Cosmic Praise

Extract

Divine praise and adoration form the heart of religion. As the plot gives life and meaning to the varied characters and actions in the novel, so adoration co-ordinates the many and varied elements of religion and gives them life. And by religion we mean something more than looking pious on Sundays or giving half-a-crown to a beggarman. Religion is not a vestment put over the individuality of the man, nor is it a particular type of action; it is not even the special preserve of man. He may like to think that he alone of all creation can praise God and that the rest of nature is irreligious, but if he does so he will delude himself. For religion pierces to the very depths of being, not merely of man's being, but of all created being. According to St. Thomas, to reverence the one God for one specific reason is the proper action of religion, and that one specific reason is that God is the first principle of creation and of the government of all things. God the creator and director of the universe is the object of religion, so that the whole universe, according to the most fundamental principles of its being, takes some part in religion. God created the universe for his glory, and the universe as a whole, not man alone, glorifies him as its Creator and Governor.