Tag: pierre teilhard de chardin

The Ocean of Matter

On By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Image
Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons, License CC-BY-SA 3.0

 

‘Never, if you work to live and to grow, never will you be able to say to matter, “I have seen enough of you; I have surveyed your mysteries and have taken from them enough food for my thought to last me for ever.”  I tell you: even though, like the Sage of sages, you carried in your memory the image of all the beings that people the earth or swim in the seas, still all that knowledge would be as nothing for your soul, for all abstract knowledge is not enough, you must see it, touch it, live in its presence and drink the vital heat of existence in the very heart of reality.

‘Never say, then, as some say: “The kingdom of matter is worn out, matter is dead”: till the very end of time matter will always remain young, exuberant, sparkling, new-born for those who are willing.

‘Never say, “Matter is accursed, matter is evil”: for there has come one who said, “You shall drink poisonous draughts and they shall not harm you”, and again, “Life shall spring forth out of death”, and then finally, the words which spell my definitive liberation, “This is my body”.

‘Purity does not lie in separation from, but in a deeper penetration into the universe.  It is to be found in the love of that unique, boundless Essence which penetrates the inmost depths of all things and there, from within those depths, deeper than the mortal zone where individuals and multitudes struggle, works upon them and moulds them.  Purity lies in a chaste contact with that which is “the same in all”.

‘Oh, the beauty of the spirit as it rises up adorned with all the riches of the earth!

‘Son of man, bathe yourself in the ocean of matter; plunge into it where it is deepest and most violent; struggle in its currents and drink of its waters.  For it cradled you long ago in your preconscious existence; and it is that ocean that will raise you up to God.’

–Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Priest and Scientist), Hymn of the Universe (Harper & Row: 1965), p.64-65

All That Is Needed

On By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Reading Teilhard de Chardin today, I found the following passage.  This is all the response I wish to give to Mitt Romney’s remarks about “the 47%”:

Fundamentally, in spite of the apparent enthusiasm with which large sections of humankind go along with the political and social currents of the day, the mass of humankind remains dissatisfied. It is impossible to find, either on the right or the left, a truly progressive mind which does not confess to at least a partial disillusionment with all existing movements.

A person joins one party or another, because if one wishes to act one must make a choice.  But, having taken a stand, everyone feels to some extent hampered, thwarted, even revolted. Everyone wants something larger, finer, better for humankind. Scattered throughout the apparently hostile masses which are fighting each other, there are elements everywhere which are only waiting for a shock in order to re-orient themselves and unite.

All that is needed is that the ray of light should fall upon these people as upon a cloud of particles, that an appeal should be sounded which responds to their internal needs, and across all denominations, across the conventional barriers which still exist, we shall see the living atoms of the universe seek each other out, find each other and organize themselves.

Adapted from Building the Earth by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, written in 1937, published posthumously in 1965.  These words are mostly his, I have only altered them to make use of gender-inclusive pronouns.