continued from last post.
But, what lessons does he have for us today? I would say the first lesson is a warning. That is that we have to be able to listen to one another and learn. Listen critically, but learn. You know, what a loss that he was never able to share his thoughts really with anyone during his lifetime so that he could listen and refine his thoughts. And the world wasn’t able to listen to him and dialog with him. We have to be willing to listen and learn. But beyond those lessons of warning, there are gifts from him.
To me, the first gift from Teilhard is the realization that I do not live in a two-room house or in a two-story universe. I don’t live in a two-room house. I don’t live in a house where in one room I have all I find out from science. Then there’s a wall and a locked door and in the other room is everything I find out from faith. They welcome one another and enrich one another. I live in a one-room house. And I don’t live in a two-story universe, where in one story we have the material and in the other we have the spirit. One we have the natural, the other we have the supernatural. One place God is and the other place, God ain’t. We live in a Universe where God is truly present, The Word made flesh. We live in a world of spirit and flesh at the same time, all around us.
Teilhard also reminds us that we should value the work of our hands and the relationships of our hearts because they are not passing and perishable. They have a communal and cosmic future. Or another way of putting it, God takes our lives and who we are and what we do very seriously. It’s going somewhere. And, finally, he reminds us that the poetry of another Jesuit (Remember that phrase, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”)… He reminds us that that is not poetry. It’s not a metaphor. It’s not romantic thought. Rather, it is an accurate description of how near our God is, at work in our Universe, on our Earth, in our flesh and in our lives, bringing forth and building up the Kingdom of God at every moment.
Let us give thanks to the Lord Who is so good. Amen.
There is a difference between science and technology: (read on)
To me, the first gift from Teilhard is the realization that I do not live in a two-room house or in a two-story universe. I don’t live in a two-room house. I don’t live in a house where in one room I have all I find out from science. Then there’s a wall and a locked door and in the other room is everything I find out from faith. They welcome one another and enrich one another. I live in a one-room house. And I don’t live in a two-story universe, where in one story we have the material and in the other we have the spirit. One we have the natural, the other we have the supernatural. One place God is and the other place, God ain’t. We live in a Universe where God is truly present, The Word made flesh. We live in a world of spirit and flesh at the same time, all around us.
Teilhard also reminds us that we should value the work of our hands and the relationships of our hearts because they are not passing and perishable. They have a communal and cosmic future. Or another way of putting it, God takes our lives and who we are and what we do very seriously. It’s going somewhere. And, finally, he reminds us that the poetry of another Jesuit (Remember that phrase, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”)… He reminds us that that is not poetry. It’s not a metaphor. It’s not romantic thought. Rather, it is an accurate description of how near our God is, at work in our Universe, on our Earth, in our flesh and in our lives, bringing forth and building up the Kingdom of God at every moment.
Let us give thanks to the Lord Who is so good. Amen.