Sanctified Unity: the Reign of Love

7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

1 John 4: 7-12

It is a usual circumstance to feel the many forces at work in the universe around us while lacking intimate knowledge of any origin or ends. If the nature of Love is discovered to be more than a mere neurochemical motivation, perhaps a force like radiation or even perhaps a more foundational force like gravity or electromagnetism then deeper-critical inquiry on the matter is worthy of occupying our leisure time.

The daily tasks in building a kingdom, whether that is legal, royal, biological, spiritual, personal, corporate, financial or vengeful, always centers around a driving principle. An assembly line of human beings driven to make a day's wage, for example, would appear to center around semi-finished products and arbitrary pieces of dunnage to bring together some sort of ends or final product. This process will continue until either the source of fuel is exhausted, materials needed for assimilation are depleted or the environment in which the kingdom dwells breaks down. These are natural processes that contain the potential to manipulate nature on increasingly complex levels but with one serious flaw; the second law of thermodynamics. When successful however, there is an organization of elements around a “centrating” principle; in nature we see this repeating process create stars, galaxies, minerals, bones, and life. The mineral growing in a dark cave, a star coming to life in the depths of space, your body growing with every breath, a continuous system of centers emerges to unfold the created reality around us. The principle of the system is described in the ancient world of Greek philosophy as Logos. Speaking on the universal scale: as the organization of creation has continued to increase, the organization tends not to simply increase in physical size but in complexity.

However, the universe is as self-indulgent as man, it needs something new but reaches out with the usual habit of an immediate fix until desperation imposes the need for creativity. And creativity can only take a creature so far. The polite grace of a higher force seems to be the only option we have available. As the universe is driven by instinct, or laws, which lead only to its own exhaustion, its true center must reside in something higher yet illusive to the immediate senses as its own natural processes lead to entropy. Through the empirical lens of the twenty-first century the universe appears to be constantly falling into decay; there is no hope for any mere creature subjected to the second law of thermodynamics. Through the eyes of our reigning philosophy there is nothing but struggle followed by death and decay. But, then again, through the eyes of faith and a lingering, anxious, hope of finding fulfillment in our limited creaturehood we can see that the creation itself seems to be experiencing a liberation from its bondage to decay and is being brought into the freedom and glory of an even more eternal biology that realizes the hope and labor of the evolution of life on this planet. Revealed in this era only by the resurrection of Christ.

We know through instinct that the whole of creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth with every generation that tears itself from the womb to bridge the gap of generations and bring us one step closer, right up to this present time. And we ourselves yearn from the pit of our stomachs knowing that the first fruits to a universe without decay is no delusion lingering on some infinite horizon but a reality found in communion with one another through God. The sort of communion that crosses the chasm of becoming to being and - being made whole. Any biological creature capable of intellectual inquiry should rise from its drunken slumber and investigate this claim of Divine Incarnation giving the universe what it lacked, this claim of a Christ suffering the reality we made through failed brotherhood, this claim of Resurrection, this claim of eternal life, this claim of some carnal-biological thing pioneering something beyond death.

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Colossians 3:14

What can be said is that the universe is constantly collapsing on possibility. Things work in the universe (laws of physics and such) because other systems, or the lack thereof, would disappoint matters dynamic tendency to exist and promote itself into and through every moment. It just is, as the material-empiricists would argue. Today, very little empirical evidence is expressed to promote a growing universe because what they see is a universe constantly falling into decay. However, to the chagrin of scientifically minded atheists what the universe has been shaped into is law and order; and though creation may be seen to unravel around us, according to the understanding offered by primitive senses, it is truly moving from disorder to order. This is being accomplished through our love, but, as we will come to see, would not be possible without the Incarnation of the Word of God. The first fruits of this harvest have already been presented to the temple of God.

The Need for Proximity

The universe collapsed on possibility (so it seems). Some thirteen to fourteen billion years ago something happened to cause a bunch of stuff (mostly hydrogen) to spread all over. After that, under the influence of gravity and the basic seminal forces presently manipulating reality, it fell into a system that worked (stuff continued to exist). It was organized through a process of separation and (re)incorporation (the universe collapsed on possibility). The universe was driven by gravity. Hydrogen was organized into a system, hydrogen came together in a more advanced relationship with itself under the influence of gravity. This relationship grew in complexity giving birth to stars. The complexity within stars manifested new elements and released them in supernova explosions. These new elements fell into systems that worked (the universe collapsed on possibility), the universe collapsed into systems that organized these new elements through processes of separation and (re)incorporation.

The Nitrogen in our DNA

The Calcium in our Teeth

The Iron in our Blood

The Carbon in our Apple Pies

We are made in the interior of collapsing stars

We are made of stardust

 -Sir Carl Sagan

These new elements were organized into a system. These new elements came together in a relationship under the influence of gravity as well as chemical, mineralogical, organic (and other) reactions (the system that works - the universe collapsing on possibility). These advanced relationships in new elements grew in complexity. The complexity then manifested something new. This thing that was new collapsed on possibility: it began to separate, (re)incorporate, form complex relationships and in itself grow in complexity. This is creation, life and consciousness. However, life is plagued by death and even something more than death. The process driven by gravity will eventually be exhausted, its limits will be reached, the reaction will not continue forever. The universe needs something more than gravity to keep it from falling into complete disorder. 

More than death, this universe is plagued with a constant undoing of itself. This is the impact of sin and the lesson lost upon generations. What we do as human beings matters for matter itself.  As a result our relationships produced evil, disorder and an undoing of the forward momentum in the universe as it moves from becoming to being; "cursed is the ground because of you ..." (see Genesis 3:17). And though blame rests solely upon us, there was nothing we could do to restore our role as caretakers and stewards of the next and higher level of organization (i.e. Sacrament). Sin is a poison, an impediment, to the universe. It prevents matters dynamic tendency of promotion into a higher and more advanced order. As a result of what Jesus Christ (true man and true God) accomplished amongst us, it is now our time to act, to reverse the potential of disorder into a new level of productivity and a higher order. Love. Love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 

12 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord[a] has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

Colossians 3: 12-15

Sacrament

Father, husband, citizen. These are what we once were and to attain these once again is to be perfected as the creatures made in the image of the One Triune God. All of these are defined by love. As we have been restored as caretaker and steward to that next and higher level of the created universe's organization, we must have the knowledge of how to maintain it. That knowledge is acquired only by faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love. Not by the study of ancient languages or the pioneering sciences. There are forces at work all around us that promote creations' self-destructive downward spiral and interrupt our ability to fulfill our vocation (the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls), but these forces can be overcome as God (who is complete) filled the imperfections with His own self and continues to offer His wholeness through Sacrament. Through our love and labor, we are able to disrupt the universe's decay into disorder and manifest through Sacrament a restored and higher level of organization.

We have been risen, by the polite grace of a higher power, from disorder and chaos, and placed into a system of organized relationships which continually advance the participants into ever higher levels of organization. We must foster a true sense of love (for the other, thy self and the higher order to which we owe our lives) to act on our purpose and fulfill the next step in the creation of the universe. 

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

John 15:12-13

The nature and process of Sacrament advances our systematic relational organization with meaning and depth, with mystical and material value provided by God (grace). In other words, like symbiosis in ancient biological communities that transformed colonies of microbes into multicellular individuals (SET), like nuclear fusion caught up in the hydrostatic equilibrium of early and present day stars that combined hydrogen particles together and resulted in the creation of new elements, the Sacraments introduce us to new levels of organization with added meaning (grace) which actually serves to transform the individuals involved. There is both ontological and cosmological transformation: individuals are brought to exist at higher levels, this transforms them and their shared reality. The Church is tasked with the power, authority and responsibility to regulate this process in the material world (with the implications this has on the spiritual realm).  She can forgive sins which reconciles people to God, one another and their true self; she can bring all of creation into Communion with the Divine.

Logos    

Malonic acid oxidized by bromate in a sulfuric acid solution continuously reacts to create concentric and rotating spiral waves until it reaches a climax and stable pattern.  However, we can see that in these chemical systems there is no true “self-maintenance,” other than reactions that fizzle out and lack the capability of adapting to find new energy sources, new and suitable food. Eventually, these systems are exhausted of all energy and begin to break down (entropy - as observed by the second law of thermodynamics).

They happened to touch, they react on an organized level but the reaction lacks sustainability at this new and higher level of organization. The reaction lacks meaning, the reaction lacks spirit and grace. There is no true self, but these systems do represent the processes that created-life has been given to sustain the “self.”  Renowned Scientist and author Lynn Margulis clearly describes the need for biological life to retain a continuity in identity and selfhood:

when provided with continuous nutrition and energy, [this system] will indefinitely make more of itself. Chemical systems lack selves … life is a series of selves … with no discontinuity, chemically connected to its past.

The crystal is a great example of one type of autocatalytic system which can be related to what we describe as Logos. The crystal grows by repeating the same molecular pattern indefinitely, it can be observed that DNA behaves in the same way; a chemical reaction unfolds like a computer program that reacts according to the way it was coded. There is a principle around which its effort is centered, a centrating principle. This is how the universe has been co-creating itself since its very inception. The logic behind it is simple: repeat the patterns in relationships that lead from one moment to the next, from one element to the next - incorporate, separate the results and then reincorporate the newness brought at each stage. The same system is always at work. Bring things and people together (soul and body, heaven and earth, one unique cell with another unique cell, one unique life with another unique life) this togetherness promotes a complexity which produces and introduces something new into the system of ever advancing relationships. 

Stars produce more complex elements by gravity bringing hydrogen into a deep and complex relationship, these new elements are released by supernova explosions then join the same system (under the influence of gravity) and are brought into a deep and meaningful relationship with the other elements around them, this process repeats and repeats, continually introducing newness and complexity. But the process by which this unfolds eventually reaches a point of exhaustion. Degrading complexity, no new elements. Faith informs us however, as identified and revealed by the Evangelist and Apostle John, that the Incarnation of Christ is the order of the universe itself, the order by which it was created and the order by which it unfolds, manifesting itself in human flesh and offering itself as the eternal centrating principle. The Logos Incarnate. Subjected to all the disorder and decay present in our reality and transforming those forces into an offering of new life for us. This eternal newness has brought with it the manifestation of a new element that results from our advanced communion (our new, advanced relationship system). The Body of Christ, it fosters our communion and is also present in our world as a result of our communion.

Another Kind of Proximity

Gravity is still at work all around us but the system has exhausted itself on the universal level - it is time to be acted upon by an outside force, it is time to be brought into a relationship with something that can make up for what is missing. The universe is no longer growing, as observed by the second law of thermodynamics, it has reached a point where it now moves from order to disorder.

The next relationship system, on which the existence of the material world is dependent, is accomplished through a new form of proximity: authentic communion with one another through God and continuously fostered by true love: 

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love[a] because he first loved us. 20 Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters,[b] are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister[c] whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters[d] also.

1 John 4:16-21

It is by the action of the Church, an evolutionary organism created by the spirit breathing life into the ground, that centers itself around, points toward, and continues in the work of Christ’s resurrection. Existing throughout time and space she bridges the boundary between Heaven and earth through the incorporation of members: the Church Militant, Suffering, and Triumphant. The Church Militant here on earth, the Church Suffering reaching purity in purgatory, and the Church Triumphant existing as Saints in the presence of God in Heaven.

Gravity cannot foster this type of proximity. You can love a person next to you, you can love them the same when they are in the other room, when they are on the other side of the planet, even if they were light years away, even if they were dead. And this love transforms and sustains you does it not. 

As gravity cannot foster the type of proximity necessary for the next stage of the universe’s development neither can the the biological forces of evolution prepare a creature to truly love:

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

John 15:12-13

We yearn to avoid death and every biological process drives us to sustain ourselves and make more of our species; no doubt a subliminal brainwashing imposed on modern biology by our most ancient of ancestors. Their one law: don’t die, do whatever it takes! But the revelation of death's demise now means having faith in its domestication. We now look to death for the opportunity to love and make known the reality of God’s kingdom. Eternal life calls for us to trust the revelation of God among us and deny what biology would otherwise drive us to do: whatever it takes.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! It is by being brought closer together that things in this universe were transformed at every stage. And so we are remade in Him through Sacramental Eucharistic Communion (higher levels of relational organization) and sent out into the world from Him to continue the process of reordering the universe around Christ (the Sacramental act of self-sacrifice and love) which is this creatures centrating principle.

It is only through our love and complex human relationships that newness and potential can increase. We should not underestimate the potential of meaningful  and healthy human relationships. Through us a more complex relationship system has taken shape. As stars brought hydrogen together to build new elements and other astronomical bodies hosted the complexifying relationships between elements to give us the mineral and chemical reactions necessary for life, so now do our complex human relationships result in a progression of the natural universe.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly,[a] but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13: 8-13