For all the pomp and protests, the Supreme Court’s decisions today in Hollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor have not changed anything. The supreme majesty of the Universe and the orbits of the celestial spheres are unmoved from their appointed courses. The sun and the moon still shine. The grass is green and the sea is blue. The laws of physics remain inviolate. God’s covenants with his people are unbroken. Rather, it is our human condition which remains broken and in need of Christ’s salvation. Despite our arrogance and pride, nothing has changed.
You Can’t Chase a Rainbow (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
God is eternal. The Holy Trinity that was present at the creation of the Universe and which will be present at the Last Day is out of all time. There is nothing which has been, or which is, or which will be that has not been foreseen and ordained by God in his infinite power. The mind-bogglingly massive expanse of the Universe is nothing compared to God’s infinitude. God is all, in all, and everywhere forever. God is truth. The truth does not change. The truth simply is.
The Universe is full of great mysteries which remain impenetrable to science. The development of a human being from conception until birth is a miracle. Science describes what we can see and touch, but the truth is so much more. Science cannot measure a soul. Science cannot chase down the end of a rainbow. These things come from God who commanded Noah, “Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.” As humans, we participate in the miracle of procreation, but it is God alone who makes all things possible.
Jesus Christ, who comes from God, and is God, and who walked among us lives and reigns forever in heaven, but he also lives within His Universal Church on earth, and within all of us in the Holy Spirit which came from Him, and descended upon Him, and lives in us. The cleansing water of the flood, and of the rainbow, and of the Red Sea, and of the River Jordan is joined with the purging fire of Abraham, and of Moses, and of Elijah, and of the Pentecost in our shared baptism. By these signs and others, God gives us the true and perfect healing and justice that–like the unattainable end of a rainbow–the laws of this world can never give.
What God has made, man cannot unmake. The vastness of the Universe defies all human powers and comprehension. The rulings of the Supreme Court today are nine men and women–but really one man–probing the deepest mysteries of all of God’s creation and deciding for themselves what they think is right. Should we be surprised that even that exalted body stands so feeble and insufficient in the face of such immense and impenetrable truths? The laws of men are of men and as we are deficient, our laws are deficient and constantly in need of correction. The laws of God are forever.