THE INEVITABILITY OF NATURE

While humans like to think we are in control of our surroundings, strangely, we do control our personal space in our unique lifespan because of our ability to say YES or NO to any choices presented to us. My latest Lectio Divina has to do with the inevitability of our surroundings outside of our control, the flow of nature over which we have no control, although often tilting the windmills of reality.

Nature is good, or so I assume. Butterflies don’t go around murdering people, nor do puppy dogs plot to overflow or impeach other puppy dogs. Only human beings are so inclined to destroy their humanity both individually and collectively. One of the “takeaways” from my reading of the Genesis stories in Chapters 2 and 3 is that:

• What God makes is good.
• Human nature and all nature are good by its nature and not rotten or corrupt.
• Sin (missing what nature has intended as being the default to life) means I had the freedom to choose but missed the bulls-eye.
• God is the source of what is good or bad for us.
• God’s DNA or fingerprints are on each element of matter and time and they respond by seeking to move forward in complexity but in the context of what is intended by God.
• Adam and Eve are archetypes of all of us, a commentary on how humans with their free will can choose what nature does not intend.

My hypothesis ( a fancy word for what I have come to believe about nature) is that both humanity and individuals can get off track and do not have the energy or power to get back to what nature intended. Like tectonic plates that spring back to their natural status when the tension between them is too stressful, humanity may wander off into the wasteland for forty years before they spring back to what is normal for the “spine of life,” nature. Nature snaps back to its default (God’s DNA and fingerprints) when the forces of evil lead to nature being destroyed. What comes to mind, only to name a few are Sodom and Gomorrah, wandering 40 years in the desert, Israel being successful when they are on God’s side, rather than God being on their side, the many attempts by the Church to be a secular authority and not a way to the truth and so lead the life humans were intended, and the many genocidal and nationalistic wars where one person seeks to dominate the whole (Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, and in our own time, Putin, Xi, and Pol Pot). Without humans doing anything, nature returns to its default.

Humanity as a collectivity of individuals, can move off-center so far that no human energy can bring it back to its natural state. Like the destruction of the species by a big rock from space, humans get stuck with their choices and can’t get back to the center. Individuals can, but not the species as a whole. It is in this context that God, who breathed DNA on all matter and time, must intervene in nature and lift up humanity just high enough that it can proceed in what nature intended without oblivion of the species. Such an event was the Incarnation Moment. The price of redemption is death by the one for the many since the many (Adam and Eve) offended the one by knowingly choosing what was inappropriate to move forward in the evolution of mind and heart. Humanity, without the help from the creator, would languish in a world that seems to be good and rigorous but cannot move toward its destiny–Omega.

What we see and do around us as a collective whole (humanity) and more importantly as an individual who has the unique power in all the universe to say YES or NO to anything, even God, without being punished, does have consequences whether we are aware of any God involved or not. Humanity and humans exist on a river that flows in a direction (see the Teilhard Map) from creation to Omega. We can paddle but nature takes its course no matter if we choose to row upriver or not.

I use the Teilhard map of reality as a tool to help me think against some of the questions that seem to trickle out of my Lection Divina from time to time (Philippians 2:5). This resource is unattributed by me but I use it with the assumption that it is from the collective Teilhard de Chardin mountain of commentary on his work. As I do when commenting or reflecting on any meditation or hopefully contemplation, I try to use my rule of threes to parce reality into chunks so I can examine each element more closely. The Rule of Threes as I define it is one reality that contains three separate but different dimensions of activity, all contained into one NOW moment but each being various aspects of the image of God (pure knowledge, pure love, and pure service).

RULE OF THREES

Whenever I do Lectio Divina, or try some critical thinking (getting progressively more difficult) I use a word, such as NATURE, then break it apart into:

The Physical Universe: What do you see that is? Nature is what reality does to maintain resonance with its genitor. All reality that was, is, and will be is contained within this “spine of reality.” Nature is good because the one who generated it is good.

The Mental Universe: How can I use what I see to go deeper into reality with my mind and heart? Nature here is what the Teilhard Map shows increasing complexity or what I term intelligent progression. The mental universe is one where sentient beings look out on reality and seek to know the interrogatories. Scientific inquiry is one where I look at what was and what is using the latest techniques and cumulative knowledge and seek to go deeper into its composition, but it is only one among many languages, ones that have different objectives and points of assumption. All these languages are good but the danger is in thinking that only one language explains all of reality. Only humans inhabit this universe. Why? We alone, as a species, have both the capacity and the capability to look out on reality and ask questions that take us deeper into our rationality. But is that all there is? Is there another step in our complex movement toward that destiny that created us that compels us to be more than just rational apes? Well, here we are. This is the nexus, the natural evolution, the reason we have reason, the quirky and often confusing realm of personal choice that can be good for our humanity or lead to blockage and stagnancy.

The Spiritual Universe — This whole notion of nature being alive in the sense of protecting itself against the cancer of not only untrue ideas, but of behaviors that lead me and my species to devolve rather than evolve toward a destiny that is predestined but not guaranteed without the correct way, the correct truth, and living a life that leads us to be that next level of evolution, spiritual apes. Wrong ideas only generate wrong behavior. The problem for all humans has and will be, that we get to choose what we think will make us wholistic and our human actions and through functional and not dysfunctional. As an individual, I make a choice to have a mindset that has The Christ Principle as my template, against which all other realities are measured. As a member of the human race, there is no choice to be made for good or evil, yet, all reality is linked together and what is true in one universe (physical and mental) must be true in the spiritual one.

Use this Teilhard map (unattributed) as a guide to what I am trying to describe.

NATURE PROTECTS ITSELF AGAINST HUMANITIES FOLLY

So, I come to the bewildering and quite seemingly contradictory statement: Do you think that God would go to all the trouble to CREATE NATURE, give it DNA and purpose, and allow it to move in complexity throughout that defined purpose, lift up matter to experience LIFE, allow LIFE to move onto the WAY that leads to HUMANS, lift up HUMANS to have the only ability to reason and to freely choose what is good for their nature or will kill it, then actually move from THE DIVINE NATURE to assume HUMAN NATURE because we weren’t getting the message and made the wrong choice for our human nature, paying the price for the ransom of many, then passing on the authority to muddle along through the centuries to fallible and sinful human beings like us, only to have the collective human choice to be incorrect and without any hope of getting back on track without help? Nature (matter and life, human nature, and the redeemed nature of adoption for those who wish) springs back to its default normal existence when it gets too far out of whack. This does not depend on any ideology or personal philosophy it is a natural response to humanity missing the mark once more. Christ became human to SHOW us how to become that next step in our evolution, one where we must abandon and die to the world only to rise up and possess that next level of our human evolution, adoption as son or daughter of the Church. When Christ told us that His Church is His legacy and that the Holy Spirit would not let the gates of Hell prevail against it, what do you think that meant? Sinful humans run the Church throughout the ages, and, despite Peter, the doubting Thomases, the Sons of Thunder, and the movement of the Church trying to mess it up by using a monarchical model rather than the model of humility and obedience to God’s will (monastic model), we still came through (so far) bruized, battered, but intact. Incredible and a testament to the love God has for humanity (and each human).

Stay calm, of you of little Faith. Stay focused on Christ. Pray for mercy for your sinfulness of that of the whole world (including the Church).

Nature, being purposeful, is meaningful when it fulfills what its creator imprinted in it. Read the Canticle of Daniel to see how all nature fulfills its purpose by being what it is created to be. Sun and Moon, bless the Lord. Nature bends the knee to its author by being what it is created to be rather than something it isn’t. Trust God to be a Father, to us and give us what we need to be adopted sons and daughters of that Father. Contemplative prayer in my upper room is the time when I unwind and put all thinking in perspective. It is the peace of Christ that permeates my heartbeat, a peace that is not the absence of stress as much as it is the presence of love.

Matter, time, space, the reaction of chemicals, and properties of matter with each other are not alive, in the sense that they are sentient but there is an undefined interaction of all matter with itself due to the imprint of the creator on all that is. All that is touched by the creator bears the marks, the image and likeness of the one who made it. Like a potter, who leaves a mark on each piece to bind them together in the harmony of its designer, God it seems has placed a mark on all that is that binds all into a cosmic flow from what was to what is through the stamp of NOW. I like the website: http://www.organism.earth as one where there are quotes about the ontic possibility of the manifest ability of all being as one reality with three distinct elements or universes.

Read the Canticle of Daniel in its entirety and think of how all matter, even inert, reflects its creator as we all move together in complexity from creation to Omega. (Teilhard’s Map of Reality). It all makes sense, almost, then there is the pesky little problem that there is always a deeper reality to probe and discover. (capacitas dei) For me, being where I find myself on my Lay Cistercian journey, just when I think I have it all locked up, Christ through the Holy Spirit comes along and suggests, “Did you think about this.” Have mercy on me.

Then these three in the furnace with one voice sang, glorifying and blessing God:

52“Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our ancestors,

praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;

And blessed is your holy and glorious name,

praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.

53Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,

praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.

54Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,

praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.

55Blessed are you who look into the depths

from your throne upon the cherubim,

praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.

56Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven,

praiseworthy and glorious forever.

57Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.

58Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.

59You heavens, bless the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.^a

60All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.

61All you powers, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

62Sun and moon, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

63Stars of heaven, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

64Every shower and dew, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

65All you winds, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

66Fire and heat, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

67Cold and chill, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

68Dew and rain, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

69Frost and chill, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

70Hoarfrost and snow, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

71Nights and days, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

72Light and darkness, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

73Lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

74Let the earth bless the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.

75Mountains and hills, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

76Everything growing on earth, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

77You springs, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

78Seas and rivers, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

79You sea monsters and all water creatures, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

80All you birds of the air, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

81All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

82All you mortals, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

83O Israel, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

84Priests of the Lord, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

85Servants of the Lord, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

86Spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

87Holy and humble of heart, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

88Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

For he has delivered us from Sheol,

and saved us from the power of death;

He has freed us from the raging flame

and delivered us from the fire.

89Give thanks to the Lord, who is good,

whose mercy endures forever.

90Bless the God of gods, all you who fear the Lord;

praise and give thanks, for his mercy endures forever.”

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/daniel/3

My Catholic Faith, despite all the press about this or that pronouncement as being right or wrong, seeks to emulate St. Charles de Foucauld who, in turn, sought to “Have in him the mind of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5). When the folly of believers and non-believers overburdens the cosmic fabric, human nature, will snap back automatically and restore equilibrium and resonance. For Behold, says Christ, I make all things new.

I either believe that or I don’t.

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