Nature's Sacrifice

The incense teased my nose as soon as I walked out the office door. The lilacs in full bloom, sending out their fragrance, the smell of nature itself celebrating its great spring cosmic sacrifice of praise to God. And we humans, God has given us the ability to enjoy this. An angel cannot smell a lilac, I don't suppose. But we can. And its very smell invites us to join in praising Him who is the Giver of such pleasures and delights to mankind. And did you ever notice how they all point upward - a veritable sursum corda in the natural realm.

Some folks are afraid that if we get too much into the nature talk, we lose the cross-focus. But that's all backwards. Inside of Jesus, our Lord, nature comes back as a gift. In Him there is more life than in all the universe outside Him, and we see things for the first time in the light of what they truly are. The Catechism's burden is to teach us to see and live in that world, where the Father's giving never ceases and so our bounden duty is to "thank, praise, serve, and obey Him" - the One who gave us all things to enjoy, all things in His Son and by His Spirit.