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You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
- Revelation 4:11
When reflecting on the ultimate source of our existence, we are often awestruck, or perhaps dumbstruck. While we may know nothing about the ultimate source of our existence—and indeed humility would dictate that we should not be too opinionated about this—a modicum of thought leads us to believe that there is something greater than us at work in the universe. Mothers and fathers may “make babies” but they know not how they do it, and the author of existence surely deserves some credit in designing such mechanisms of creation. Not only do we come from something greater, but we are also subject to something greater. In the Purgatorio Dante tells humanity “You’re the free subject of a greater force, and a better nature.” The greater force (and better nature) to which Dante refers is God. And although we are subject to God, we are also free to disobey or ignore Him. We need not obey Him, nor even to believe in Him. But we will pay a price for doing so, both in terms of our conscience (the voice of God) nagging us, and in terms of divine justice. If God is just, he must punish us, or at least correct us.
– Christopher Simon
