Energy is Love under many forms - October 29
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 50; PM Psalm [59, 60] or 33; Ecclus. 31:12-18,25-32:2; Rev. 12:7-17; Luke 11:53-12:12
My Tuesday book group just finished “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion. Didion’s work is an exposition into her own grief after the loss of her husband and daughter. She writes about finding meaning in her younger years in the Episcopal litany “most acutely in the words as it was in the beginning, now and ever shall be, world without end, which (she) interpreted as a literal description of the constant changing earth, the unending erosion of the shores and mountains, the inexorable shifting of the geological structures that could throw up mountains and islands and could just as reliably take them away.” Didion found hope in acknowledging that life and this earth is out of our control.
Likewise, Jesus tells his friends that we should “not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more” Luke 12:4. Jesus then has this interplay between those who deny and those who acknowledge God (12:8-11). Jesus is pointing us to the eternal nature of God, which our language can best describe as Love, the defining force of the universe that “was in the beginning, now and ever shall be, world without end.” Jesus concludes with a message of hope reminding believers not to worry “for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say” (12:12).
In Richard Rohr’s latest work, The Universal Christ, he talks about Love as the universal structure of the Universe. He references French Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) who surmises, “gravity, atomic bonding, orbits, cycles, photosynthesis, ecosystems, force fields, electromagnetic fields, sexuality, human friendship, animal instinct, and evolution all reveal an energy that is attracting all things and beings to one another” (pg. 69). Even a ninth-grade science class will understand the atomic level to be energy and matter that are attracted to each other. I had never thought of it this way before, but Rohr simply claims, “energy is … love under many different forms” (pg. 69)
Think about the cosmic nature of this understanding - everything in our existence is part of the universal design of God’s love and attraction. This love is the force that draws us to appreciate art and beauty, or fall in love with another human being, or create music, deepen friendships, or stand in support, love, and solidarity for our fellow humankind. This attraction is a part of the force of God’s love flowing through the universe. It is that which has always been there and will always be.
Thinking of God’s love in this way has been helpful for me because it reminds me that when I love too, when I participate in God’s life-giving attraction, my life has a deeper and more eternal purpose. It enables me, in Jesus’s words, to “not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more.” If there is eternal love flowing through this universe drawing all things together, then I can let go of the worry of the temporary nature of today. The mountains might move to, but it is a force of something large at work.
Where is your worry for our life today? What is that you fear, and does it have command over the way you live into God’s call for you? If we are to accept Rohr’s premise, maybe the best way we could translate verse twelve of this passage is “Do not fear, for God’s way of love will guide you this hour and all the hours and help your life conform to the universal love which defines our Universe.”
John+
Questions for Self-Reflection: Have you thought before about the interplay between physics, attraction, and God’s love? What do you feel most connected to in life? What do you feel most disconnected from?
Daily Challenge: Pay attention to how you feel called into life-giving and nurturing conversations, relationships, and work. Consider this part of God’s love attracting all things.