{"id":4267,"date":"2017-08-01T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T00:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=4267"},"modified":"2021-10-20T10:51:30","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T02:51:30","slug":"181-creation-god-and-darkness-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=4267","title":{"rendered":"181. Creation: God and Darkness in the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 <\/sup>In the beginning God created\u00a0the heavens and the earth.\u00a02 <\/sup>The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit\u00a0of God was moving over the face of the waters. 3 <\/sup>And God said, \u201cLet there be light\u201d; and there was light.\u00a04 <\/sup>And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 <\/sup>God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day<\/strong>.<\/span> [Genesis 1:1-5<\/span>, RSV<\/em>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0Genesis Day 1<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In the beginning, God created all that there is \u2013 \u201call things visible and invisible\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was at first a soup of nothingness, a bottomless void, an emptiness that was an inky blackness<\/strong>. God\u2019s Spirit hovered like a bird above the face of this watery abyss. The conditions before creation, before the commencement of space and time, the inspired writer(s) of the Book of Genesis tried to say, were hopelessly blank. And yet, somehow, such conditions were exactly ripe for God to intervene, for where there was <\/em>a<\/em>\u00a0silence and emptiness that was utterly impoverished, it was by the same token completely receptive<\/em>. Then, God began to impregnate this utter nothingness with His wisdom, break this darkness<\/strong> with His light, and pierce this silence with His Word. God began His creation<\/strong>. It was the dawn of an utterly never-before-new day. Out of darkness<\/strong>, God created this universe of breathtaking beauty and magnificence.\u00a0God is the Creator, the Source of all there is in the universe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once, the Chinese Emperor Kangxi (\u5eb7\u7199\u7687\u5e1d, 1654-1722) was taken seriously ill. Restored to health by a Spanish Jesuit missionary, the Emperor performed a few acts in appreciation. First, he at once relaxed the previous restrictions on Christian missionary activities in China. Then, he wrote a profound message in four Chinese characters on a plaque (\u533e\u984d) as a gift to the Catholics – \u842c\u6709\u771f\u539f<\/strong>. In recognition of the Creator-God as the Alpha and Omega, Emperor Kangxi declared that for all that there is in the universe, there has got to be a True and Original Source who has no beginning and no end. Later, the Emperor went on to pen a message in a couplet. In praise of this True and Original Source, Emperor Kangxi disclosed a theological comprehension that spoke of the benevolent and righteous power, the ultimate true King, without beginning or end, which brought salvation, mercy and justice to the world. Where a replica of the plaque is displayed in any Chinese Catholic church today, it usually runs across as a horizontal beam and is accompanied by a couplet (\u5bf9\u8054<\/b>) that stands vertically like the left and right legs of a door frame. They read: \u00a0\u842c\u6709\u771f\u539f – \u7121 \u59cb \u7121 \u7d42 \u771f \u4e3b \u5bb0. \u5ba3 \u4ec1 \u5ba3 \u7fa9 \u5927 \u6b0a \u8861<\/strong>. Light, one might be justified in saying, dawned pretty brightly on the earth\u00a0where\u00a0Kangsi reigned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once again, however, looking around the world, one is prone to exclaim that\u00a0darkness<\/strong> on earth is scary these days. As brazen as it gets, ISIS pours across the Middle East and into the rest of the world, burning and looting, raping and decapitating. Its slogan-shouting and gun-waving visibility indoctrinates effortlessly the mindless youth of both genders from across the globe suffering from a distorted zeal. In ways that are as dark<\/strong> as they are shocking, these youth of a so-called Islamic faith rise up to the call of insane violence in the name of religion. And the world suffers from this utterly dark<\/strong> reign of terror.<\/span><\/p>\n

While we tremble at the thought of dire consequences to the world from what we all conclude is a visible blood-thirsty movement like ISIS, however, we cannot turn a blind eye to the build-up of aggression from other seemingly milder quarters and consider them legitimate and benign. These include the perseverate progress on nuclear capabilities by existing nuclear powers and others bent on extracting equal recognition (North Korea, Iran), and \u201cinvasions\u201d under different guises in the Middle East (by the Americans) and the Balkans (by the Russians). In particular, the world must always cast light on what America, the self-named leader of the \u201cfree\u201d world, is actually doing. In ways far darker<\/strong> and more insidious than what is publicly affirmed, the Americans operate a trouble-instigating strategy around the globe as they unabashedly try their darn best to maintain world dominance. The original culprit of currency-manipulation in the world, and hands-down the biggest and most blatant currency-manipulator in the world still, America manipulates world politics, notably in the Middle East and in South Asia currently. In the latter region, the Americans are deep in their frenzied attempts to rally south Asian countries (and territories) – particularly the historically aggressive Japan which has yet to come clean on its war crimes, and the historically divisive Chinese-territory of Taiwan with its aggressive group of breakaway politicians \u2013 all aimed at stalling the inevitable rise of China as a world superpower. The United States of America, a self-declared enforcer of world peace, is hands-down the most violent country in the entire world, both within its own borders and without.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is suffocating darkness<\/strong> in other fronts too these days, Pope Francis laments in Laudato Si\u2019<\/em>, in the way language has grown harsher and appetites have grown bigger. While technical knowledge is vast, wisdom is lacking. Pleasure is pursued as much as moral purpose is abandoned.\u00a0As the world turns itself over to reckless consumption and a throw-away culture, creation is held captive by mindless extraction, all in the name of \u201cprogress\u201d. Darkness<\/strong> once again reigns, as humanity is in thrall to an abusive spirit that wreaks ecological crisis both in the natural as well as in the social environments.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are hurting the present and the future generations. How did we become so clever and so spiritually indifferent at the same time? How did we get here? How did we allow things to get so dark<\/strong>? We might try three reasons for a start.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are forgetful<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We have forgotten God. Priding ourselves as the makers of our own future, we have neglected or even chosen to forget the Source from which we came. We take<\/em>, as we forget that everything has been given<\/em>, while our appetites determine our path. Humanity has allowed a belief in \u201cnothing\u201d to take precedence over a belief in \u201ccreation\u201d. There is an evident forgetfulness of the work of the Creator.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are not listening<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In this information-saturated age, there is no quiet<\/em> anymore. Whether or not this information-saturation translates into knowledge, it seldom converts into wisdom. Pope Benedict XVI puts it well: \u201cThere is not only a physical deafness which largely cuts people off from social life; there is also a \u2018hardness of hearing\u2019 where God is concerned, and this is something from which we particularly suffer in our own time. Put simply, we are no longer able to hear God \u2013 there are too many different frequencies filling our ears\u2026 Along with this hardness of hearing or outright deafness where God is concerned, we naturally lose our ability to speak with him and to him.\u201d We have stopped listening.<\/span><\/p>\n

We do not live in Truth <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If we do not listen, we do not hear the Truth and we stop living in the Truth. With our true compass missing, temptations get a better foothold in our lives. The more we desire honour, pleasure, power and wealth, the more we sink into the darkness of self-absorption. When Christ the Word gets dis<\/em><\/strong>incarnated in us, Christians soon experience the cause of our misfortunes. From a different cultural context, Laozi the 6th<\/sup> century B.C. Chinese sage, said it well to a frustrated warring prince:<\/span><\/p>\n