Beyond Us and Within Us
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, St Paul was 2000 years ahead of his time. He expresses, in his letters, ideas that could not be adequately expressed in the language and ideas of the time in which he lived. Even now, all human language about God and about our relationship with God is ultimately insufficient. At best, we can use analogies and metaphors and words. Back then, St Paul used analogies and metaphors and words that ultimately cannot capture the Reality. Today we do the same thing!
Catholic quantum theologians teach us today in language borrowed from 20th + 21st century physicists. They hint that St Paul was a quantum theologian as well. 2000 years ago, St Paul understood that Reality is bigger than the sum of its parts. Reality is not Divine, yet the Divine exists in Reality and Reality exists in the Divine. Reality in God is bigger than the sum of its parts. St Paul intuited that, but he could not express it in human language available to him.
Christian Quantum theologian, Barbara BrownTaylor, offered a meditation about God:
“Where is God in this picture? God is all over the place. God is up there, down here, inside my skin and out. God is the web, the energy, the space, the light – not captured in them, as if any of those concepts were more real than what unites them -- but revealed in the singular vast net of relationships animating everything that is.”
By extension, the same is true with the Church, the Body of Christ. According to quantum theory, the whole is contained in each of the parts and the parts are all contained in the whole. Christ Jesus lives in each of us (Divine Indwelling or Tabernacle of the Lord or Dwelling Place of the Holy Spirit or the Christ Quantum, call the Holy Mystery whatever you want); each of us and all of us live in Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus lives in each of us and all of us .
Think about the theological reflection mentioned last weekend. Think of staring at the horizon on the ocean. Realize that the Trinitarian God is just beyond the horizon. Think of closing your eyes for a moment and realize that the Trinitarian God is as close to you as the film over your eye! Think that this is true at the same time. The Trinitarian God is transcendent (beyond us) and immanent (within us) at the same time. Savor the paradox.
Then, think of staring toward the horizon on a foggy or a cloudy day. You cannot see the horizon, but you know that it is there nevertheless. Think of staring toward the horizon at night in the darkness. You certainly cannot see the horizon, but you know, all the same, that the horizon is there. Just as God is. Again, savor the paradox.
Quantum theologians teach us that relationships are a basis of Reality and we are effected by our relationships and we effect the relationships of which we are a part. Quantum physicists (and now quantum theologians) tell us that we rub off on each other. We catch one another’s vibrations; we exist in forcefields generated by our relationships with others.
As cells of the Body of Christ, in which the Whole is contained in the parts and the part is contained in the Whole, Christ Jesus, the Archetype of Creation, the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of the Dead effects us and we, through our lives, for good and for bad, effect the Body.
St Paul tells us today that all creation is groaning to fulfillment. We know today from astrophysics that the universe is still in process of creation. The universe is not yet what God the Creator intends it to be. “We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves as we wait…” (Rom 8.23) Interestingly, our first reading tells us something similar. “ Just as from the heavens the rain and the snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, so shall my (creating) Word be that goes forth from my mouth. My Word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” (Is 55.10-11). As French Jesuit anthropologist-theologian, Teilhard de Chardin, said in the 20th century, “Something is afoot in the universe.” St Paul knew.
In the twentieth century, Catholic quantum theologians speak now of the Christ Quantum. Christ Jesus exists in all; all exist in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit is the “Something afoot in the universe.” And, by extension, since you are part of the universe, Something is afoot in you!”
Christ Jesus is the pinnacle of humanity, the consummate Jew, the truly Human One, the Son of God, the Image of the Invisible God, the Archetype of Creation, the Firstborn of the Dead, the Author of Life. (The Christ Quantum is alive and well in the Universe, thank you for asking!) St Paul knew this and tried to verbalize it in divinely inspired, but inadequate human language.
In the twenty-first century, in Christ Jesus, may we know this as well, trying to verbalize in better, but, still in inadequate human language, our belief that Christ Jesus is Lord. St Paul intuited this; in Christ Jesus, may we intuit it and live the Reality 24-7-365.!! Don’t think about it; no need to figure it out, viz., it is infinitely knowable and infinitely unknowable, at the same moment; just experience it ! 071011AD jfq
