12 April 2018 – Thursday of the 2nd week of Easter –Acts 5:27-33

       April 10th marked the anniversary of the death of the Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who passed away back in 1955 - that was 7 years before I was born.  Just by his name we can tell that he is going to be a fascinating person.  Teilhard de Chardin has not been canonized a saint yet.  He hasn’t been beatified either.  Yet, his journey of faith and his profound writings have attracted a loyal following among many Christians, especially those who are scientifically and mathematically oriented.  The fact that he can be described as both “a mystic and a scientist” shows that he is quite an interesting individual.  He was an accomplished geologist and paleontologist, having had a key role in the discovery and interpretation of “Peking man” in China in 1929-1930.  Yet, he was quite an accomplished theologian as well.  However, his theological writings were way before his time.  The Church forbade him from publishing any of his theological writings during his lifetime. In his obedience as a priest, he complied with that order, which I can imagine was very difficult for him to do.  Since his death, his writings have been published and have become well-known.  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 in the world today think that God can not be reconciled to science and technology, but the writings of Teilhard de Chardin beg to differ.  He was ordained a priest in 1911 and wrote the following in 1916 while serving as a stretcher bearer in WWI for his native country of France:  “There is a communion with God, and a communion with the earth, and a communion with God through the earth.” He also wrote this about how we can reconcile our spiritual experience of God with our humanity: “You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.”

       The law of God vs the law of man.  The values of the Gospel vs the values of the secular world.  The call of earthly whims and desires vs the call we have from God. The apostles battled these seemingly opposite realities as they came up for trial before the Jewish authorities.  The apostles saw their calling to preach the Gospel as intrinsic to the lives that they lived here on earth. Teilhard de Chardin, both a mystic and a scientist, both a priest and an earthy human being, reconciled his faith with his daily lived experiences.  His writings are still fresh, profound, and relevant today in the midst of so many books and writings.   May we also continue to find our spiritual way in the midst of our earthly journey.