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SFP VOICES APRIL 2009
Vol. V, No. 3 © |
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THE NEW COSMOLOGY: AN OUTCRY ECHOES FROM THE EARTH’S WOMB . . .
“Cosmology” by Gilles Mansillon
Dear Sisters and Associates,
Thinking about The New Cosmology made me resort to the dictionary, looking for a keener understanding: “Cosmology comes from the Greek cosmos, meaning order, world. The branch of Astronomy that studies the origin, the structure and the evolution of the Universe through the application of scientific methods.”
“Life insists on springing forth, as a gift from God.”
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So, the New Cosmology challenges us to a new way of seeing and understanding the Cosmos and, within it, our mother the Earth. According to renown cosmologists and biologists, the Earth – which the Greeks called Gaia – is a living planet. The Earth articulates physics, chemistry and biology in such a way that these realms are always propitious for life. All elements are measured in such subtle and unique ways that only living organisms can manage.
We human beings have spread ourselves throughout the Earth. We have occupied all places, adapting ourselves, and modifying all eco-systems. This expansion — moving us from the subsoil out into the air and then leaping off the planet — has made possible the vast global society in which we live and now consider to be “a globalized society.” Globalization has some positive aspects, for example, the possibility of cultural, economic and industrial enrichment – on the other hand, it holds us hostage to many technological advancements which threaten our own survival.
This outcry is a challenge and a call to action. It is unsettling, it questions us and sharpens our creativity, because, despite the grey tones of today’s reality — evil seemingly lurking over everything — Life insists in springing forth, as a gift from God. We are called to create a new way to understand and care for Life, thinking that Life itself is relational.
“Everything is related to everything else and nothing exists outside that relationship.” – Niels Bohr |
Niels Bohr, one of the creators of quantum physics said that “Everything is related to everything else and nothing exists outside that relationship.” This means we find ourselves in an intimate relationship with every thing that there is in the entire universe. We form a network, as it were, and everything that is disconnected from that principle, unsettles the chain of our interdependence. That is, it breaks up the most primary principle prevailing in the universe – that of collaboration from all to all — the fundamental law of life’s dynamics.
The growing awareness that we, humans, are deeply integrated with the environment surrounding us, claims that our fight for justice include as well the struggle to save the ecology. And not only to assure justice for other creatures besides human beings, but also to guarantee the most elementary form of justice for all: the common environment in which the future generations can live.
I once read a rather unique reflection: “I become human through the ensemble of connections with life and nature, with others and the Divine.” I want to make this quote a goal. I think this same idea has grown in each of our Sisters and Associates who were present at our General Chapter . . . “Generating Compassion and hope in the Community of Life” — which invites us to sow the seeds of kindness and reverence toward every creature.
Sister Maria Helena Carvalho, SFP
Congregational Councilor, Brazil Area
“Each small gesture we make affects the whole.”
Sister Maria Lúcia Barbosa de Oliveira, SFP
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The house where I live in Midwestern Brazil is located in a beautiful green area, with much breathing space in the Residencial Sonho Dourado neighborhood. Noise and pollution are intense from the heavy traffic. When I lived here ten years ago, the number of vehicles passing by was 90 percent less than today. It is worrisome living with changes that are so rapid and are detrimental to the planet and all creatures.
There is also a serious situation here regarding survival of the savanna-like ecosystem called the “cerrado,”characterized by poor soil (but rich in natural resources). The Federal government program, Avança Brasil (Brazil’s Advancement) favors giving agricultural incentives to corporate farming, hydroelectric dams and river way projects, thus bringing this drought-prone sandy area to rapid desertification.
I am a member of the “Bioma Cerrado”Group of the Brazilian Religious Conference; we are developing partnerships with not-for-profit organizations committed to safeguarding the ecology. Our goal is to encourage responsible consumerism, recycling and non-polluting coexistence within the environment. We are also promoting the passage of a Constitutional Amendment to landmark the “cerrado” ecosystem as a national patrimony. This project, which has been circulating in Congress for twelve years, faces fierce opposition from large landowners and businesses who are interested in quick profit to be earned through agribusiness. They are intent on deforesting for single-crop cultivation, leaving the soil worthless and exhausted. We are engaged in an uphill struggle, but we should not lose heart. Was it not with God’s help that little David beat the giant Goliath?
Why am I talking about all of this?
We are part of the universe which is still evolving, and an important link in the chain of life. Everything is linked! Each small gesture we make affects the whole. Coming to know the reality, studying the New Cosmology and having a good understanding is important. However, this will be of little use if we do not find some practical way to learn and to help others become aware of how much they belong to the network of life.
And . . . How does all of this relate to the New Cosmology?
 Pachamama |
Last November I participated in a retreat at my former place of ministry among Brazilian Natives, in the Prelacy of São Félix do Araguaia, in the State of Mato Grosso. I was surprised to see how much lower the level of the Araguaia River is today. The Indians are now able to cross the river on foot; ten years ago they would have needed a canoe. The river is sanding up, river sources are polluted, and there is thinning of the forest that protects the course of the river. These are the consequences of human ignorance and, in some cases, disregard and disrespect.
As agents of transformation and participants in the sufferings of Pachamama, (the name given to Mother Earth by the Indigenous peoples of South America), we must liberate the planet through a true revolution in the model of our relationship with it. We can’t accept the paradigm of modern times based on violence against nature. Instead, we can adopt a holistic approach -- grounded on reverence and care for the earth with its integrity, beauty and biodiversity.
There is an urgent need to face the unjust impoverishment of the majority of people that live below the poverty limit. We must side with the excluded by planting a society that assures a good quality of life for every member of the community of life and will guarantee a future for the natural and cultural patrimony belonging to all.
I ask myself, what are we doing to reduce the impending ecological disaster? What attitudes are we assuming concretely? Actions speak louder than words. Carefulness in consumption, reducing pollution, using electricity and water responsibly, sharing our awareness with others are small gestures, but they make a difference.
From this perspective, we wish to promote an optimistic attitude. The Earth can and must be saved. And it will be saved! Our planet has already gone through more than fifteen great devastation periods and it has always survived -- and the life principle has been maintained. We will overcome today’s impasse, but under one condition: that we change our course and point of view. By adopting a new perspective, new ethics will arise of shared responsibility synergistically with the Earth.
Let us try to further ground this optimism. Let us help by “sowing seeds of compassion and hope in the community of life.”
Sister Anne Claire Kabore, SFP
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Cosmology is an explanation of the formation and the development of the well-ordered and harmonious universe. One has, therefore, every right to think that all civilizations, even the oldest, have a conception of it. In the end, this gives meaning to its existence.
In ancient Greece, it was the platonic Demiurge that created and organized the cosmos while being inspired by a mathematical order (Timaeus). In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the God Creator created the best of all the worlds with the power of his Word: On the seventh day, God saw that all that he had created was good and so He rested. (Genesis).
 "Let there be light" |
However, with the new cosmology that was born after modern physics, it is the Big Bang theory that is the most prevalent. According to this theory, the “big boom”, or explosion, corresponds to the birth of the cosmos, which in its embryonic phase, was denser and hotter. Acording to this theory, the cosmos is in a constant expansion. It is dynamic (i.e., in a continuous creation phase). In light of this theory, one can always see God's action, Who would be at the origin of this explosion.
This is what urged Pope Pius XII to affirm in The Proofs of God's Existence in the Light of the Modern Natural Science, section 44:
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“. . . . With the same clear and critical look through which it [the enlightened human mind] examines and passes judgment on facts, it perceives and recognizes the work of creative omnipotence, whose power, set in motion by the mighty 'Fiat' pronounced billions of years ago by the Creating Spirit, spread out over the universe, calling into existence with a gesture of generous love matter bursting with energy. In fact, it would seem that present-day science, with one sweeping step back across millions of centuries, has succeeded in bearing witness to that primordial 'Fiat Lux,' uttered at the moment when, along with matter, there burst forth from nothing a sea of light and radiation, while the particles of chemical elements split and formed into millions of galaxies.”
Starting from the new cosmology embodied by the Big Bang, we, the Sisters, the Associates and the young, are called to be aware of the initial beauty of creation and to promote and protect the cosmos according to God's plan. We are called to continue the same heritage of Saint Francis, who, in singing and praising creation, saw the Creator's marvels in this creation and called man and woman to make of the universe a song of thanksgiving. This is how, for us, the new cosmology is a dimension through which we must always recognize God's creative work.
So we can sing: “For the Heavens before You, Splendor and Majesty, for the infinitely Large, for the infinitely Small and for the Firmament, your Starry blanket, and for Brother Sun, I want to cry: My God, You are the Beautiful and Living God, the Most High God present in all Creation.”
Robust Faith and Rigorous Science
Leah Curtin, Associate
 The heavens declare the glory of God… |
To try to explain the 'new' cosmology in one short essay is a rather daunting task, so I shall start with the familiar: science and Scripture. First, the science that opened up a whole new era of enquiry. Let's start with Einstein's most famous finding that tiny amounts of mass can be converted into huge amounts of energy -- a radical concept in 1905, but, so far, so good.
Then a contemporary of Einstein, J.S. Bell, uncovered the unity of a subatomic world when he demonstrated that everything is made of the same things: atoms, subatomic particles
and so forth. This is not too strange, and most of us are at least vaguely aware of atoms because they can be split in special reactors to create electricity…or bombs.
Now things start getting a little strange. Bell formulated a theory based on the unity of the atomic and subatomic world. Bell's theorem is simple: all that is, is one. Scientists worldwide confirmed Bell's work - again and again and again. It is true, it is simple, and it is the most profound discovery in the history of science.
This should not surprise Christians: Jesus told us that we are all One in Him centuries ago…but apparently we thought this was just a nice, pious saying. Well, it wasn't: it was literally and scientifically and theologically True! We really are one, one body, one spirit. We are, but we have no understanding of what it means even as we study the science and the Scriptures and say the words.
Think of it, the Mystical Body is not just a theological construct: it is real! "I am the vine and you are the branches…" "Whatsoever you do to one of these … you do to me!" Jesus told us in many ways that we are one, but we didn't catch on! We thought He meant spiritually, not literally one. And certainly not with -- you know, those other people: sinners and publicans and tax collectors (the ones Jesus hung around with!).
And things get stranger yet! David Bohm, another physicist and Nobel laureate, extended Bell's theorem. Bohm predicated that the totality of existence is enfolded within each fragment of time and space. A single thought, object or act affects, however infinitesimally, everything else. And what you look at is changed by the fact that you looked at it! These aren't theories, they're facts: we can actually see the tiniest of particles with an electron microscope, and we can record the change in the particles when looked at, and the change back when no one is looking. Thought itself is energy, and it too affects the world around it, effectively nullifying our cherished categories of “total objectivity” and “mere subjectivity.”
 …And the skies proclaim the work of His Hands… Psalm19:1 |
Most of the discoverers of the “new science” would themselves have preferred things otherwise, and the aftershock of their findings is, to say the least, stunning! For example, we now know that we live in a world of utterly intimate unity… which sounds innocuous enough, but this alone is dynamite! In a world of total unity, there is no distinction between matter and spirit. There is no up or down in this universe, and terms such as “outside and inside,” are artificial boundaries, and exclusions are meaningless.
If your head isn't spinning yet, you can't have absorbed the stupefying implications of the New Cosmology. The theology that corresponds to these insights is exciting, frightening and filled with extraordinary possibilities. Because we have never known anything other than a world divided into spirit and matter -- with all the sacred and secular, holy and unholy, worldly and unworldly categories flowing from this division, many people prefer to deny it. You may be among them. Or you may choose to embrace both science and faith within yourselves, allowing their mutual resonance to fill you with wonder: the radical amazement of the 'New Cosmology!’
… with our Mother Earth.
“As we follow in the footsteps of Francis of Assisi and live out his same love for all ‘creatures,’ we too choose to weave intimate connections with all the works that God’s hands have created.”
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by Casetta Nova Community, Frascati, Italy
Every year we contemplate with amazement the generosity of the land surrounding our house. Following the natural course of the seasons, our garden produces vegetables, greens, and fruit which then wind up on our table. We share the harvest of the land with those who live next to us, with the poor, and those who come to visit us.
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These fruits help us realize the importance of a simple relationship with the Earth, one that is respectful of the rhythms and natural cycles of existence, cycles which require that we wait for things to mature, and that we be patient when faced with unforeseen circumstances, such as hail, unexpected rain or wind. These cycles generate within us a joyful gratitude for the sun which, with its warmth, helps plants grow, sprout, blossom, mature and bear fruit.
For all of us here at Casetta Nova, this experience is important not only as part of our daily lives and the work of our hands, but also as prayer, contemplation, gratitude and discernment for new choices.
A few years ago, the idea arose to open the doors of our house to young people who wished to work with us for the olive harvest. This effort, which joins work and moments when we share our experiences and pray and express our gratitude for the gifts of the earth, immediately “brought fruit” in many different ways.
“I appreciated the moments of silence when, focused on carrying out my task well, I was able to reflect on the full meaning of a day that is so different from daily life and maybe because of this, I was able to savor in a new way also the gazes and happy laughs of those who were working with me!” – Giada
“Friday, when we arrived, the sky was cloudy and it was cold. We all prayed and asked God to give us good weather the next day. On Saturday morning, it was sunny and the sky was clear. God had answered our prayers! This may seem like a small thing, but for me it was an important lesson. It helped me to reflect on the need to experience both good and bad “weather” in my life, and welcome God’s silence with patience and God’s gifts with gratitude. – Francesca
“I didn’t just pick olives, but also appreciated the sense of exhaustion after working all day; I enjoyed the sunset, the friendship among us, the good and genuine flavors of our meals together. This was a concrete opportunity to get back in touch with the beauty that comes from simple things in life and in relationships.” – Daniela
How can we not be amazed before such a “natural” but also profound experience, which literally makes us touch with our own hands and our souls the earth connecting us to the whole of creation!
As we follow in the footsteps of Francis of Assisi and live out his same love for all “creatures,” we too choose to weave intimate connections with all the works that God’s hands have created. Thus we are led to contemplate the divine pattern which is everywhere, like a seal of love.
The Love gives us “new eyes” able to discover the precious gift of each thing in the universe: an ancient way, but always new, to be part of the community of life.
Copyright 2009 Franciscan Sisters of the Poor