Opening Prayer
I reject the material principles and theories of atoms that attempt to explain nature apart from you. I look upon the birth of the universe and see not chance or a spider’s web of molecules, but an intelligent Cause and a Governor who rules all things with wisdom.
Grant me the grace to recognize you, the Governor of the universe, presiding over the details of my life just as you presided over the creation of the heavens and the earth. Let me never doubt that Thy providence governs the stars and the soul alike.
Amen.
Matthew 12:1-8
1At that time Jesus went through the corn on the sabbath: and his disciples being hungry, began to pluck the ears, and to eat. 2And the Pharisees seeing them, said to him: Behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days. 3But he said to them: Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and they that were with him: 4How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the loaves of proposition, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for them that were with him, but for the priests only? 5Or have ye not read in the law, that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple break the sabbath, and are without blame? 6But I tell you that there is here a greater than the temple. 7And if you knew what this meaneth: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: you would never have condemned the innocent. 8For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath.
St. Basil the Great
St. Basil critiques philosophers who explain nature apart from God. He evaluates their systems as “a true spider’s web”—weak and lacking consistency. Basil differentiators the “purely material principles” of atoms and molecules from the Intelligent Cause that presided at the birth of the universe. The narrative of grace is found in the very first words: “In the beginning, God created”. Without this, nothing governs or rules, and all is “given up to chance”.
Basil captures the sharpness of the folly of materialistic principles by noting that such systems are inherently unstable and eventually “destroy one another” because they lack an intelligent Cause. By affirming that “in the beginning God created”, the believer is guarded against the consequences of atheism and anchored in the reality of a Creator who rules the universe.
“It’s a true spider’s web woven by these writers who gave to heaven, to earth, and to sea so weak an origin… Deceived by their inherent atheism, it appeared to them that nothing governed or ruled the universe.”
— St. Basil the Great
Mary and the Magisterium
St. Basil ridicules atheistic philosophies as “spider’s webs” that try to explain nature apart from God. Mary stands as the definitive witness to the Intelligent Cause of the universe. She did not view the world as a product of “chance” or “atoms”, but as the creation of the God who became her Son. Her life is a rebuke to those too ignorant to rise to a knowledge of God, affirming that “In the beginning, God created”.
- Do I sometimes fail to keep in mind that God "continues to manage the universe moment by moment"?
- In what area of my life am I living as if "nothing governed or ruled", rather than trusting in Providence?
Closing Prayer
Creator of the universe, help me to recognize every day my dependence on You.
Amen.
