{"id":87,"date":"2013-11-12T23:20:40","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T03:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/?p=87"},"modified":"2023-05-19T17:55:03","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T21:55:03","slug":"the-majesty-of-the-universe-and-the-dignity-of-your-neighbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2013\/11\/the-majesty-of-the-universe-and-the-dignity-of-your-neighbor.html","title":{"rendered":"The majesty of the universe and the dignity of your neighbor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\n<\/p>

Last week I had an Article published over at Millenial Journal<\/a>\u00a0where I talked about\u00a0the vast majesty of the universe and the unique dignity of the human person. I also quote Dorothy Day\u2026 Take a look.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of my spiritual practices is to look at NASA\u2019s\u00a0Astronomy Picture of the Day<\/a>\u00a0each morning. I am humbled by the greatness and beauty of the universe. There is a certain holy fear that staring up at the stars inspires in me. The universe is filled with amazing, beautiful things that have been present for as long as humans have walked this world, but we are only now able to see many of them. Take for example how \u00a0we have been able to\u00a0slow down the noise of crickets<\/a>\u00a0and reveal how amazingly beautiful their chirping is\u2013or how microscopes have helped us to see the\u00a0magic of butterfly scales<\/a>\u00a0and unveiled\u00a0incredible creatures we never knew existed\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The universe is amazing!\u00a0<\/strong>And it\u2019s far beyond anything we can even imagine.<\/p>\n

Scientists estimate that in the\u00a0observable universe\u00a0<\/em>alone<\/em>\u00a0there are 170 billion galaxies. That means that if each person in all of human existence (about 100 billion<\/a>) was given a galaxy, that would still leave about half of the galaxies we can observe unclaimed. Each of these galaxies contains an estimated\u00a0400 billion stars<\/a>,\u00a0and the closest of these stars (other than our sun) would take 19,361 years to reach using the fastest vessels we have today (which go\u00a0150,000 miles per hour<\/a>).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more amazing to me is that the One who upholds and sustains this extraordinarily vast and complex universe would reveal himself through the humble frame of a man, Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God comes to us as a child at his mother\u2019s breast, as a day laborer in a backwater district of an occupied nation, as a man stripped, beaten and killed, as one like us.<\/p>\n

The glass contains the ocean. A breath contains the sky. The womb contains majesty without end. The unmoved mover was moved to meet us where we move.<\/p>\n

In Jesus, God reveals himself in the universal human language of humanity itself. God adopted human flesh, and so human flesh has become the greatest icon (image) we have of God.<\/p>\n

How are we to venerate this great image?\u00a0Jesus tells us we do it when we love, when we feed the hungry, give water to those who thirst, and take our coat and give it to the one who is cold and naked (Matthew 25:31-46). Yes, one of my spiritual practices is to admire God\u2019s handiwork in pictures of the universe, but perhaps I would be better served in seeing God by making an extra lunch in the morning and keeping my eyes open for icons of God in need of a sandwich.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is what Dorothy Day realized when she stated, \u201cThose who cannot see Christ in the poor are atheists indeed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I had an Article published over at Millenial Journal\u00a0where I talked about\u00a0the vast majesty of the universe and the unique dignity of the human person. I also quote Dorothy Day\u2026 Take a look. One of my spiritual practices is to look at NASA\u2019s\u00a0Astronomy Picture of the Day\u00a0each morning. I am humbled by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1678,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe majesty of the universe and the dignity of your neighbor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last week I had an Article published over at Millenial Journal\u00a0where I talked about\u00a0the vast majesty of the universe and the unique dignity of the human\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2013\/11\/the-majesty-of-the-universe-and-the-dignity-of-your-neighbor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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