The last few books mentioned took rational steps to show an expanded universe. Tough to read because they spoke of realities beyond speech, they did give me energy to try to free myself from the common anxieties that anchor us to a (perceived) safe but unsatisfactory life. Still, there is something missing in these books, something we notice here again and again; it is the absence of heart, if not soul.
This was brought home to me at church service last Saturday evening, to which I was nearly dragged by my wife, who for some reason is NOT bored by the rituals. I am, and apparently will forever be. And yet - as usual, during the consecration of the host, which in Catholic belief actually becomes the flesh of Christ, there was this touching of the heart, this real presence, as real as any other thing, but deeper. Satisfying as no intellectual concept can be. How this comes to be I do not fully understand. It could link my childhood experiences in the Church to the present; or it simply could be magic. As all priests sing at the beginning of the consecration, "The mystery of faith." And that is that. There is no further explanation. It is a mystery and words no longer suffice.
In a book I read recently by the head of the Genome project who was also a hard-core spiritual believer (and biological evolutionist. I, too, have never had any problem putting the two together. In fact, evolution is the kind of genius a creator would use to both differentiate and unite a world), he spoke of the country people he knew while practicing medicine in rural Virginia. They were anything but sophisticated people, but he said they handled death better than anyone else because of their simple faith. Faith is, then, not simply a commandment or a shock of ignorance. It has its practical side. Yet - as he fully understood, so much so that he became religious - it was much more. It allowed the actualization of real belief in something that is beyond our ordinary reality, something that defies words and scientific scrutiny. And yet is viscerally real.
Love makes the world go round. Hate and envy kill. Visceral feelings that have no particular object have real affects on objects. If these feeling lay deeply within our own heart, they make all the difference as to what type of world we experience. We have all known bitter people whose lives are surrounded by bitterness by their very attitude. And there are also the blessed, those who seem to float on the wings of grace through life, come what may.
For me, I seem to need the balance - the intellectual and the heart. But really, it is that which goes deepest into the heart - the soul, we might call it - that is cherished the most. It is that which is not the notion of summer, but the feel of grass between the bare toes. It is that, that something, that makes all the difference. And it comes about best through an openness that is cultivated by faith - even for the most stringent and hard-nosed of scientists. FK
This was brought home to me at church service last Saturday evening, to which I was nearly dragged by my wife, who for some reason is NOT bored by the rituals. I am, and apparently will forever be. And yet - as usual, during the consecration of the host, which in Catholic belief actually becomes the flesh of Christ, there was this touching of the heart, this real presence, as real as any other thing, but deeper. Satisfying as no intellectual concept can be. How this comes to be I do not fully understand. It could link my childhood experiences in the Church to the present; or it simply could be magic. As all priests sing at the beginning of the consecration, "The mystery of faith." And that is that. There is no further explanation. It is a mystery and words no longer suffice.
In a book I read recently by the head of the Genome project who was also a hard-core spiritual believer (and biological evolutionist. I, too, have never had any problem putting the two together. In fact, evolution is the kind of genius a creator would use to both differentiate and unite a world), he spoke of the country people he knew while practicing medicine in rural Virginia. They were anything but sophisticated people, but he said they handled death better than anyone else because of their simple faith. Faith is, then, not simply a commandment or a shock of ignorance. It has its practical side. Yet - as he fully understood, so much so that he became religious - it was much more. It allowed the actualization of real belief in something that is beyond our ordinary reality, something that defies words and scientific scrutiny. And yet is viscerally real.
Love makes the world go round. Hate and envy kill. Visceral feelings that have no particular object have real affects on objects. If these feeling lay deeply within our own heart, they make all the difference as to what type of world we experience. We have all known bitter people whose lives are surrounded by bitterness by their very attitude. And there are also the blessed, those who seem to float on the wings of grace through life, come what may.
For me, I seem to need the balance - the intellectual and the heart. But really, it is that which goes deepest into the heart - the soul, we might call it - that is cherished the most. It is that which is not the notion of summer, but the feel of grass between the bare toes. It is that, that something, that makes all the difference. And it comes about best through an openness that is cultivated by faith - even for the most stringent and hard-nosed of scientists. FK
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