In yesterday’s DM we cited Thomas Aquinas who speaks of “getting drunk” on God’s house or the universe. This is a special way of talking about what the mystics call the Via Positiva, that experience of the deep-down beauty of existence, of our planet, of being alive, of love of life in spite of all its demands and challenges. A springboard to wisdom since “awe is the beginning of wisdom” as Rabbi Heschel reminds us often.
It is about generating a gratitude and reverence that emerge from awe and wonder that is well summarized in Meister Eckhart’s simple words: “If the only prayer you say in your whole life is ‘Thank you,’ that would suffice.”
Clearly, Thomas Aquinas is in every way a mystic and champion of the Via Positiva. He invites us to be the same. And it all begins with an astonishing and ecstatic experience that we call the universe. As he teaches, “the most excellent thing in the universe is not the human—it is the universe itself.” And we are all here to serve the universe. This information, were it internalized, might stop all narcissists in their tracks.
The new news of the universe from Webb Telescope can surely assist in that process. Scientists say that “a new era of astronomy has begun” and that the Webb telescope “could revolutionize human understanding of the universe.”
Can it also revolutionize human understanding of ourselves? After all, we are the child of the universe and we are blessed as a species with a radical curiosity about our origins. Every human tribe has created its creation stories and for most of our existence, before human solipsisms took over in the modern era, we have built our ethics and rules for human behavior and getting along, i.e., survival, around our stories of creation.
Thomas Berry tells us that recovering a sense of the sacred can only happen by immersing ourselves into our “new sacred story” of the universe.
We will recover our sense of wonder and our sense of the sacred only if we appreciate the universe beyond ourselves as a revelatory experience of that numinous presence whence all things come into being. Indeed, the universe is the primary sacred reality. We become sacred by our participation in this more sublime dimension of the world about us.
As an ancient meso-American teaching puts it: “To be human one must make room in one’s heart for the wonders of the universe.” Does the Webb Telescope and the discoveries that will follow assist us to make room in our hearts for the wonders of the universe? One hopes so.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics, p. 361.
And Matthew Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times, pp. 9-15.
And Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, p. 3.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: “Stargazing.” Photo by Chris Leggat on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
What do you learn from the ancient teaching that “to be human one must make room in one’s heart for the wonders of the universe”?
Recommended Reading
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God
12 thoughts on “Can the Webb Telescope Help to Awaken Humanity?”
Creation Spirituality teaches that the Via Positiva is the path of wonder and awe for all creation, whether on earth or in the heavens. And this wonder and awe, and in Aquinas’ words, “Sheer Joy,” we hear Eckhart’s simple prayer: “If the only prayer you say in your whole life is ‘Thank you,’ that would suffice.” And having mentioned Aquinas, he too is in every way a mystic and champion of the Via Positiva–as he teaches, “the most excellent thing in the universe is not the human—it is the universe itself.” And we are all here to serve the universe. Scientists say that “a new era of astronomy has begun” and that the Webb telescope “could revolutionize human understanding of the universe.” The question is, “Can it also revolutionize human understanding of ourselves? After all, we are children of the universe, and every human tribe has created its creation stories and we have built our ethics and rules for human behavior around our stories of creation. Thomas Berry writes, “We will recover our sense of wonder and our sense of the sacred only if we appreciate the universe beyond ourselves as a revelatory experience of that numinous presence whence all things come into being. Indeed, the universe is the primary sacred reality. We become sacred by our participation in this more sublime dimension of the world about us.”
In all of this I must say that I agree with the ancient meso-American teaching which puts it: “to be human one must make room in one’s heart for the wonders of the universe”? And the James Webb Space Telescope is helping to make that even more possible!
Thank you Richard for adding the ancient meso-American teaching: “to be human one must make room in one’s heart for the wonders of the universe”? I like that you, perhaps mistakenly, added a question mark. There is the experience of ‘wonder’ [a noun] which causes us ‘to wonder’ [a verb] which leads us to ask meaning-full questions about our inner and outer world/cosmos. So. being curious about this connexion, I searched the Etymology of Wonder and found:
“Old English wundrian: Wonder comes from Old English wundrian, the verb form of wundor “marvelous thing, marvel, the object of astonishment,” from Proto-Germanic *wundran (origin unknown). In Middle English, the noun became associated with the emotion of wonder (late 1200s), and the verb had a transitive sense meaning “to inspire curiosity in.”
Interesting that the emotion of wonder dates back to the time of Eckart, Hildegard, Aquinas….
The beauties of natural revelation are easy to take-in, pleasing and agreeable to all the human senses. The natural world, after all, is the friendly milieu in which God has placed us, and all living things. Special revelation (Scripture), however, its requirements for kingdom entrance, and maintenance (the spiritual disciplines), are a different matter altogether. Such are agreeable to relatively few, disagreeable and unpleasant for most, separating the sheep from the goats. Recall, the crowds turned out to see the miracles of Jesus, to hear his parables that drew heavily on nature, and to fill their bellies with the food stuffs he miraculously provided. But when the invites to enter the kingdom went out (via repentance and the new birth) “many turned away, declaring, ‘these are hard sayings, who can keep them?’ The beauties of nature are free for the viewing, and pleasant in their totality, especially via the eye-gate (eye candy). Kingdom entrance (spiritual consciousness) is also, by grace, free for the taking, and pays many “life more abundant” dividends. But the cost of maintaining it, growing thereby, and the privilege of serving are very high. Just ask Matthew. Many are called, few are chosen.
I agree with your interpretation of the last sentence. Too many have used it to mean that one could be the “elect”, the “chosen” if only one would believe a certain way–it has become an exclusive club, when really it means to be willing to serve and to suffer. The costs are indeed very high.
Psalm 65:8 “They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;
You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.”
Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Awe
Matthew, as much as I agree with your excitement and awe of the universe as especially inspired by the beautiful pictures and information we’ll be getting about our universe and its physical origins and creation, I can’t help but feel as a contemplative that the sacredness of our inner world/universe/Divine Love as explored by our mystical traditions of mystics needs to continue to be emphasized and brought to more awareness/consciousness among humanity. Most human beings are still ignorant and separate from the Beauty~Love~Wisdom~Joy~Creativity~Mystery…. of our inner divine nature/eternal Soul and God’s Loving Living Presence with-in and among us in our daily lives with — one another, Mother Nature and all Her creatures and abundant blessings, in our spiritual multidimensions (including our spirit guides and Angels), and our inner and outer multiverse co-Creation~Evolution of the Loving Diverse Oneness of our Loving Source~Creator…. This historic ignorance/separation from the Divine Love/Spirit within and among us has been the major cause of our human destructiveness and suffering within ourselves, with others, with Mother Nature, and all of our ongoing co-Creation….
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Yes, yes YES!!! This awe will have profound transformative power- it’s part of our work to notice where this is happening- and can happen- and amplify it. Thank you again Matthew🙏🏼
The Dark Night of the Soul, which we find ourselves living in… simultaneously is also a threshold into “Thin Time”, which the James Webb telescope is subtley intimating in a wondrous way. Thresholds of thin time, means that heaven and earth can be experienced as moments of close connection. These times move us from dark to light. They are like doorways or portals… a threshold… in which our hearts are opened to feeling the shifting of this energy. It’s an invitation to ponder, to rest in and incubate our heart to heart connection with this mystery, in an intimate and personal way. It’s a season of deep listening, for messages from Spirit in its many expressions… whom speak indirectly to us, through the creation of the all and the everything… offering wisdom, through our intuition and imagination. This is the language through which we receive these gifts… which we only need to open ourselves to, in order to experience for ourselves all that is being freely given.
We tend to neglect this original blessing of our ancestral heritage… this intuitive, imaginative and essential way of beginning something new, with a trusting sense of wonder and curiosity. We often don’t recognize, acknowledge or respond with trust… the tremendous wisdom we can access and draw upon, during these thin times. These times offer all of us, tremendous healing and a deeper awareness that connects us all, to whom we are called to become and be… bringing us all a personally intimate sense of belonging to a mystery, greater than ourselves… as well as a renewed sense of coming home to ourselves.
This season of the Dark Night of the Soul… AND… this threshold of Thin Time… is actually a gateway of reconnecting with and valuing the mysteries of our cosmological stories, which we have been living for generations… in a way that offers us a deeper understanding of our “Wholeness”… that being our interconnections, inter-reliances and inter-dependencies… our relationships with the Great Mystery of the all and the everything of creation… whom holds the Webb of all life in existence. This Dark Night of the Soul… AND… this Thin Time… is a season, in which we all can access and experience the wonder and awe… of embodying, intuitively, imaginatively and creatively, this transitional shifting energy… of a new awakening… this movement from dark to light… which we are collectively feeling and seeing… unfolding, evolving and emerging from within ourselves, and each other… working itself out through ALL of our relationships… our relationships with ALL that is above and our relationships with ALL that is below… as well as our relationships with all that lies within our internal world and all that lies within our external world… and the wisdom that unifies All into a Oneing With.
“The Dark Night of the Soul, which we find ourselves living in… simultaneously is also a threshold into “Thin Time”, which the James Webb telescope is subtley intimating in a wondrous way. ”
Thank you for setting these two things side-by-side, Jeanette. It may be serendipitous (and/or divinely inspired) that the JWST images are appearing right now when all seems so very dark. We need this! Authoritarians are rearing their ugly heads, yet here is divine magnificence that surely sets these little men in their place! They are less than gnats in the grand scheme of things. Who is it who said, “Preach always. Use words when you must”? When I look at the grace, the magnificence, the lavish prodigality of God’s creation, I learn much more of God’s nature than I do when I look at words written down in scripture by humans trying their best to understand what God is. I see a God of inclusion and love, spend-thriftly giving out bread and grace. As St. Peter says in my play “Puzzles and Borderlines,” everyone gets in. It just takes a little longer for some people.
Amen!…
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The pictures sent back by the Webb telescope do provide “intimations of God”. I resonate to coupling awe and wisdom. Awe points us to things much beyond us and within us; wisdom knows where the boundaries of knowledge lie and where the beginning of wonder lies. It knows to go beyond into the unknown at times and the mystery of God’s creativeness and love.
I believe we must be moved by the photographs taken by the JWST. To not be moved, to not experience awe, is to miss one of the greatest opportunities for spiritual experience in our generation. The photo of the Carina Nebula, the nursery where new stars are born, continually reminds me of Meister Eckhart’s words: “What does God do all day? He lies on a maternity bed, giving birth.” When I look at this nebula, I truly feel as if I’m looking at the face of God.