4/10/2013 – Wednesday of 2nd week of Easter – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

       What an interesting name – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.  He was a Jesuit priest who has also been described as “a mystic and a scientist” – quite an interesting combination.  Teilhard de Chardin died on this date – April 10 – way back in 1955 – 58 years ago.  He was quite an accomplished geologist and paleontologist as well as a theologian.  Yet, his theological writings were way before his time, and he was forbidden by the Church to publish any of his theological writings during his lifetime.  Since his death, his writings have been published, and his view of God in all of creation and the scientific mindset in which he approaches theology appeals to those in the modern world who approach God with the mind of a mathematician or scientist.  So many think that God can not be reconciled to the theology of our modern world, but the writings of Teilhard de Chardin show us to the contrary.  In reconciling our spiritual experience with our humanity, he writes: “You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.”

         I recently met with a young man who is Methodist who was curious about Catholic theology.  He asked me about the community of saints, a topic most Protestants find curious and interesting (and I can say this having grown up in the United Methodist Church and in the United Church of Christ).  I told him that the saints are our heroes and our examples of faith, just as so many in our modern world look up to sports figures and other celebrities.  This young man, who is training to fulfill a lifelong dream of hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in Africa, told me that he looked up to explorers such as Ernest Shackleton, the adventurer who led an expedition to Antarctica in the early 20^th century.  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is one of those saints who appeals to modern man’s search to reconcile our faith to science and technology.  He displays as much courage and tenacity as an explorer in his search to reconcile science to our belief in God.  We give thanks to Teilhard de Chardin and to all the community of saints for the example they give to us and to the prayers that intercede for us.