The Garden of God: Toward A Human Ecology

The Created World Is Not Merely a Scenario into Which God’s Saving Action Is Inserted, but Rather the Very Beginning of That Marvelous Action

76 creation & nature life can be constantly enriched by integrating cultural and religious diversity through the sharing of values, a source of brotherhood and communion. Life in society must be considered first and foremost as a spiritual reality. It is the role of political leaders to guide people toward human harmony and toward the wisdom so longed for which must culminate in religious freedom , the authentic face of peace. The Created World Is Not Merely a Scenario into Which God’s Saving Action Is Inserted, but Rather the Very Beginning of That Marvelous Action From General Audience, October 19, 2011 THE GREAT HALLEL (PSALM 136 [135]) Today I would like to meditate with you on a psalm that sums up the entire history of salvation recorded in the Old Testament . It is a great hymn of praise that celebrates the Lord in the multiple, repeated expressions of his goodness throughout human history: it is Psalm 136 or 135 according to the Greco-Latin tradition. A solemn prayer of thanksgiving, known as the “Great Hallel ,” this psalm is traditionally sung at the end of the Jewish Passover meal and was probably also prayed by Jesus at the Last Supper celebrated with his disciples. In fact, the annotation of the Evangelists, “and when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (cf. Mt 26:30; Mk 14:26), would seem to allude to it. 77 creation & nature The horizon of praise thus appears to illumine the difficult path to Golgotha. The whole of Psalm 136 unfolds in the form of a litany, marked by the antiphonal refrain: “for his steadfast love endures forever.” The many wonders God has worked in human history and his continuous intervention on behalf of his people are listed in the composition. Furthermore, to every proclamation of the Lord’s saving action the antiphon responds with the basic impetus of praise. The eternal love of God is a love which, in accordance with the Hebrew term used, suggestive of fidelity, mercy, kindness, grace, and tenderness, is the unifying motif of the entire psalm. The refrain always takes the same form, whereas the regular paradigmatic manifestations of God’s love change: creation, liberation through the Exodus, the gift of land, the Lord’s provident and constant help for his people and for every created being. After a triple invitation to give thanks to God as sovereign (Ps 136:1–3), the Lord is celebrated as the One who works “great wonders” (Ps 136:4), the first of which is the Creation: the heavens , the earth, the heavenly bodies (Ps 136:5–9). The created world is not merely a scenario into which God’s saving action is inserted, rather is the very beginning of that marvelous action. With the creation, the Lord shows himself in all his goodness and beauty, he commits himself to life, revealing a desire for goodness which gives rise to every other action of salvation. And in our psalm, echoing the first chapter of Genesis, the principal elements of the created world are summed up, with special insistence on the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, and the stars, magnificent created things that govern the day and the night. Nothing is said here of the creation of human beings 78 creation & nature but they are ever present; the sun and the moon are for them— for men and women—so as to structure human time, setting it in relation to the Creator, especially by denoting the liturgical seasons. And it is precisely the Feast of Easter that is immediately evoked, when, passing to God’s manifestation of himself in history, the great event of the Exodus, freedom from slavery in Egypt begins, whose most significant elements are outlined. The liberation from Egypt begins with the plague of killing the Egyptian firstborn, the Exodus from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the journey through the desert to the entry into the Promised Land (Ps 136:10–20). This is the very first moment of Israel’s history; God intervened powerfully to lead his people to freedom; through Moses, his envoy, he asserted himself before Pharaoh, revealing himself in his full grandeur and at last broke down the resistance of the Egyptians with the terrible plague of the death of the firstborn. Israel could thus leave the country of slavery taking with it the gold of its oppressors (cf...