Maritain: Science and Einstein Witness to God

"The science of phenomena ....bear witness to the existence of God....it is not a question of what science itself tells us, but of the very existence and possibility of science....if nature were not intelligible, there would be no science. Nature is not perfectly and absolutely intelligible; and the sciences do not try to come to grips with nature's intelligibility taken in itself (that is the job of philosophy). They rather reach for it in a rather oblique fashion, dealing with it only insofar as it is steeped in, and masked by, the observable and measurable data of the world of experience, and yet can be translated into mathematical intelligibility. Yet the intelligibility of nature is the very ground of those relational constancies which are the 'laws' - including the category of laws which deal only with probabilities - to which science sees phenomena submitted; and it is the very ground, in particular, of the highest explanatory systems, with all the symbols, ideal entities, and code languages they employ, (and with all that is in them that is still incomplete, arbitrary, and puzzlingly lacking in harmony ) that science constructs on observation and measurement.

    Now how would things be intelligible if they did not proceed from an intelligence? In the last analysis, a Prime Intelligence must exist, which is itself Intellection and Intelligibility in pure act, and which is the first principle of the intelligibility and essences of things, and causes order to exist in them, as well as an infinitely complex network of regular relationships, whose fundamental mysterious unity our reason dreams of rediscovering in its own way.

      Such an approach to God's existence is a a variant of Thomas Aquinas' fifth way. Its impact was secretly present in Einstein's famous saying: 'God does not play dice,' which, no doubt. used the word God in a merely figurative sense, and meant only: 'nature does not result from the throw of the dice', yet the very fact implicitly postulated the existence of the divine Intellect."

On the Uses of Philosophy Jacques Maritain, pp.65, 66

published by Princeton University Press 1962

      

Fr. Robert Barron: Chesterton on Church

"...Recently I was perusing one of Chesterton's most popular books, Orthodoxy, and my attention was drawn to chapter 6, 'The Paradoxes of Christianity'. In this section of the book Chesterton recalls his puzzlement when he read the critiques of Christianity that came from so many different quarters. On the one hand, Christianity - especially Catholicism - was criticized for being too worldly, too caught up in wealth, property, pomp, and ceremony.Where, for instance was the spirit of the carpenter of Nazareth in the expensive theatrical display of the Vatican? On the other hand, Christianity was reviled for its excessive spiritualism, its indifference to the concrete concerns of the world, its tendency to pine after 'the things of heaven'. Similarly, some critics complained that Christianity, with its stress on sin, penance, and punishment, was excessively pessimistic, while others held that, given its emphasis on the love of God, the intervention of the saints, and the promise of eternal life, it was ridiculously optimistic. Finally, certain enemies of the faith maintained, probably with Joan of Arc, and the Crusades in mind, that Christianity was bloodthirsty and warlike, while others held, probably with Frances in mind, that Christianity was too pacific and nonviolent. What puzzled Chesterton, of course, was not that the Church had its critics, but that its critics were so varied, so at odds with one another, so mutually exclusive.Whatever, this Christianity was, he concluded, it must be something strangely shaped indeed, to inspire such a wildly divergent army of enemies. 

     Then it occurred to him that perhaps it was not Christianity that was misshapen, but rather its critics. Perhaps it was they who, from their various eccentric points of view, saw the rightly shaped Christianity as distorted: 'suppose we heard an unknown man spoken of by many men. Suppose we were puzzled to hear that some men said he was too tall, and some too short; some objected to his fatness, and some lamented his leanness; some thought him too dark and some too fair. One explanation...would be that he might be an odd shape. But there is another explanation. He might be the right shape.' It could be the case, in short, that 'it is Christianity that is sane, and all its critics are mad - in various ways' It is the sheer depth and breadth of the Church, the complexity and multifacetedness of it, which narrow-minded enemies cannot grasp. Christianity, Chesterton surmised, was perhaps, too capacious to be easily comprehended.

     However - and here is Chesterton's main point - it does not seem that Christianity is merely 'sensible,' standing . as it were, in the middle, taking in both extremes. It does not seem to be the case that the Church is somewhat worldly and some what otherworldly, to some degree life affirming and to some degree life denying, a little optimistic and a little pessimistic. on the contrary, there seems to be, everywhere in the life of the Church, a quality of excess, frenzy, enthusiasm: Francis of Assisi was 'more a shouting optimist than Walt Whitman' and St Jerome, 'in denouncing all evil, could paint the world blacker than Schopenhauer.' One Christian saint could be more starkly ascetical than the severest Stoic, another Christian saint could celebrate life more ecstatically than a priest of Dionysus. In defending the celibacy of the clergy, the Church could be 'ferociously against having children',  and in upholding marriage and family, it could be at the same time, ferociously for having children.' The Church consistently and poetically placed opposites side by side, and allowed them to coexist in all the purity, power, and intensity; Christianity encouraged lamb and lion to lie down together, without ever forcing the lion to become lamblike or the lamb lionlike. Chesterton offers us a wonderful image: The Church 'has always had a healthy hatred of pink. It hates that combination of two colors which is the feeble expedient of the philosophers. It hates that evolution of black into white which is tantamount to a dirty grey.' "

Bridging the Great Divide, Robert Barron, Bowman & Littlefield, pp. 5, 6

What a beautiful exposition of Chesterton's vision of the Church! I can't help thinking that much of the cultural Catholicism of today is precisely the bland "pink", or the dirty "grey" that are foreign to the Church's nature. Also, no individual saint, no matter how great, could ever perfectly harmonize or contain the richness of the Church in his own personality, first of all because all of us are limited creatures very much affected by original sin, and secondly because the virtues of a saint would have most likely been developed as a result of his conversion, and served as a corrective to the abuses of his day and age. So every age challenges us to sanctity with its unique blend of circumstances.

Clergy Conference on Courage

We recently had a Clergy Conference in the Archdiocese, and Courage was the issue addressed. Courage is the Catholic Church's outreach to men or women who experience same-sex attraction and want to remain faithful to the Catholic Church's teaching on faith and morals. (They have a great website if you would like more information:  www.couragerc.net .)

There were three principal speakers, each approaching the subject of same sex attraction from a different angle. The layman explained his life story and gave personal witness to the ongoing help that the Courage network gave him.  I found his personal witness  indisputable and indispensable, so I was happy he went first. At least the priests who didn't stay and hear the afternoon sessions got a chance to hear him speak. The afternoon session was great too, but was concerned about the causes of homosexuality. I found the talk illuminating, but not as impressive as the layman's witness. I suppose that is because theory can always be argued about, but life experience is undeniable.

In the afternoon, the psychologist touched on various scientific studies regarding homosexuality and explained their findings, and also explored some of the personality dynamics. There were questions from the group which he answered completely and thoughtfully.The priest, Monsignor Paul Check, presented a brief history of Courage, and the spiritual principles under-girding, inspiring and sustaining the movement. 

The conference began at 10:30 am and ended around 3:00 pm, with a break for lunch and a time for questions and answers at the end of each session.There were about 35 priests present at the morning session, and, I think, under 30 for the afternoon conference. I was surprised to see so few of us priests there. Given the clarity as well as the unpopularity of the church's teaching on the subject, the general acceptance of homosexuality and the gay life style, the push for same-sex marriage by Obama and various states, plus the need to educate ourselves and our parishes on such a delicate and sensitive subject, the attendance should have been standing room only. Still, it was a positive beginning. It will be interesting to see where we go from here.

Giussani and Barron: Our Ongoing Need for the Creativity of Mercy

1."....the miracle of mercy is the desire to change. And this implies acceptance, because otherwise it would not be desire for change, but pretension and presumption, and it would never become entreaty to an Other, it would not be trust in an Other. This desire defines the present, the instant of the man who is a sinner. The miracle is accepting oneself and entrusting oneself to an Other present so as to be changed, standing before Him and begging.

Entreaty is the whole expression of a man now, in the instant...."

Generating Traces in the History of the World,  Giussani, pp137, 138

2."A central Christian teaching that has flowed from the doctrine of the simple God is that of creation, or more precisely, creation ex nihilo, from nothing. According to this dogma, God continually creates and grounds the world, pouring being into it as a free gift. The things of the world do not stand over and against God, as if they were fundamentally independent of him; rather at every moment, they stand as sheer receptivity, literally as "nothing", accepting the grace which is their existence. In both classical and modern theologies of creation, the creator God  does not stand simply 'at the beginning of time' as if he brought the world into being and then simply left it to its own devices. On the contrary the God who is Being itself creates and renews the world unceasingly, pouring it out of himself in a great act of superabundant love."

Bridging the Great Divide, Barron, pp 241, 242