Ants build their-body bridge to cross the big canyon. Photo by Igor Chuxlancev.
God desires to be praised in every level of the beings He has created, from the peacock to the ant, that lives in the bosom of the earth, in a kind of catacombs and in complete darkness.
There is something magnificent in the labor, the humility, and the continuous activity of the ant. One could say that the work of the ant is profoundly thought out; were one able, one would say that the ant is extremely rational, because its colonies are made to perfection.
Rhetenor Blue Morpho butterfly. Photo by Archaeodontosaurus.
But then, all of a sudden, a man spies and becomes extremely enchanted with one of those bluish-green butterflies flying about!
Were we to draw a picture of the creatures God has made, we would encounter the most diverse perfections, from the perfection of humility to that of magnificence. God desires to be known in all of His works.
Creatures exist in variety, forming collections, in order that the totality of every possible way of reflecting God is presented.
The Koh-i-Noor in the front cross of Queen Mary’s Crown.
Thus, we may consider a collection of precious stones. For the collection to complete, there must be many stones. What is beautiful about it is that the collection may be such that it mirrors every possible beauty there is in being a stone.
The Koh-I-nor has brilliance and beauty which easily recall the splendor of Divine intelligence.
It is the same with men. The different races, the capacities proper to each race, all of this has a kind of magnificence which expresses the perfections of God.
Close up of silk clothing and silk embroidery, part of a woman’s dress, England, 1845-1849, on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Thus, as God created the peacock, He gave man the talent to create silk. How beautiful is fabric made of top quality silk! The rustle of the silk is attractive; when one takes up silk in one’s hand and rubs one part against another, the contact is delicious!
When the Marquise used to walk and the tail of her dress trailed upon the floor, the reflection of the light from the chandeliers upon the silk must have been splendorous!
Seeing many things in accord with that which they symbolize augments the horizons and unites souls in a fantastic manner. One cannot imagine how beautiful and admirable it would be were all to understand symbols as they ought!
Symbols give us to see reality as much as does abstract knowledge, only it does so in a different way. We ought to develop both of these ways and not just one.
The symbol is the point which links that which is visible with that which is invisible. Men would be much more given to reflection were they to perceive the symbolic value of things.
