PICKING UP LOOSE ENDS: Thoughts that fell through the cracks. Reality is resonant, not dissonant.

The ideas below continue the first set of conversations about “The River of Life,” using Teilhard de Chardin’s map and my notion of Three Distinct Universes yet only One Reality.

This most esoteric of topics matters little to me, since I use these blogs to keep my mind from atrophying, and they give me focus instead of sitting in my rocker-recliner and watching to see if the plastic flower will ever bloom. They also matter a lot to me because the HS give me words to write down. Enough.

My premise is that all reality is in movement toward a point of complexity and consciousness according to three natures: the physical nature of all reality; the mental nature of humans with the specific characteristics of reason and free choice; leading to the ultimate level of evolution, the spiritual universe, accessed only by the reason and free will of each individual human. This spiritual universe challenges matter and the mind because it is invisible, and as I mentioned earlier, the problem with invisibility is that we can’t see it. This is the river of life: a way to see reality in which all three universes, matter (visible), mind (visible, with invisibility as backup), and the spiritual universe (the mind’s invisible reality), coexist in resonance (the purpose of each of the three universes). My premise is that, to reach that last level of evolution, the one that seems contradictory and antithetical to matter is actually the synthesis of matter and mind.

Today’s ideas are about one of the characteristics of this invisible reality as it relates to all three: that all three universes are designed and crafted by the Master Builder to be good, and that, with the introduction of humanity with the power to choose good or evil, began poor choices that do not lead to a nature that is in resonance with how and why each of us was fashioned, which was consistent with our designer’s will. Resonance is harmony; dissonance is the opposite. Dissonance in the Book of Genesis is humanity’s archetypal choice: selecting what seems pleasurable (apologies to B.F. Skinner) or what will make them happy for the moment (Seven Deadly Sins) instead of the hard choice that seems to go against human reason and free will. Because humans have no book or instructions from the Designer, they tend to follow animalistic urges to fulfill the hidden urge deep within each of us. Again, it takes movement of consciousness and complexity to reach a level of ongoing change that brings ever deeper awareness of our human purpose and how to reach the next level of our “River of Life.”

This description of evolution as a transaction is most vivid in the Torah’s Book of Genesis. Matter is good (being what it is intended to be or is) because its purpose is to be what it is, consistent with the designer’s DNA left imprinted to guide it inexorably toward fulfilling that purpose. Dissonance occurs when its matter is diverted from its intended purpose. Humans are part of matter and, in this sense, intrinsically good, as are all animals, plants, and their natural processes, left alone to be what they are designed to be.

One species evolved (through natural progression) to the point that it triggered something no other living species had achieved before. The freedom to choose good or evil as their center to fulfill what is innate, embedded in our DNA, God’s fingerprints always moving all reality closer and closer to Omega. Evil here is the choice that creates dissonance in a lifetime, and the choice to live in a way that restores resonance.

Now, humans realize they must choose between competing, sometimes contradictory, options: what is right and what is easy. Romans 5 speaks of sin entering the world through one human (Adam and Eve), a choice to accept the Designer’s architectural framework or reject it in favor of their personal preferences for what is good or evil.

They chose poorly and right away noticed the consequences of their actions, called original sin, whose effects are laid out masterfully in Genesis (working for food and knowledge, becoming aware that they are naked, pain, suffering, death (their own personal Alpha and Omega), inability to know which way is the truth so that their life can, once more, be resonant with their human nature. This was, and continues to be, the lost covenant unless the individual reverses Adam and Eve’s choice and apologizes to God (asks for mercy). Humans don’t have the energy (it takes energy from a nature beyond human to walk down the steps of life to reach out a hand to lift us up on that first rung). We need help.

The Designer, the Master Gardener, the Magister Noster (rabbi), needed to enter a lower level of existence from the Divine Nature, to walk down those steps to our ground-floor level of the “Adama” and not give us a hand (The Old Testament record of covenant) but to step onto the floor with us as one of us. Romans describes it as one who was not sin (the Seven Deadly Sins as their permanent center), holding onto our shoulders to lift each individual up for that first step to Omega. This is the Christ Principle: that singular moment in evolution when God intervened, because not doing so would have left us hostage to our own flaws (the Seven Deadly Sins).

The “River of Life,” also called “The Pipeline to Pure Energy.” Is how, sitting alone in my rocker-recliner, at 86.2 years of age, I benefit from the direct flow of energy from the Designer who is of Divine Nature, to me, through The Genesis Principle, moving in complexity and consciousness through, with and in Christ down that river of redemption, and with the Holy Spirit, the advocate for the Catholic Church, who builds that part of the pipleline from Jesus through, with and in the Catholic Church (visible body of Jesus in each age) so that I can drink from the waters of life, and continue what my human nature has had restored by Jesus. (Philippians 2:5).

By my NO, like Adam and Eve’s, I can also say NO to what the Designer wanted. This matters because what Christ made possible through his dying on a cross was actually like the floodgates of the Hoover Dam being opened to drain all the sediment, flotsam, and jetsam from being blocked up by this one act of choice (Though one man, sin came into the world) and closed the dam until Jesus was the Gate that opened the gates of life to allow resonance to flow once again, restoring equilibrium, resonance to the river of life.

But there is a bill to be paid for all of the above. Christ paid the bill for all humanity through his selfless sacrifice, enabling all humans to choose what is good for them once more. Christ, the Second Adam, paid the price for our collective choice of personal self over the guidance and way that is the truth, leading to a life where I can become what my nature intended from the beginning, an adopted son or daughter of the Father.

But as always, the results are still owed. Like a homeowners association that collects dues voted on by the board and applies them to each individual homeowner, no exceptions, the price of our recovenant with God means each person must use their reason and free will to rechoose, to restore, and to redeem their behaviors to line up in resonance. The Catholic Church makes this possible because Christ handed the Apostles not only what to do (Scripture) but how to do it (Tradition).

Think of it. Of all the persons (there is always only one person at the top) Christ could have selected to be responsible for building this pipeline that holds the precious energy from God that I, personally, need to step to that next rung, with Christ holding my wobbly self, He chose one who was a fisherman, not a Priest, a Pharisee, or a Scribe. You are Peter, and on this rock (Petrus) I will build my Church (head of the pipeline company entrusted to move forward in sync with the consciousness and complexity of all matter, mind, and now allowing each person who is aware and chooses to do so to move with the power of God to lift up the leg to move up another step in the ladder toward Omega. We are not orphans. Peter, the one who denied him three times, once as Genesis Principle, once as Christ Principle, and now once as the Spirit of Truth, to head the pipeline construction company in each age with an unbroken link to what went afterward, just so I could be an adopted son of the Father, a daughter who could realize the deepest meaning of what it means to be feminine and adopted by the Father. All of this because the energy of God touched the fragility of Humans in a way that made sense to humans down through the centuries (The Catholic Church, whose purpose is to build, maintain, repair, and service the pipeline (Jesus) that houses the energy that I, as an individual, need (the Holy Spirit) to make my own step up the rung, again through, with, and in Jesus helping me lift my leg, can say a YES.

Original Sin is the consequence of saying NO to God’s invitation to be an heir of the kingdom. Sin in my personal life is saying NO to God’s own plan for me to move to that deepest level of my existence, adoption. The Catholic Church, through its pipeline of truth to lead a life that can know, love, and serve God by serving others, is the way Christ chose to make Himself present to us, body and blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist, and the other side of the coin, to forgive others as I would want and need God to forgive me.

I try to see patterns of cross-cutting themes in reality that are not readily visible unless you know where to dig and have the tools. Jesus showed us how to dig and gave us the tools that our human nature could never produce through the physical or mental universes alone. We needed help, and our cry of the poor was answered. The question I had to answer was: Am I aware of the six questions of the Divine Equation (faith), and if I know that, what am I going to do about it (good works)?

Next in this series is a conversation about the keys of the kingdom and how to pack for the parousia (Heaven in Heaven).

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ACTIO: Do what He tells you.

Copyright © Michael F. Conrad, Ed.D. The Center for Contemplative Practice. All rights reserved. Produced in collaboration with Grok. No part of this work may be reproduced, distributed, or used for commercial profit without the express written permission of Michael F. Conrad.

AI Statement of Authorship: These ideas and written materials are from Michael F. Conrad, Ed.D., his 68 books, and 1,230 blogs. I use Grok to organize materials. Grok does not initiate any assistance or contribute without my direct approval. Grok contributed to these retreat pages at the request of Michael F. Conrad, so Anawim readers might receive the ideas in a scrollable retreat format. The thoughts, premises, and spiritual judgments remain those of Michael F. Conrad. Grok contributed structure, phrasing assistance, and document design. Nothing here is offered as official teaching of the Catholic Church, nor as a substitute for the care of a physician, confessor, or spiritual director.

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