As Sir Julian Huxley wrote about Mass in the World, it is "a truly poetic essay". A mystic, a poet uses language in a fundamentally different way than a scientist. The Latin translation in the notes follows the Douai version of the Bible.
His thoughts therefore turned to the emanation of Christ's Eucharistic presence through the universe. He did not, of course, confuse this presence, the effect of transubstantiation in the narrow sense, with the omnipresence of the divine Word. The effect of the priestly act extends beyond the consecrated host to the cosmos itself.
This, he naturally considered, could be linked to the most orthodox theology of the holy Eucharist.'3. On a number of occasions, Pere Teilhard expressed his special love for the feast of the Transfiguration. Fire, the source of being: we cling so stubbornly to the illusion that fire comes from the depths of the earth and that its flames grow.
When the Fire has descended into the heart of the world, it is ultimately intended to grasp and absorb me.
Hymn of the Universe by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Christ in the World of Matter
It seems to me that this transformation began at some point on the outer edge of the figure; and that thence it flowed on until it had affected its entire circumference. But the center of the radiance and play of color was hidden in the eyes of the transfigured portrait. It was something similar that I experienced as I gazed at the host, whose white shape, despite the candles on the altar, stood out sharply against the darkness of the choir.
It was as if a milky glow was illuminating the universe from within, and everything was made of the same kind of translucent flesh. So, through the mysterious expansion of the host, the whole world had become incandescent, it had become itself like a single giant host. I will not dwell on the sense of rapture created in me by this revelation of the universe placed between Christ and me as a wonderful prey.
From the host which I held in my fingers I was separated by the full extent and density of the years which still remained for me to live and to be deified.'. I live in the heart of a single, unique element, the center of the universe, and am present in every part of it: personal love and cosmic power.
The Spiritual Power of Matter
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., was professor of geology at the Catholic Institute in Paris, director of the National Geological Survey of China, and director of the. You who have understood that the world – the world beloved of God – even more than individuals has a soul that needs to be saved,1 open wide your whole being to my inspiration and receive the spirit of the earth that needs to be saved . The musky odor of forests, the feverish atmosphere of cities, the sinister, intoxicating scent that rises from nations engaged in strife: all these coiled within its folds, a vapor gathered from the four corners of the earth.
It was the soul of his whole race that quivered within him: a vague memory of the first sudden awakening in the midst of beasts stronger, better armed than he; the sad echo of the long struggle to tame the grain and control the fire; evil fear of evil forces of nature, desire for knowledge and possessions. A moment ago, in the sweetness of first contact, he instinctively yearned to be lost in the warm wind that embraced him. And the longer he fought, the more he felt the power coming out of him to balance the power of the storm, and out of the storm came a new breath in return, flowing like fire into his veins.
Oh, the beauty of the spirit as it rises, adorned with all the riches of the earth. He recognized with absolute certainty the empty fragility of even the noblest theories, compared to the final fullness of the smallest fact grasped in its total, concrete reality. And now in the heart of the swirling cloud grew a light, a light in which was the tenderness and agility of a human gaze;
Blessed be you, mighty matter, irresistible march of evolution, ever newborn reality; You who, by continually destroying our mental categories, force us to go further and further in our pursuit of the truth. I applaud you as the universal force that brings together and unites, by which the numerous monads are bound together and in which they all converge on the path of the spirit. It must be made perfectly clear that he who, not at the margins of the Christian mystical tradition, but at the point of its full development, was able without imprudence to enter into this formidable battle with matter, had prepared himself for it by the most rigorous asceticism: first of all, in childhood and youth, the asceticism of unwavering fidelity to the Christian ideal; later that of careful and constant obedience to the demands of a vocation that would continue without delay him on the steeply ascending road to perfection, until he reached the solitude he himself described: 'from now on he would be a stranger forever.
It required that long heroic journey through the dark mystical night, and a tremendous development of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, before matter became 'diaphanous' to Pere Teilhard's eyes and could reveal to him within yourself. only the sanctified stream flowing from the Incarnation and the Eucharist, but also the radiant presence of Christ. Therefore, for a correct understanding of the Hymn to Matter, we must place it at the end of the path of purgation and look up and up to the mountain top where the heavenly Jerusalem shines. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., was professor of geology at the Catholic Institute in Paris, director of the National Geological Survey of China, and director of the National Research Center of France.
Pensees
The greatness of the river is not revealed at its source, but at its mouth. It is really God, God alone, who through his Spirit brings the mass of the universe to a ferment. For there is no total love - and this is written large in the Gospel - except that which is in and of.
The basic mystical intuition therefore arises in the discovery of a transcendental unity scattered throughout the immensity of the world. If all those who suffer in the world were to combine their sufferings, the pain of the world would become a single thousand. Suddenly I saw through the trees the end of the forest that I thought had no end.
That is why, out of love for our Creator and the universe, we fearlessly throw ourselves into the crucible of tomorrow's world. But it is also impossible - and this is less familiar to us - to love God or one's neighbor without being obliged to help the progress of the earthly synthesis. This decay, which is the sign of the venal and precarious, is everywhere to be seen.
This implies love for both, and especially love for the supreme axis, Christ and the Church. Only, it seems, given the inherent value of the phenomenon of man. O you of little faith, why fear or keep away from the advance of the world.
The extent of the universe is necessarily homogeneous in its nature and in its dimensions. But, once again, we must say to ourselves: 'Truly I say to you: only the daring can enter the kingdom of God, henceforth hidden in the heart of the world.'. Christ is the end of the evolution, even the natural evolution, of all beings; and therefore evolution is sacred.
In reality, the consciousness and ambitions of the world will increase as the pace increases unless it learns to love. By the operation of faith, Christ appears, Christ is born, without any violation of the laws of nature, in the heart of the world. At the beginning of the undertaking there had to be a transcendent act which, in accordance with mysterious but physically regulated.
To look with longing to the Parousia of the Son of Man, we need only allow ourselves to beat in our breasts - and to Christianize - the heart of the world.