Gloria Dei homo vivens
It began simply enough, I think, with the question of my disposition toward space travel. Was I for it? Would I do it? I reflected that if offered I would accept a suborbital ride in one of these new craft, or maybe even, if offered, orbit the earth. But it is not a priority, nor is there any destination requiring travel through space that I care to visit.
Next, as a matter of course, came What about intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? Aliens? Almost, but not quite, What is the church’s position on…? But rather, it was, do you think there is..? So, after a pause, knowing I would have to explain, I answered No. Neither necessity nor probability indicate that any life exist, intelligent or otherwise, in any other form or place.
In God’s providence He has revealed himself to be Being Himself, and all that is came to be and exists though Him. The material universe, ever expanding and beyond our measure or ken, nonetheless remains limited. While the near-infinity of possibility leads many to believe that our race, the human race, is unlikely to be unique in what characterizes us to ourselves, that is, intelligence or even self-awareness, the vastness of possibility does not convert to probability.
We have been summoned into being by God’s unforced extension of His own goodness, the generous giving of being that characterizes His own Being. We know that there is no need for Man to exist, and we know how much less need for any other form of life, save mutual interdependence of species, the need that each form of earthly life have for another. We therefore discern that there is no need for any other life form in all Creation, however vast the Space.
The uniqueness of the one God, living and true, Who is Father and Son and Spirit in perfect communion, has loved into being only one living reality in His own image and likeness, which is Man. The one source and origin of all that is or will be, Himself unbound by limit or finitude, has placed in every human being a reflection of His own infinity, which is our immortal soul. Reflecting the uniqueness of God is one way to comprehend the uniqueness of Man.
What parents look for the first time at their newborn child and wonder how to find any other like her, rather than wonder that she exist at all?
The same providence has granted me a place not at the microscope searching ever deeper, nor at the telescope seeking ever farther, but rather at the screen and the altar, beholding the ever-astonishing mysteries of the immortal souls of men and women whose extension both inward and outward is without limit. Here I find sufficient infinity of both possibility and necessity that the completeness of creation is not contained, but rather re-presented in every immortal reflection of divine eternity and uniqueness.
When I have that as my daily fare, what greater feast could I seek? Which is a lot more elegant than saying aliens schmaliens, but means more or less the same thing. One who is denied, or denies himself, knowledge of the self-revealing God, casts himself into a frenzy of fears and suspicions that do him no good nor service.
Not that epochs or ages have passed since the day I was born, nonetheless have I travelled to and even resided in places astonishing in their own right and far beyond the imagining of my mother and father when first they greeted me. My appetite for travel has shrunk, and my interest in foreign places dwindled, to the point that I will be able to sate them revisiting places I once called home and exploring the expanses of my own home country. So I would rather drive from North Dakota to Nevada than go to the moon or any farther point. I would rather take a short flight in a B-17 than a long one in a capsule of any sort, and would much rather have my feet on terra firma than luna firma.
Perhaps this dwindling restlessness reflects not so much my age as my experience, which is that neither outer space nor alien creature hold any interest compared to the marvel of human life that I explore and experience every day. Gloria Dei homo vivens, as Saint Irenaeus (ca. 130 – 200 AD) put it. The glory of God is the man alive. And who is alive and alert to that is lacking nothing – nor is the universe he inhabits lacking.
Monsignor Smith
