the geologist goes in his delving into the past the more we realize the eternity of God. The more the new telescope of the astronomer on Mount Palomar shall reveal, the more we shall learn of the immensity and mag- nificence of God. As for the scientist—I mean the true scientist, the first hand investigator, the humble seeker after truth who jumps at no conclusions, but patiently lays up evidence and gradually sees the wonders of science revealed to his eager eye—I envy him. Geo- logist, biologist, astronomer, or chemist—his life must be a bit of heaven on earth. I have never been able to understand why the scientist is not the most religious man on the face of the earth. Many indeed have been. No one else sees so much of the wonders of God. No one except the saint comes so close to seeing God Himself. THE CREATION OF MAN Address delivered on June 23, 1940 Last Sunday we followed the drama of crea- tion up to the point when the first man appears upon the earth, and opens his eyes to see what is around him. We have now arrived at that dramatic mo- ment. God has just created him. Let us contemplate that scene. The angels have been watching too. They have watched the creation of the universe, the emergence and slow evolution of the earth, the beginning and development of life upon its surface and in the air and in the sea, under the guiding hand of God. Doubtless they have won- dered what was to be the culmination. It may be that, without the fall of the angels, man might never have been created. We do not know. But now they see man for the first time. With what intense in- terest they must be gazing upon him! God has not created myriads of men at one stroke, as it seems He had done, ages before, with the angels themselves. They look not yet upon a race, but upon an individual ; created however to be the father of all the living. He is not an infant, nor a child, but a perfect man. And he is alone in the world. Everywhere around him there is life; but no human voice answers to his. There are no homes, there are no schools; no cities have been built, no ships are upon the surface of the rivers. True, the night and day are kind to him, the sun and wind are gentle with him, the birds and beasts are friendly with him. But he is alone, and he is in danger. THE CREATION OF MAN 27 The good angels are inclined to look on him as a brother and friend. But what sort of creature is this, they say; he is different from everything else that God has created. He is like us, and still he is also like the brute; he is neither an animal nor an angel, and yet he resembles both. He has a body, in common with the animals ; but what a wonderful body it is! The brain and the nervous system are far more perfect than in the animals. Beauty and health and strength are there in abundance. But much more beautiful than the bodily frame is the countenance, for upon it is the reflection of the splendor and nobility of the soul within. That soul partakes of the qualities of the angels and even of the eternal God: It is a spirit, it is immortal, it is intelligent, it is free and master of itself. And so the good angels regard this new creature as a brother and a friend. But what did God make him for? What is he destined for? This must have interested the fallen angels especially. They are the enemies of God; they must be also the enemies of man. It is natural that they regard man as an enemy; for is it not he who is to gain what they have lost? Not for un- happiness has God made man; God has planned for him a wonderful destiny, even in this world. Phy- sical suffering and pain will not exist. The body, being what it is, naturally is perishable, subject to infection, disease, degeneration, and the weakness of old age. But Adam is to be free from sickness, free from senility, free from suffering. He is to enjoy continual health, youthful vigor, and physical happiness. The distress that comes from heat and cold, from hunger and thirst, he will be able easily to avoid. Labor he may have, but without weariness 28 IN THE BEGINNING and without failure. He will have all the satisfac- tion that comes from achievement, invention, dis- covery, learning, building and progress, to an ex- tent which we can only dream of. In order that all these physical blessings may really come, man is to be gifted with immortality in body as well as in soul. The gradual approach of dissolution will be checked, and death will be unknown. Equally wonderful is to be the moral condition on earth. Body and soul are to be in such harmony that virtue will be easy, with an inborn abhorrence for evil. The desires of the body for satisfaction will always be subject to reason; good and evil will be clearly discerned ; and no matter how strong the passions, the will shall be stronger still. Man has the gift of complete self-control. The consequence will be an absence of hatred and contention and envy and revenge, of greed and selfishness, of in- temperance and impurity. And therefore, because crime and murder and vice and war will be absent, there will be nothing to impede the rapid progress of civilization. What a history here on earth shall be unfolded, if this great plan of God shall not be spoiled ! Still more wonderful, however, is the destiny that shall follow when the period of probation in this world shall be over. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him” (7 Cor. 2: 9). This is to be something beyond the nature even of the angels, much more so of man. No matter how free from evil this earthly existence may prove to be, no earthly happi- ness can touch that which is to come hereafter. Absence of sorrow does not begin to describe it. The THE CREATION OF MAN 29 possession of all riches, joys, and pleasures, not for a time but for everlasting ages, is only a faint por- tion of it. The thrills of surprise and discovery and revelation when men and angels and all creation are seen as they have never been seen here, is not the half of it. For what God has reserved for man is the same as He has reserved for the angels — namely the actual vision of God Himself. Such is Adam as the angels see him standing alone, gazing upon the world, endowed with his nat- ural, preternatural, and supernatural gifts. The evil spirits look on him with envy, for this was to be their destiny also. What is more likely than that they should plot his ruin, if it can be brought about? Satan is thinking : “Let us therefore lie in wait for the just, because he is not for our turn, and he is contrary to our doings. ... He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, and calleth himself the son of God. ... He is grievous unto us, even to be- hold .... he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, and he preferreth the latter end of the just, and glorieth that he hath God for his Father. Let us see then if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen to him, and we shall know what his end shall be” ( Wisdom 2:12-17). Satan, if the right opportunity shall present itself, can at one stroke ruin this contemptible rival, and also wreak his spite on God Himself. The opportunity for the tempter comes easily. God has not only endowed Adam with a splendid body and a gifted soul, but has prepared for him a place to live in wealth, comfort, and peace. Adam is rich, because everything he wants is