Today is Jan. 14, Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time.
In the readings for today’s Mass, we read, “What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?” (Ps 8:5).
How many species of living organisms are there on earth? A conservative scientific estimate states between 3-5 million. Some researchers say 8 million, while others propose 11 million. And if you include all manner of microorganisms and make very narrow distinctions about what constitutes a species, you could arrive at (as some scientists have) the astonishing figure of one trillion.
Creation is an astonishing marvel! God, in his love and wisdom, has fashioned so many wondrous things! And not only has God made these (and all things in the known universe for that matter), but God also orders them according to the designs of his Divine Providence, constantly sustaining them in existence and directing the course of all that is.
God’s special love for humans
It’s astounding, then, that among all things that are, that have been, and that will be, God loves human beings in a special way. This is why the line from the Psalms, quoted today in Hebrews, marvels: ” What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?” Among all the things that have been made and are known by God, God loves humanity so much that he subjected his only Son — the very same Word through whom all things were made — to the ignominy of suffering and death.
Saint Augustine points out that it’s not because Jesus is the Word, the second person of the Trinity, that he is our mediator. It’s because he becomes man. Taking our flesh, he lowers himself beneath the angels so that we might be raised up higher than the angels! As St. Augustine explains, “Freeing us from mortality and misery, he leads us, not to the immortal blessed angels so as to become immortal and blessed by sharing in their nature, but to that Trinity in communion with which even the angels are blessed.” Of all the creatures God has made, he takes only our humanity, becoming like us in order to free us from our sins. Because he has come down to us, we might someday rise to him in glory!
Let us pray,
Attend to the pleas of your people with heavenly care, O Lord, we pray, that they may see what must be done and gain strength to do what they have seen. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.