"_Un canasto de flores_," mused Rosendo, looking off into the infinite blue.
"A basket of flowers, indeed," responded Jose reverently.
"Padre--" Rosendo"s brain seemed to struggle with a tremendous thought--"I often try to think of what is beyond the stars; and I cannot. Where is the end?"
"There is none, Rosendo."
"But, if we could get out to the last star--what then?"
"Still no end, no limit," replied Jose.
"And they are very far away--how far, Padre?"
"You would not comprehend, even if I could tell you, Rosendo. But--how shall I say it? Some are millions of miles from us. Others so far that their light reaches us only after the lapse of centuries."
"Their light!" returned Rosendo quizzically.
"Yes. Light from those stars above us travels nearly two hundred thousand miles a second--"
"_Hombre!_" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the uncomprehending Rosendo.
"And yet, even at that awful rate of speed, it is probable that there are many stars whose light has not yet reached the earth since it became inhabited by men."
"_Caramba!_"
"You may well say so, friend."
"But, Padre--does the light never stop? When does it reach an end--a stopping-place?"
"There is no stopping-place, Rosendo. There is no solid sky above us.
Go whichever way you will, you can never reach an end."
Rosendo"s brow knotted with puzzled wonder: Even Jose"s own mind staggered anew at its concept of the immeasurable depths of s.p.a.ce.
"But, Padre, if we could go far enough up we would get to heaven, wouldn"t we?" pursued Rosendo. "And if we went far enough down we would reach purgatory, and then h.e.l.l, is it not so?"
Restraint fell upon the priest. He dared not answer lest he reveal his own paucity of ideas regarding these things. Happily the loquacious Rosendo continued without waiting for reply.
"Padre Simon used to say when I was a child that the red we saw in the sky at sunset was the reflection of the flames of h.e.l.l; so I have always thought that h.e.l.l was below us--perhaps in the center of the earth."
For a time his simple mind mused over this puerile idea. Then--
"What do you suppose G.o.d looks like, Padre?"
Jose"s thought flew back to the galleries and chapels of Europe, where the masters have so often portrayed their ideas of G.o.d in the shape of an old, gray-haired man, partly bald, and with long, flowing beard.
Alas! how pitifully crude, how lamentably impotent such childish concepts. For they saw in G.o.d only their own frailties infinitely magnified. Small wonder that they lived and died in spiritual gloom!
"Padre," Rosendo went on, "if there is no limit to the universe, then it is--"
"Infinite in extent, Rosendo," finished Jose.
"Then whoever made it is infinite, too," Rosendo added hypothetically.
"An infinite effect implies an infinite cause--yes, certainly," Jose answered.
"So, if G.o.d made the universe, He is infinite, is He not, Padre?"
"Yes."
"Then He can"t be at all like us," was the logical conclusion.
Jose was thinking hard. The universe stands as something created. And scientists agree that it is infinite in extent. Its creator therefore must be infinite in extent. And as the universe continues to exist, that which called it into being, and still maintains it, must likewise continue to exist. Hence, G.o.d _is_.
"Padre, what holds the stars in place?" Rosendo"s questions were as persistent as a child"s.
"They are held in place by laws, Rosendo," the priest replied evasively. But as he made answer he revolved in his own mind that the laws by which an infinite universe is created and maintained must themselves be infinite.
"And G.o.d made those laws?"
"Yes, Rosendo."
But, the priest mused, a power great enough to frame infinite laws must be itself all-powerful. And if it has ever been all-powerful, it could never cease to be so, for there could be nothing to deprive it of its power. Omnipotence excludes everything else. Or, what is the same thing, is all-inclusive.
But laws originate, even as among human beings, in mind, for a law is a mental thing. So the infinite laws which bind the stars together, and by which the universe was designed and is still maintained, could have originated only in a mind, and that one infinite.
"Then G.o.d surely must know everything," commented Rosendo, by way of simple and satisfying conclusion.
Certainly the creator of an infinite universe--a universe, moreover, which reveals intelligence and knowledge on the part of its cause--the originator of infinite laws, which reveal omnipotence in their maker--must have all knowledge, all wisdom, at his command. But, on the other hand, intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, are ever mental things. What could embrace these things, and by them create an infinite universe, but an infinite _mind_?
Jose"s thought reverted to Cardinal Newman"s reference to G.o.d as "an initial principle." Surely the history of the universe reveals the patent fact that, despite the mutations of time, despite growth, maturity, and decay, despite "the wreck of matter and the crash of worlds," _something_ endures. What is it--law? Yes, but more. Ideas?
Still more. Mind? Yes, the mind which is the _anima mundi_, the principle, of all things.
"But if He is so great, Padre, and knows everything, I don"t see why He made the devil," continued Rosendo; "for the devil fights against Him all the time."
Ah, simple-hearted child of nature! A mind so pure as yours should give no heed to thoughts of Satan. And the man at your side is now too deeply buried in the channels which run below the superficiality of the world"s thought to hear your childish question. Wait. The cause of an infinite effect must itself be infinite. The framer of infinite laws must be an infinite mind. And an infinite mind must contain all knowledge, and have all power. But were it to contain any seeds or germs of decay, or any elements of discord--in a word, any evil--it must disintegrate. Then it would cease to be omnipotent. Verily, to be eternal and perfect _it must be wholly good_! "And so," the priest mused aloud, "we call it G.o.d."
But, he continued to reflect, when we accept the conclusion that the universe is the product of an infinite mind, we are driven to certain other inevitable conclusions, if we would be logical. The minds of men manifest themselves continually, and the manifestation is in mental processes and things. Mental activity results in the unfolding of ideas. Does the activity of an infinite mind differ in this respect?
And, if not, can the universe be other than a mental thing? For, if an infinite mind created a universe, it must have done so _by the unfolding of its own ideas_! And, remaining infinite, filling all s.p.a.ce, this mind must ever continue to contain those ideas. And the universe--the creation--is mental.
The burden of thought oppressed the priest, and he got up from his chair and paced back and forth before the house. But still his searching mind burrowed incessantly, as if it would unearth a living thing that had been buried since the beginning.
In order to fully express itself, an infinite mind would have to unfold an infinite number and variety of ideas. And this unfolding would go on forever, since an infinite number is never reached. This is "creation," and it could never terminate.
"Rosendo," said Jose, returning to his chair, "you have asked what G.o.d looks like. I cannot say, for G.o.d must be mind, unlimited mind. He has all knowledge and wisdom, as well as all power. He is necessarily eternal--has always existed, and always will, for He is entirely perfect and harmonious, without the slightest trace or taint of discord or evil."
"Then you think He does not look like us?" queried the simple Rosendo.
"Mind does not look like a human body, Rosendo. And an infinite cause can be infinite only by being mind, not body. Moreover, He is unchanging--for He could not change and remain eternal. Carmen insists that He is everywhere. To be always present He must be what the Bible says He is spirit. Or, what is the same thing, mind. Rosendo, He manifests Himself everywhere and in everything--there is no other conclusion admissible. And to be eternal He has got to be _absolutely good_!"