The Center for contemplative practice
A Lay Cistercian Looks at Spiritual Reality
YOUR TRIP TO OMEGA
Life may be like a set of train tracks, but with one difference. Did you know you are on an inexorable trip to Omega and might not even be aware of it? Here are some ideas I had while doing Lectio Divina contemplation before the Blessed Sacrament last week. They are nothing short of mind-blowing.
Omega, as I use it here and write about in my 3 book series entitled Spiritual Apes, (see Books section in this blog) is something I learned about from Scriptures from Revelations 1:8, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (DRA). Another writer that caught my attention was the late Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., a Jesuit paleontologist who wrote the book The Phenomenon of Man. He stated that all matter, visible and invisible, was moving toward one point in the future called Omega. His book interested me because he theorized that all matter and time was like a dart board with concentric circles evolving toward one point which he called the Christo-sphere. Sounds like a Jesuit, doesn’t it? At the time, in 1962, I was just a first-year seminarian. Teilhard de Chardin, who died in 1955, had had his writings condemned by ecclesiastical authorities. I liked that a scientist was trying to put forward a plausible theory that reality was one, with science, philosophy, and spirituality being different components, like the story of the six blind men of Calcutta. I have put my spin on this just like thousands of others before me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant
Where was I? O yes, one point in the future. Later on in life, I added in the notion that God is one (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). So, the One point is not a thing, a destination or composed of time or matter. It is a person composed of pure energy, pure thought, and pure service. I use the word “pure” in the context of someone using 100% of his nature. God’s nature, of course, is divine and we don’t even have a way to measure what that is, EXCEPT to look at Philippians 2:5-12, which happens to be the purpose of my life. Coincidence, don’t you think? Hardly!
Which brings me to the train tracks. When I look at train tracks, I see that they look like they are coming to a point, way down the line. Here is the one point of difference, they don’t ever come to a point. In trying to look at Point Omega, where I believe we are headed, first of all, it is an invisible point. You know what they say about invisibility, don’t you? The problem with invisibility is you can’t see it. Let me put it another way. Science has not yet devised an instrument to measure pure energy, much less agree on one point in the future. Yet, using our human reason, we can augment faith and propose what is reasonable (faith informed by reason) about that which we cannot see. St. Paul says we look at reality with foggy glasses and only see dimly. See I Corinthians 13:12.
These are interesting thoughts to me. Maybe that is because I turn 77 next month and am pushing the Pearly Gates. As St. Benedict says, that in all things, may God be glorified.
LEARNING POINT
There is so much more to learn about science, philosophy and the human mind, but also spirituality. These three are one.
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