Discursos predicables y avisos espirituales (Preaching Discourses and Spiritual Advice)

Chapter 4. For What Purpose Was Man Created?

God created man so that man might know His majesty, which is the highest good: knowing Him, being able to love Him, and loving Him, being able to possess Him and possessing Him, being able to enjoy Him eternally. Oh blessed be God’s vast benevolence. God did not create us to serve earthly kings or even Angels of heaven, but to serve that King of Kings and Lord of the Angels; not to enjoy worldly, fleeting things, but celestial, eternal things. O man, this is the lofty destiny to which God raised you up, though you are but a miserable worm. [ . . . ]

All of creation calls to you and tells you that if you would be saved, man, God has provided you with everything you need. This universe is, at its essence, a book composed by the divine omnipotence in which men might read the greatness of the Creator. You see His many creations. All of them, with their voices in concert, invite you to your ultimate intended destiny to which you should aspire. The heavens speak His glory, as does the night with its moon and stars. With their concerted movements, they all tell you that God exists and is your ultimate destiny. A rock falls to the earth, which is its center, and fire rises anxiously to its sphere, and the river flows hurriedly to its sea; by doing this, they teach you to walk to your God. You have never heard a harp’s pleasing harmonies without stopping to think that a musician must be playing it, or watched a ship put out to sea ahead of a healthy wind without thinking that a pilot must be steering it, or seen a very perfect painting or statue without praising the brush and the creative hand that held it. Likewise, this harmony of the universe must oblige you to admit the existence of God who formed it and governs it, and furthermore that He created these things to help you, through your proper use of them, to reach your intended destination. God did not create them for their own sake but that they might serve as the means to your salvation. He did not create them because His majesty needed them, nor for the angels. For you, man, he created them. Like slaves to serve you by leading you to your fortunate goal. This is your destiny. And therein lies the completeness of that perfection. It is worth noting that when God was creating things in the beginning, He said that each was good. But afterward, looking at them all, He said that they were superlatively good. What had they gained by then that they lacked when formed? A most learned writer once said that when God created them, each had the perfection that comes from having been shaped by His divine hands, but they had no men to serve, which is the purpose for which He created them.

They were good then. But later, on the sixth day, when His majesty looks them over again, He finds that now that man has been created, all these things serve man, give him light, refresh him, and serve to set him on the path to his destiny. Yes. Now they are indeed very good. They have the object of their purpose. Open your eyes, O man. Use your ears. Look. Hear all of creation, all of which serves you so that you can serve God. Tell me now: How have you used His creations? God gave them to you as rungs in a ladder, to climb up to heaven. And you have used them as steps down into the depths of the earth. God set them beneath your feet, and you have placed them above your head. God gave them to you to serve you and you have sought to become their slave. You wrong His majesty, just like (you may have noticed) Potiphar’s wicked wife, who was lascivious and brazen. As you know, her husband, Potiphar, bought her a slave to serve her, and she—ungrateful and foul and disloyal—set her eyes upon the slave. With disdain and contempt for her husband—O detestable evil—she takes advantage of the slave, offers herself to the slave, wronging the one who gave him to her. And what have you done (man) other than abandon God for his creations? You enslave yourself to His sun, moon, and stars, to His gold and silver. You have devised the means to wrong God. How disconcerted this is from life and from your destiny. By these means, you set aside God and glory. So, fear that you will lose the destiny for which God created you, for I have not yet told you the most important part. You are taking advantage of God and using God against Himself. Hear how the book of Isaiah complains of you (see Isaiah 43): you sinner, who made me serve you in your sins, O portent of evil that you committed. God is the first cause, the first mover, the universal agent, and as such He stands by all His creatures and all His works such that without God’s aid, you cannot see, hear, speak, or move your hand or love or do any other thing. In His infinite goodness, He offers this aid, this assistance, to all, wishing them to use it in the pursuit of virtue and merit, through which they can achieve glory. And He does this so bountifully that it is as if you yourself were possessed of His omnipotence. Thus He lets you wield it as you please. Be awestruck, then, at your own brazenness, your audaciousness and daring. No, you did not merely take advantage of that help and of His aid in order to live as you should, but you placed an obligation upon God and made Him help you move your tongue in order to swear, to blaspheme, to curse. You made Him help you move your hand in order to rob, and to mistreat your fellow man. To be blunt, you used God in order to wrong God Himself and disdain Him. So much so that if He took pity on your sin in His infinite goodness, you would have made God an accomplice to your sin. Recoil, you heavens, at such horrifying monstrosity, at such inhumanity, cruelty, or whatever we might call it. God alone can understand the immensity of that offense. What is man when he sins if not a basilisk hurling the poison of his malice at the very throne of God? What are sinners if not vipers? For they are born in violence. They conceive their children, feed them with their blood, and wait until they are ready to emerge into the world. But impatient to enjoy their freedom, children force their mother to bring them out before their time. And to achieve that, they destroy her insides. And they kill her. But beyond cruelly taking the life of one who is giving life, they even oblige her to assist them in her own demise. Who has not seen the battle between a mother and the children in her own womb, and seen her eviscerate herself to make them wait while they, eager to emerge, will not obey? She does not want them to make a violent birth. And they force her to do herself harm, even taking her life. Such a vivid image of the sinner. What has God done with you other than feed you as a mother would? What have you done but wrong Him as if you were not his child? God gives you life with so many benefits, and you ignore them in order to do as you please. God wants you not to use His help to wrong Him, but you have not obeyed that desire. You dragged aid from your sovereign majesty in order to wrest from Him that thing inside you which is life.

O cruel viper. O poisonous beast. Who will free you from the wrath of that god who endured such exorbitant evil? Look (man) and consider Isaac atop Mount Moriah, that beloved son of the father of the believers. There he is, tied hand and foot. There he lies over that bundle of wood that he himself carried on his back. And nearby, the fire, which is to consume him, and over him, the raised bare sword. See the arm ready to take his life. Run, Isaac! The sword’s blow is about to strike you. But he cannot move. He is bound. Cry out for someone to defend you from this peril. There is no one. The young men have stayed at the base of the mountain. Tell your father to wait. It is too late. He is resolved to kill you, O Isaac. And what dangers are circling your life, you ungrateful sinner, and what risks shall encircle your soul? Yes, look: not to Mount Moriah but to the Righteous Court of God. Remember this dreadful (but inevitable) point: that you will be there, tied hand and foot. Because you will no longer have the ability to act righteously. There you will be, in the presence of your guilty deeds, which are the wood you gathered while you lived, over which you will burn. There above you, you will see the sword of this Abraham, this looming Father and sovereign Judge. Who will defend you from an angry God? From whom will you seek aid? The only reason the sword failed to reach Isaac’s throat was that there was an angel who stayed the patriarch’s arm. But who will be mighty enough to stay the arm of God’s Justice at that moment? All will be terror, all will be fear, and therefore (man), recognize and weep over what you have done, before you are in the hands of His wrath. This is one of the greatest spiritual warnings I can give you.