Teilhardian Principle 1: The discoveries of modern science must form an important foundation to any contemporary spirituality if it is to be true, relevant, and inspiring.
Any true spirituality must include humanity in its wholeness, that is understood by any civilization in its time. Wholeness must include a coherent picture of the evolution of the universe. It must spell out what we know of God's plan not only for humanity but for all of creation. Knowledge of that divine plan is to be found in scripture, tradition, and also in the discoveries of science. Modern science has been helpful to form a coherent picture of us and our universe. We see an inextricable connectivity to all of creation.
Creation is a Book of Revelation that took 14 billion years to write. God has been revealing God's ways to us through creation. We are now beginning to see what Saint Paul wrote: the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love for us in creation that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God. Ephesians 3
Any new truth about the universe needs to be integrated into our spirituality since that truth is bound to reveal something more about who God is, who we are, what God's plans are for us and the rest of creation. This information will be awe inspiring and humbling because it will reveal some new aspects of God's creative loving plan.
Faith presupposes reason and enriches it. It is a basic principle of a healthy spirituality. Science uses reason to uncover knowledge of creation. Knowledge of creation acquired through reason and enlightened by faith rises to knowledge of God.
Teilhardian Principle 2: Evolution is happening continually on every level of being – and has a direction.
This is an innovative principle. It is central to Teilhard’s discernment of God's plan for humanity. From the beginning, God created an evolving universe. The universality of evolution has been revealed by the most ancient Book of Revelation, creation itself. Science informs us. In the evolutionary process on all layers of being, Christ and God are most readily found. These are new insights that were not known before the mid 19th century. Ongoing evolution must shape any spirituality because it continually increases in complexity and consciousness. Everything in life is involved in. Theological truths are involved in about Christ and the people of God. K yard says that all things are going forward and upward with a purpose that follows a central law that was originally implanted by God into every particle of the universe. There is a direction to evolution it is now named as the Law of attraction-connection-complexity-consciousness.
Teilhardian Principle 3: The Law of attraction-connection-complexity-consciousness is the law that is giving evolution its direction.
From the first moment after The Big Bang, elementary particles that exploded outward seemed driven to attract other particles and to bond with them. This is the law of attraction and connection. As these particles made connections, they became more complex particles over time. It showed their growing complexity. All the original particles were nonorganic and nonliving. It took billions of years for organic chemicals to appear and the laws of organic chemistry to evolve. It took billions of years for living things to appear on earth and the laws of biology to evolve. These are the emergent properties of an evolving creation.
This law continued to operate until it eventually produced its first living things, such as single cell bacteria. Following this law, vegetative things capable of growth and reproduction emerged. Then came creatures with movement and sensation. Finally came creatures with neuronal complexity that consciousness and reflective self-awareness burst forth.
Saint Paul was fascinated by this law of connection and he explored the unity of the human body and uses it as a metaphor for the complexity and consciousness of the body of Christ.
We humans are at the tip of the arrow that reveals the direction and trajectory of evolution. The arrow tells us that God wants humans to aim toward ever higher levels of complexity and consciousness.
Humanity must grow in its ability to create peace in society and promote equality, uphold justice, produce abundance for all, and be more generous and compassionate. It is a challenge to the human spirit working with God's grace to develop a deeper consciousness of who we are and where we ought to be going.
What is consciousness?
Awareness and Response
To be conscious, it is not enough to be aware of what is going on. You need to respond appropriately to what you are experiencing.
Becoming conscious changes you. An important element is to develop your consciousness so that you can wake up to and act upon what is real. Saint Paul asks us to see with our inward eyes. When we wake up spiritually, we see things with new eyes thanks to the light of Christ. The purpose of the exercises is to love and see the world the way that God loves and sees the world.
As we learn to live consciously in Christ, our perception of reality changes. Everything becomes new. You begin to see yourself and everything else surrounded by God's love and you realize that any moment your spirit can be present in any part of the vast cosmic divine reality that you wish to be. This is Christ consciousness.
This same God consciousness embodied in the human Jesus is present in all of us individually and collectively, though we may not have been awakened to it. It is the time we see all things in God and God in all things. Regardless of where we are, we still live in Christ and are united to Christ in the divine milieu. We are invited to grow and evolve into that state of Christ consciousness where we can see reality with new eyes.
Ignatius wants the retreatant to attain that special state of consciousness. Therefore, we meditate on the events of Christ’s life. He wants us to get inside the mind the heart and the values of Jesus should that we become immersed in the thoughts, words, emotions, and actions. We are invited to think and live like Jesus. Saint Paul asked us to put on the mind of Christ Jesus.
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