Christmas Star(s)

Dec23

Star Wars, the ever-popular film series, repeats this truth: ”Every saga has a beginning.”

4557_3596c80a46918e6dde2f3c37290cba47We usually think of Jesus’ beginning as reaching back to David, perhaps back even earlier in human history. That’s all true, but his roots and his story, like ours, go back immensely farther. Since Scripture tells us that he was like us in all things but sin, we share the beginning.

No one knew it when Sacred Scripture was being written, but we now know that homo sapiens, though dating farther back than we’d care to count (c. 200,000 years), is but a blip in Earth’s story. Earth formed roughly 4 1/2-billion-years, though it is impossible to date precisely. During those billions of years, Earth developed the complexity and consciousness and dexterity required for the human species to evolve. Believers rejoice that Divine Mystery was living and acting within it the entire time. In the image here, humans are represented by the tiny red dot after the green tip — and the line would have begun at the shoulder! Wonder-full!

But wait! There’s more — as the ad says.

Cosmos-PictureEarth itself formed after more than 9 billion years of cosmic transformations that began with  what most scientists believe was the first Flaring Forth, however that happened. Stars formed, created new elements, and some ultimately died and exploded, spewing elements into the universe. Our Milky Way resulted from these explosions. After much time, Earth formed, followed by atmosphere, oceans, and continents. Way, way later came humans, music, dancing — Jesus, and each of us. Everything we now know started at the very beginning — a very good place to start, as Julie Andrews assured us in The Sound of Music.*

Stars in the nativity pictures can remind us that that’s where it all began — for the Holy Family and for each of us. Our lineage is indeed ancient! And the light within continues. Here’s how Thomas Merton described it (with no change to his non-inclusive language) :

“I have the immense joy of being a man, a member of a race in which God himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”

How might remembering our common origin, the light within, and our interconnectedness with all that exists influence our feelings about, and responses to, some of Earth’s current and pressing “hopes and fears”? Do we appreciate that everything we know came from stardust and “shines like the sun”? Have we grown beyond judging in dualities and stereotypes (e.g., us/them; good/bad; friend/enemy) because we realize our interconnections? Thomas Berry would ask: Do we perceive a collection of objects or a communion of subjects?

While we delight in reflecting on the newborn Babe — and on the Holy Family — during this Christmas season (and throughout the year), let’s also be awed by the fact that we, too, come from stardust. Everyone’s saga begins with the stars.

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* Hope you have time to watch this under-5 min. video: Life’s Beginnings Found in Stardust – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rbSYwJJTTU.

 

 

 

 

REFUGEES, CLIMATE CHANGE, YEAR OF MERCY

Dec1

Refugees

I am writing this on Thanksgiving Day in the United States, a day we join with friends and family to give gratitude for the abundant blessings we enjoy. In contrast, think of what one refugee replied when asked what he had brought with him on the boat heading for Turkey. He thought for a moment and answered: “Sadness.”

This man is caught in the greatest migration since World War II. Though numbers cannot 5288632902_85224781d1_bbe exact, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that 2014 saw almost 60 million women, children, and men displaced either within or outside their home areas. That number is approximately the population of Italy!

How we respond to the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing terror and persecution, war, poverty, gangs, climate change, and hopelessness is a major issue for both leaders and citizens of the countries to which these homeless people flee. We must get beyond the numbing numbers and “feel” the plight of individuals. For those aware of how closely we are interconnected to all creation on our common home, the decision to welcome these brothers and sisters is inescapable.* (The US terror attacks have come from within.)

Connection to Climate Change

Researchers and policymakers warn that these numbers are sure to increase because of climate change. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center states that roughly three times as many people were displaced by environmental disasters between 2008 and 2013 than fled from conflict and violence.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned recently that the scenes of chaos and heartbreak in Europe will be repeated globally unless the world acts to mitigate climate change. “Wait until you see what happens when there’s an absence of water, an absence of food, or one tribe fighting against another for mere survival,” Kerry said.

Climate change leads to crop failures, natural disasters, higher food prices and the spread of waterborne diseases, creating poverty and pushing people at risk into destitution. The World Bank warns that rising temperatures could drive 100 million people into extreme poverty. Professor Norman Myers of Oxford University and other reputable scientists put the number at twice that amount.

Talks in Paris now until Dec. 10 give hope that the world’s leaders will take positive steps to reduce climate change and thus reduce refugee numbers in the future.

Jubilee Year of Mercy

JUBILEE-YEAR-OF-MERCYCare of Earth and care of humanity cannot be separated. Pope Francis recently said, “There is a clear link between the protection of nature and the building of a just and equitable social order. There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature, without a renewal of humanity itself.”

December 8th begins the Roman Catholic Year of Mercy that extends to November 20, 2016. Calling us to a spiritual conversion, Pope Francis writes: “We want to live this Year in the light of the Lord’s words: ‘Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.’ (cf. Lk 6:36)” Addressing Catholics, he writes: “I am convinced that the whole Church will find in this Jubilee the joy needed to rediscover and make fruitful the mercy of God, with which all of us are called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time.”

It seems relevant that Human Rights Day will be celebrated two days after this special year begins. The Year of Mercy reminds Catholics — and others — to show mercy by helping refugees achieve their human rights. Welcoming refugees is a direct response to the Gospel mandate to welcome the homeless and treat everyone as we would treat Christ. It is an important way to show mercy. We also practice mercy by taking action to mitigate the reasons — like climate change and war — that cause people to flee their homes.

Listening to those who would withhold compassion for certain groups makes one wonder if the innkeepers who refused Joseph and his pregnant wife 2000 years ago truly had no room, or if they didn’t choose to accept people from Galilee. How sad if we could be similarly blinded!

 

* Entering the United States as a refugee is already a long and difficult process. It takes anywhere from 18 to 24 months or longer, and involves the FBI, Homeland Security, the National Counterterrorism Center, the Defense Department and the State Department. Your biometric data is checked against law-enforcement databases. You must pass a battery of interviews. And if you’re from Syria, the process is even more rigorous.

*My parish, St. Gertrude, Chicago, true to its pledge that “All Are Welcome!” is making plans to welcome a family from Syria (or whatever family is in need). Over 100  parishioners have volunteered to help, and the entire parish will contribute as needed.