Nothing Profane

 

An article that I read this morning on Teilhard de Chardin reminded me of this quote of his that is at the heart of my finding God in every bit of the world:
"By virtue of Creation and, still more,
of the Incarnation,
nothing here below is profane
for those who know how to see."
(He uses "profane" in the sense of "secular" or "not sacred.")
Teilhard de Chardin's reflections on evolution and Christian faith were considered too bold and dangerous to the faith. They were not published until after this priest's death in 1955. I was in theology at the time and we were eager to read his work, even though it was difficult. No doubt that fact that it was forbidden accounted for some of the attraction, but we had a sense that he was saying something important for our time.
The Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (1965) confirmed his insights and was largely influenced by his thought. One of the things that he stressed was that evolution was ongoing, not only in the physical universe, but in human consciousness. Love was the energy that would bring us to our Divine end-point. He said, "Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."