Back From Out of Town

I'm back! I was with my family in Fargo, North Dakota for a wedding. The son of the pastor I worked with in my first parish got married. I was flattered to have been invited. We (my family and I) decided to make a vacation out of it and ended up spending a couple of days in Minneapolis. We did a lot of swimming and made a visit to the Mall of America (the Mega Mall). Great time! I wish we had had more time to drive. We drove straight from Fargo to Joliet, which took about 13 hours. We had to be back by Monday because the boys had walk-thrus at their respective schools, and I had to conduct a funeral.

Anyhoo, I've been thinking about a book I read a while ago that most people in my position wouldn't dare to read. I like reading such things because I know they're out there and people are reading them. I feel it's important to read what others are reading because people are taking the principles offered to heart. If you want to know what people are thinking you may want to take on this opportunity for yourself.

The book is called The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. It's been out for almost two years and remains on the non-fiction best seller list. Which means-- people are reading this book!!!! This is why I've been thinking about it. And, yes, I have read it AND watched the DVD.

What is this "secret", you ask? Basically it comes down to this: the universe conspires in your favor when you tap into it's power. The universe will give you anything you want. Anything!! Here's how you do it: you make your desire known to the universe. In other words, you state what you intend to get and then have confidence that you will receive it. Then-- you act as if you already have it. The universe listens to you and conspires to manifest your request. But you must remain positive and look forward to receiving what you've requested. People will swear on their very lives that this thing works, and that it is backed up by the solid scientific principle of the Law of Attraction. You can do wonders with this method. You can cure fatal diseases. You can receive untold riches. You can get a new house, or a new car, or a new boat (or yacht). Once you know the secret and use it you can open up a portal to the abundance of the universe.

Wow! There are so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start. The overwhelming popularity of this book tells me that people are looking for a real Santa Claus. Apparently, God has failed in this area and people are moving on to something else. The late George Carlin once said that he stopped praying to God and started to pray to the sun and got the same return, about 50%. Just before his death he even stopped praying to the sun and started praying to Joe Pesci. Why pray to the sun and/or Joe Pesci? Because they can be seen. The same goes for the universe. Of course, we can't see the entire universe at one time. But all we have to do is look up to the sky and behold the sun, moon, and stars. They are real and are parts of our universe that can supposedly huddle together to fulfill our requests. They can be seen, so why not tell them what we want?

The problem here is not recognizing that the universe just is. It is not a deity, nor is it magician. The universe just does what it does. Much of what it does is a mystery, and hopefully we'll one day solve many of those mysteries. Although there is much we do know, there are still discoveries yet to be made. But one thing is for sure-- it is not available to any individual beckon call. Furthermore, although the universe is being discovered to act more like an organism than a machine, it is still not capable of manifesting puerile wishes.

People are looking for magic from any source they can get their hands on, thinking that miracle and magic will solve their problems and make their lives so much easier. What a great opportunity this poses for the Church!!

I'm not proposing we perform magic tricks or start acting like these TV faith-healer hucksters. But what I am proposing is that we start talking about the universe based on things that we already know, taking all of the guess work out of it. For example:

Stars are givers. We don't merely believe this. We know this!! Each moment, stars are fusing billions of tons of hydrogen atoms into helium. They are literally burning themselves up in order to provide light and heat and energy. Our sun, as we all know, is one such star. It is providing what we need to sustain life on this planet. If it wasn't for the process of photosynthesis (the ability of plants to use sunlight for growth and abundance) you and I wouldn't be able to breathe.

Someday, the sun will burn itself out. It will use up all of its available hydrogen. The helium will then begin to fuse into heavier elements and the sun will expand into the big red giant stage, which will increase its gravitational pull, causing the planets closest to it (including earth) to be absorbed into its fiery furnace. After the fusion has reached a point to where the heaviest elements are being created, the big red giant will then go through a stage of implosion into a glowing blue midget. All of the elements of the periodic table will be there. Then, in a dazzling spectacle that has been observed by scientists countless of numbers of times, the blue midget explodes, hurling its constituent elements out into space. It's called a supernova, and it's a regular occurance even in our local Milky Way galaxy.

Even in death, the star gives. That's what I call magic! You and I are going to be part of that magic. Lest that worries you a bit, it isn't going to happen for another 5 billion years or so. We will have long passed from this life. But there's no guarantee that the earth will even last that long. We are on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy, which is heading toward us at a rate of 300 kilometers per second. At that rate, the collision will take place roughly 5 billion years from now, but it has the potential of hurling our planet off its course out into space. And of course don't forget about the possibility of being struck by a giant meteor, which will pretty much eliminate life as we know it. But here's the thing-- everyday stars are exploding, galaxies are colliding, and planets are being struck by meteors. It's very normal for these things to occur.

Thinking about this, read Psalm 19:1-- The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Boy, you said it-- the glory of God! God is there in, with, and under these processes and events!! How? Who knows?? God's omnipresence is much greater than what the Psalmist could ascertain; it's much greater than any of us can ascertain!! The Psalmist could only look up into the sky and write what he saw. You and I can not only look up, but we can also go onto the internet and look at incredible images from the Hubble Telescope. Psalm 19:1 is now taken to a level that the Psalmist could only imagine!

More on this later.