Wisdom 13:1-9 / Luke 17:26-37
The world of nature is both beautiful as well as powerful.
The sun, the wind, the sea have a potential to be reckoned with. The stars, the moon, the mountains capture the attention and imagination with their quiet attraction.
In primitive religions, nature worship is generally about the worship of nature spirits that are considered as present in the natural phenomena, and is the source of modern religious beliefs.
The 1st reading begins by saying that naturally stupid are all men who have not known God, and who, from the good things that are seen, have not been able to discover Him-who-is. It continues by saying that if charmed by their beauty, men have taken things for gods, then men must also know how much the Lord of these things excels them since the very Author of beauty has created them.
But with science and knowledge, the mystery of natural phenomena is logically explained away, and where once upon a time, man is subjected to nature in the form of nature worship, now nature becomes subjected to man.
But that doesn't immediately mean that man now recognises God as the Creator of the world and all things in it.
Instead man now sees himself as the master of the world and even sees himself to be like a god who can abuse and destroy and waste away the natural resources of the world and even disfigure the beauty of the world.
So modern man doesn't search for God anymore. Rather they look for ways and means to make a profit from the world for their own selfish gains. Man doesn't need a God, because he sees himself as a god.
As for us who believe in God and we know that we are stewards and care-takers of the world, let us pray for the conversion of sinners who think and live like gods.
As much as they have no excuses not to know who the true God is, we also do not have any excuses not to pray for their conversion.
Let us remember that the God we believe in is the God of love and He wants all men to be saved.