Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 306

It was not to angels that God subjected the world to come,
of which we are speaking.
Instead, someone has testified somewhere:

What is man that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you crowned him with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under his feet.

The Hebrew Author, deeply versed in sacred scripture, referred to Psalm 8 in today's first reading. (In the first century, when The Letter to the Hebrews was written, the psalms had not yet been numbered.) And, in its turn, the psalm recalls the Genesis story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They were made "little less than the angels" and "crowned with glory and honor," with "all things subject to them." Gardeners might enjoy a similar divine power as the soil, plants, and weeds are subject to them. 

Poets have often expressed wonder about the human paradox. 

What a piece of work
is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite
in faculty, in form and moving how express and

admirable, in action, how like an angel, in

apprehension how like a god, the beauty of the

world, the paragon of animals. And yet to me,

what is this quintessence of dust? (Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2)

When the psalm and Hebrews describe humans as "little less than gods," the word god is generic. Psalm 82 describes the LORD presiding over a council of gods and complaining about their poor administration. God is not God's name. When irreligious people say they love God we might wonder which god they prefer and by what name they call them. 

As we settle into the 21st century and realize that we godlike humans created this world and have managed it very badly, we might wonder about this quintessence of dust? What have we done, how much damage can be undone, and what hope do we have for a restart? 

Leaders of democratic governments hope to find solutions that do not require sacrifices. Because they depend on their electorate, they fear the public and its revenge when it is made to suffer any hardship. And so they look for sustainable initiatives that excite the imagination and promise results without the risk of inconvenience. Fusion, for instance, promises to be an eternal supply of inexhaustible energy. Or it may be a will-o'-the-wisp.  

Pope Francis offers a more difficult but practical solution as he calls all humanity to a deeper spirit of humility, gratitude, and obedience. The genius of his encyclical, Laudato Si, is its recognition that the environmental crisis is precisely the same as the poverty crisis. They are borne of the same hubris. When our creative works express arrogance and entitlement we make a mess of everything. Failing to honor the beauty, dignity, and majesty of our world and every human being causes unspeakable harm to ourselves and our world. 

The author of Hebrews points us toward atonement and reparation as we follow the path of the Savior : 

...we see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor”
because he suffered death,
he who “for a little while” was made “lower than the angels,”
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he,
for whom and through whom all things exist,
in bringing many children to glory,
should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.

But humility, gratitude, and obedience do not sound creative or sustainable. They sound like misery. Will the gods of this misborne world accept their status as "lower than the angels?" Some might nod their heads and piously say, "We can do it with God's help." But our God does not play the assistant for anyone. Are they willing to help the LORD do it in his time and his way?

Jesus, our leader, has been made perfect through suffering, and his people readily follow in that narrow footpath. As we take up the crosses of atonement and reparation, we may hope for a crown of glory and honor.