May 17, 2020: The Engine of the Universe

When Jesus came screaming into the world from the womb of his mother, it wasn’t his first showing. He’d always been around, but this time he was showing up differently. He had put on flesh and made his dwelling among humanity. This is a deep truth attested to throughout the text. In him all things were made and in him all things hold together. This mysterious power, energy, force - the glue that holds our expanding universe together is something that still stumps the most brilliant scientists in the world. However, the biblical writers had no problem naming it - it was the life of God and that life was not made human. We can now see it, touch it and it has a name.

Jesus. The face of a God who is love. It is this realization that led Teilhard de Chardin to claim love at the heart of the universe. He recognized all things were powerfully drawn to one another in relationship. This, he observed, is love. If love, then, is the engine of the universe it’s possible when we participate in anything else we work against the very life of God.