From the Friars: First Things First
If you want to bake a cake, the first thing you need is a recipe. Then you gather the ingredients and measure and mix them together before finally putting the batter into a pan and then into the oven. This example illustrates on important principle of Aristotle, that “what is first in the order of intention is last in the order of execution.” But only after many other actions do I finally have the cake in front of me.
Closeup view of a candle, by Petar Milošević – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
In the second reading today from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, we hear of God’s original intention from all eternity, to “sum up all things in Christ.” Therefore, the Incarnation is the goal and purpose of everything else that exists outside of Our Creator Himself. We are predestined “before the foundation of the world” to be adopted children of our Heavenly Father in Jesus Christ. Blessed John Duns Scotus, the great Franciscan theologian, concludes that God’s decision to create outside of Himself has Jesus first. All else is “for Him” as Saint Paul says in his Letter to the Colossians.
You may be wondering why this matters so much. It is crucial because it shows that the Incarnation, the greatest work of God, is not dependent on us or our sin. Jesus is the cake and not us. This teaching of Scotus is known as the Absolute Primacy of Christ. It has not yet been officially taught by the Magisterium, but his argument is compelling. It radically transforms all human knowledge in giving us the Rosetta Stone for understanding the universe.
Science and Philosophy seek for a unifying principle. Lately, scientists refer to this as The Theory of Everything. This is also the name of a movie about the atheist physicist Stephen Hawking who sought such “a single unifying equation.” We believe that, upon his death, Dr. Hawking met the One who is the actual unifying principle. The source, center and goal of all is not an equation or an idea but a person, a Divine Person Who is also the First Born of all creation. (Col 1:15) And with Him is the eternally predestined Immaculate Conception, for the praise of His Glory.
–Fr. Peter