Wisdom of Solomon 7:17-22
For it is He who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements;
the beginning and end and middle of times,
the alternations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons,
the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars,
the natures of animals and the tempers of wild beasts,
the powers of spirits and the reasonings of men,
the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots;
I learned both what is secret and what is manifest,
for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me.
Today’s verse is longer than usual because it touches on…everything! The creed tells us God is the Creator of all that is seen and unseen. In our flat-footed, technical and materialist culture, we tend to not care about what is “unseen” (by which the Fathers primarily meant “the powers of spirits” or what Paul referred to as thrones, dominations, principalities and powers, the spiritual forces in high places). For the biblical authors and Church Fathers there was no neat compartmentalization of knowledge into realms of specialization. Everything that existed was made by God and therefore everything was interesting and (mark this) interrelated. Catholic theology still thinks this way today. Not just “religious things” but all things are fit for us to learn about and all things are capable of giving glory to God. For God is the creator of all things from quark to Archangel.
