By DONALD DeMARCO
The distinguished science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke, once remarked that it is “inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.” What this planet is “clearly,” however, is not what it is really. Outer appearances can be deceiving. We realize the Clarke’s comment is superficial in the strictest sense of the term as soon as we remember that earth lies at the bottom of every ocean. Earth circumscribes the globe. Clarke’s comment is unconventional, but remains unconvincing.
What we first notice in something does not always square with its nature. But there is another problem, more significant than being superficial and allowing the surface to identify the deeper reality. That problem involves assessing the significance of something by its quantity.
From the viewpoint of outer space, water seems to be the main feature of planet Earth. Nonetheless, water, despite its abundance, does not begin to explain either the purpose or the value of our cosmic dwelling place.
Dr. Anne Marie Helmenstine, an expert in chemistry, informs us that the amount of water in the average adult human body ranges from 57-60 percent. The percentage of water in infants is typically higher, ranging from 75-78 percent. Yet, it would be inappropriate to refer to human beings as “water bugs,” or “aqua-beings.” We are “humans,” meaning, as the etymology indicates, “earthlings.” In Hebrew, adam (man) is derived from adamah, meaning ”earth” or “ground.”
Sir James Jeans, looking at the universe from the perspective of the astro-physicist, loses sight of the significance of Homo sapiens. He is distracted by the immensity of the cosmos. “We might have expected a better proportion,” he writes in The Mysterious Universe, “between the magnitude of the mechanism and the amount of the product.” Man is an infinitesimally tiny speck within a vast universe, seemingly, “an utterly unimportant byproduct…somehow off the main line.”
It is within this over-reaching perspective that a certain Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes can declare that man is of no more significance than a cockroach. The good doctor, however, is not only being unjust to humans, but to cockroaches as well.
Blaise Pascal felt the temptation to lose sight of the dignity of man in the context of the vast regions of space. In one of his more memorable phrases, he cried, “The eternal silence of infinite space frightens me” (Le silence éternel de ces espace infinis m’effraie).
The preoccupation with quantity, with size, mass, extension, etc., neglects the importance of the intrinsic excellence of a subject, no matter how small it might be. St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Contra Gentiles (book IV, chapter 11) offers a principle by which we can assess the relative excellence of beings: “The higher a nature is, the more intimate to that nature is that which flows from it.”
God is the highest of all natures because He is not dependent on anything other than Himself in order to act. Love flows from the inner nature of a human being, but certainly not from a rock. Humans can know, understand, and express themselves in language.
This represents a higher degree of superiority over lower forms since what the human expresses is himself, something that emerges from his inner being. In a word, the human being is a person, and his appearance in the universe cannot be explained on the basis of mere matter. Nor does his relatively small size diminish the excellence of his nature. A dime is smaller than a penny, but is worth ten times as much.
Philosophers have used the expression “ontological density” to capture the richness of man’s being. By a fortuitous quirk of language, the word “destiny” is an anagram for “density.” In other words, man’s rich “density” determines his noble destiny. Man is meant for great things, something that cannot be said for inanimate things, as well as for plants and animals.
The glory of man cannot be attributed to the cosmos. It can be attributed only to a power than transcends the material universe.
Dante Alighieri expresses this beautifully in the opening lines of the Paradiso from his Divine Comedy:
“The glory, by Him who moves all things,/ Penetrates the universe, and in one part/ Sheds more resplendence, elsewhere less.”
The original Italian reads as follows: “La gloria di colui che tutto move per l’universo penetra, e risplende in una parte piu e meno altrove.” The word risplende has no single word equivalent in English. It means accepting and giving back. God’s light (la gloria) penetrates certain beings more deeply than others. At the same time, the beings who receive more light are able to reflect this light or allow it to shine.
Irenaeus’ words come to mind, namely, that “man alive is the glory of God.” Man’s glory, then, lies in the capacity of his being to receive the light (and love) of God and to be able to express it in his own life. Man’s rich ontological density gives him a special place in the universe.
The appearance of personality in the universe announces the superiority of quality over quantity, excellence over magnitude, freedom over determination, and spirit over matter.
The dignity of human nature is measured not by starlight and earth-dust, but by the light and love he receives from and returns back to God. Man does not see his face mirrored in the universe.
He finds his true identity in his relationship with the Gloria who created him.
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(Dr. Donald DeMarco is a senior fellow of Human Life International. He is professor emeritus at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario, an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College in Cromwell, Conn., and a regular columnist for St. Austin Review. His latest works, How to Remain Sane in a World That Is Going Mad; Poetry That Enters the Mind and Warms the Heart; and How to Flourish in a Fallen World are available through Amazon.com.)
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