I find it interesting that, at the end of his life and after a mystic encounter with the living Christ, Thomas Aquinas named all of his painstakingly developed systematic theology "straw". (Gay, 265) In that moment, his own finite humanness was revealed to him and his detailed attempts to define God dissolved - truly we are born from dust and to dust we shall return.
But, whatever hill of straw his ideas may have been, I think - or I hope - that he was right about one thing: that the ultimate purpose of all creation (including us) is to be part of God's Goodness, to rest in that Goodness, and to fully realize its full potential. (Donnelly, 56) Whether or not we have any part in realizing that Goodness is purely speculative (and, if our past behavior is any evidence of our ability to create Good, very doubtful). Still, it seems to me that we deny our Creator if we don't give it our best shot to do right by Creation. Its not just about polar bears or better drinking water or some tree-hugging hippie idea of Nature. Its about our very survival. And its also about God's concern for those on the bottom of the social and economic hierarchy - as emphasized again and again in Hebrew Scripture and in the teachings of Jesus. If we fail, the cities of the poor will be the first underwater. But our own cities of affluence won't be far behind.
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