Ave Maria!

I have been reading a short book called The Creation by Trophime Mouiren. It is not a famous book, to be sure! But it is a gem. It was written in French in 1961 and translated into English in 1962. I’d like to share a couple of beautiful quotes from it which underscore the Christocentric nature of all of creation.

In speaking about the biblical passages on creation, Mouiren writes:

We can now read the texts, for we know that our faith must go beyond the words themselves and the situations they describe, to the person of Christ, to his mystery, which alone can throw a full light on the creative act and give it its full meaning.

Since everything was created in, through and for Christ, we have the key to understanding creation and all of salvation history. In Christ we see everything in that “full light” and are able to grasp its “full meaning.” This is especially true if we are to fully understand the great moment of the creation of Adam by God. Adam prefigured Christ, was the father of the human race from which the Word would assume His Sacred Humanity. Mouiren says:

Adam is only known in the light of the new Adam, Christ. To know Adam as he came from the Creator’s hands we need the light of the mystery of Christ[…]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church n.359, in fact, quotes Vatican II and St. Peter Chrysologus on on this point and states:

“In reality it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear.” (GS 22 # 1) “St. Paul tells us that the human race takes its origin from two men: Adam and Christ. . . the first man, Adam, he says, became a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit. the first Adam was made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to give him life… the second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created him. That is why he took on himself the role and the name of the first Adam, in order that he might not lose what he had made in his own image. the first Adam, the last Adam: the first had a beginning, the last knows no end. the last Adam is indeed the first; as he himself says: I am the first and the last.” (St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermo 117: PL 52, 520-521)

The recapitulation of all things in Christ is especially realized in His Resurrection from the dead and His Ascension into Heaven. Obviously, the consummation of submitting all to the Father will be on the last day, the day of our resurrection, judgment, and through the mercy of God – let us pray- our glorification with Him in the everlasting Beatific Vision.