A Lot of "Big Bang" for the Buck

 

In my ongoing search for wisdom in our often unwise world, I came across Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker's Journey of the Universe. The book is a companion to the authors' documentary and educational DVD project by the same title (see trailer below). What amazes me about their exploration of creation, from "big bang" to humans' headlong rape of natural resources, is the simplicity of the writing. This scientific-philosophical narrative is aimed at the lay reader for whom cosmology is mostly an off-the-radar area of awareness.

I was moved by the authors' conviction that the universe is alive, not inert, and that it is purposefully self-organizing,  rather than randomly. They present us as unlucky heirs of a totally opposite, materialist mind-set that began in the 16th and 17th centuries. Indoctrinated as we are today in a static cosmology, most of humanity today views planet Earth as our toy to exploit without regard for  consequences to ourselves and future generations.

Journey of the Universe is not a religious book. For example, it does not address the question of a "prime mover." Yet, it is a sacred book in the sense that the authors treat their subject, the universe, with utmost reverence. They are critical of current trends at play in human history, but offer hope for the future of all who carry "big bang" DNA. 

Tucker and Swimme remind us that the dawn of human intelligence allowed the universe to reflect upon itself for the first time. They go on to offer us three guides that we can securely rely on as we move forward into the universe's future: 

(1) Stars from which the elements of our bodies are made--"Wonder is a gateway through which the universe floods in and takes residence within us." 

(2) The ocean which, given time, will "dissolve things into itself"--Like the seas, we have the possibility of becoming empathetic beings, capable of flowing into and becoming one with the feelings of any being. 

(3) What we make with our hands--"Our destiny is woven into the mysteries of creativity and time."

In short, Swimme and Tucker offer a big picture of the universe and our place in its existence and progress. They call us to see beyond the social, political, and religious chaos and crises of the moment. They invite us to trust, as they do, that we are part of something wonderful--though as yet unseen--that will certainly emerge from the darkness. "If the creative energies in the heart of the universe succeeded so brilliantly in the past, we have reason to hope that such creativity will inspire us and guide us into the future."

As I bask in the good vibes of reading Journey of the Universe, a line from a Christian hymn plays at my memory: "This is holy ground. We're standing on holy ground."

Evolution of a Novel: Conception to Birth

On the morning of July 26, 2010, something entirely new and quite unexpected happened to me. But first, let me backtrack. I had already written and published five novels, the most recent, Down a Narrow Alley (2005). Since then I've turned my attention mostly to nonfiction projects, the most satisfying of which was The Wisdom of Les Miserables: Lessons From the Heart of Jean Valjean (2008). This set of personal reflections on themes from Victor Hugo's classic novel have been well-received (with limited sales, my literary fate).

I had no intention of writing another novel. I thought I'd told all the stories I had in me, except for one half-finished, dead-in-the-water novel (and stories I make up for my grandson's entertainment). That's why I was surprised to wake up that July morning a year ago with a rough, but complete, narrative arc in my head, three main characters who would carry the story from beginning to end. I even had a working title,  A Train to Bruges. For the next six weeks, I continued to wake up with snippets of story and characterization, all of which I scribbled in the notebook I keep bedside, just in case (rarely) I  think of something brilliant during the night.*

As always, writing the first draft was exhilarating. My dreamed-up characters came to life. My villain was sufficiently evil. Best of all, I knew from Day 1 how the story would end. Studying the completed draft, I realized as many novelists do in that situation, that all I had in hand was a skeleton. My story needed flesh, which came only with grinding effort through subsequent drafts, along with  whatever research I needed to make the setting and characters seem real.

By June 18, 2011, I had arrived at Draft 8.2 and could finally add the # # # symbols to indicate "The End." Somewhere along the way, my working title had yielded to the current pre-pub title, The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story. Not that a novel is ever really finished as long as it's still in the author's hands. Once already, I've gone back in to add a few sentences to close an information gap that will keep the reader from wondering, "What about . . . ?" 

Now the real work begins: marketing a manuscript the book-reading world is not panting for and competing with the other million or so books being published this year. Like a lot of my colleagues of a "certain age," the question is, do I set out to find another agent (I've had three over the course of my career, but no one currently)? Or do I play my "Go Directly to Self- and E-pub" card? I'm pulled in both directions. Response to the ms. from my beta readers has been encouraging (overwhelming, in fact): "the most powerful novel I've ever read" . . . "the characters drew me as if I was attached to them by rope or chain" . . . "a powerful story" . . . "a gorgeous, romantic novel, beautiful, masterful." Heady stuff. I still haven't decided which way to go. I'll let you know which direction I take in future posts.

For a sample, click on the heading, "Work In Progress," above.

* The lined, hardcover notebook was a gift from writer-friend Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff in May 2010 for my role in helping with the California Writers Club, Mount Diablo Branch's Young Writers Contest. The notebook had rested on my night stand unused until that moment in July when I began filling its pages each morning with plot, character, and setting notes.

Declan Deane: If Jesus Returned

 [Today, I invited my dear friend, Fr. Declan Deane, who passed away from cancer last December, to share a bit of his wisdom with us. He said, "Yes, if you think it will help someone." I do, so here it is.]

 Homily of February 14, 2010

Based on the Beatitudes

(Luke 6:20-26)

So that little lecture [the Beatitudes] by Jesus has been called a series of bombshells. Another writer, G.K. Chesterton, a great English Catholic writer, said that to understand a passage like that you should learn to stand on your head, because Jesus sets the world's values upside down. And, you know at that time people did not really respond very well to Him. There might have been a huge crowd at one time, but one by one they all faded away and finally there was only a tiny little nucleus left because they were alienated by the things He said and did. And some of them turned completely against Him.

And so I asked myself the question, What would happen if Jesus came back today, February 2010? What if He did the things and said the kind of things that He did 2000 years ago? Would I follow Him? Would you? Would many people? How would we respond? So I allowed my imagination to run a little bit riot, and I thought it would go maybe something like this.

Jesus landed at SFO. He was invited to address the Commonwealth Club. The scheduled lecturer was postponed until next year; it was meant to be given by Deepak Chopra, entitled, "Finding Peace of Mind." So first thing Jesus did was He asked how much the fee was to be. And they told him $50,000. He said, "Please go out into the street and distribute it among the beggars and the homeless people."

And then in His lecture He said, "If you want to find peace of mind, avoid greed in all its forms. The best thing you can do to obtain peace of mind is to sell what you have -- your homes, your cars, your property. Give everything you have to the poor, and then you will truly find peace of mind." At the end of the lecture people came out shaking their heads a little bit in bafflement and saying, "What a strange man. He didn't have a whole lot of comfort to offer us. Perhaps we should have stuck with Deepak Chopra."

The Archbishop of San Francisco invited Jesus to dinner with all the religious leaders of the city. Jesus said He would be happy to go to the dinner the next evening, but that this evening He had a prior commitment. He planned to dine at a restaurant in the Castro with friends from the gay and lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. He invited the religious leaders to join Him, but they politely declined.

From then on Jesus was picketed wherever He went by members of the Christian Coalition. They carried banners saying, "This cannot be the Messiah. He welcomes sinners and dines with them." Jesus visited San Quentin prison, and He called a press conference and stated, "All human life is sacred, from the unborn child in the womb to my humble friends on death row. Each one of them has an angel that worships day and night before My Father in heaven."

By the things He said and did Jesus alienated both liberals and conservatives. Day by day the numbers of His followers decreased. But among those followers were some faithful women who seldom left Jesus' side. Their presence was a great boon to the hoard of paparazzi who trail Jesus everywhere. The Papal Nuncio approached Jesus and tactfully suggested that He might invite the women to go home. "They are giving a bad impression," he said. "People are beginning to say that women can play as important a part in Your community as men." To which Jesus replied, "Have you not read what my servant Paul wrote, 'In Christ there is neither male nor female, but all are one in Him'?"

Later that week it was announced that Jesus was being investigated by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As Jesus walked along the street, there were always crowds surrounding him. And one day a man who was identified as a leading member of the Mafia -- in fact, he was commonly referred to as the godfather. He was very eager to see Jesus. But being short of stature, he climbed up into a tree. Jesus walked past, looked up, saw him and said, "Come down, godfather. I plan to dine at your house today." Delightedly, the godfather invited all his friends to his mansion. FBI agents went up and down [the street], recording the license plates. At the end of the meal the godfather rose and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make. Here and now I have decided to give half of everything that I own to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone -- and regrettably I have -- I am going to repay them fourfold." Jesus smiled and said, "Salvation has come to this house because you too are a child of God." 

Next day, the San Francisco Chronicle carried a banner headline and it said, "Jesus Loves Crime Baron." Many politicians now jumped on the opportunity to denounce Jesus as a dangerous radical. And everywhere He went He was shadowed by weary local and federal agents.

Finally one day He was accosted by a Muslim, a wealthy man, who had a sick servant. "Sir," he said, "I am not a Christian myself, but I can tell that you are from God. Now, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Say but the word and my servant will be healed." Jesus said to him, "Your servant is healed as of this very moment." And then He turned to the crowd and said, "This man has more faith than all the Christians I have met." This was the crowning blow for many people. Jesus was warned that His life was in danger and He was forced to flee to another place.

So that's how I allowed my imagination to roam free. Maybe it'd be a little bit like that if Jesus returned. Certainly, it's imaginable that He would have done and said much the same things as He did when He was here 2000 years ago.

And the question then arises, how would you and I respond? Would we give Him praise, and blessing and honor, or would we, like the majority of people, either drift away or turn against Him? So let's take a few moments of silence to ask ourselves the question: "How would you and I respond to someone so wonderfully disconcerting as Jesus of Nazareth?"

Rick Steves: A Side I'd Never Seen

 I discovered a side of travel writer/guru Rick Steves that I did not know before. I have many friends who have traveled on his tours and swear by him. Until now, he's been just a travel writer and tour master. I was pleasantly surprised to unearth his exceptional spirituality and worldview. I urge all my blog followers to read his interview in US Catholic Bulletin online.

http://www.uscatholic.org/life/everyday-spirituality/2011/05/roads-less-traveled-interview-rick-steves

Osama is Dead: A Reflection

Osama bin Laden is dead. Killed by US Navy Seals and CIA agents. What does this mean, Lord? How many others will die because of this? How many more would have died if he had lived? Possibly the same number, just different people.  

Evil is so deeply rooted in this event that it seems beyond redemption. I watched the reports of his demise with a mixture of "he got what he deserved" and sadness for the state of humanity that operates on an eye-for-an-eye scale of justice, not "love your enemies." Lord, your Easter greeting, "Peace be with you," gets lost in CNN's reporting and scenes of gloating crowds at Ground Zero and the White House. Because we do not value peace, we shut our ears to Your salutation and invitation. Revenge is the sweet nectar we drink to the point of intoxication. But the hangover will follow.


Am I happy Osama is dead? God help me, yes. Do I feel the "closure" so many are claiming? No. Am I happy being happy he is dead? No. It reminds me how far I still need to go in my own conversion to the peace-giving Christ. 

And so it goes in this complex affair we call life.

Adult Faith: Growing in Wisdom and Understanding

Catholics wondering when their church will rise from scandal’s ashes can take heart. The change they desire is already present and growing like the gospel mustard seed. The roots of this movement are scattered but taking hold.

This is the hopeful message of Diarmuid O’Murchu’s Adult Faith. This straight-talk volume takes its place among a body of wisdom literature emerging from spiritual guides at the forefront of this growth spurt, including Joan Chittister, Richard Rohr, and Ronald Rolheiser, to mention a few. Discerning Catholics are invited to reimagine the Good News and actively cocreate a spirituality and theology suitable for 21st-century evangelization.

With razor-sharp clarity, O’Murchu presents not only a vision of what must come but a chronicle of the Spirit-led movement already underway. He identifies three concurrent approaches to faith in today’s Catholic experience: "conventional inherited wisdom" (controlled by a patriarchal, male-dominated institution), "embedded codependency" (passive enablers of the gatekeepers), and "adult empowerment" (openness to new ecclesial and universal realities through adult understanding and wisdom).

Diarmuid O'Murchu

Adult Faith may evoke a mixture of reactions, depending on the reader: anger and fear among those who currently hold power; discomfort and denial among their enablers; reenergized hope among disaffected believers who long for church-wide spiritual and theological adulthood.

Lest anyone criticize O’Murchu as bent on tearing down the church, he dismisses neither the relevance of the hierarchy nor the millions of clerical and lay Catholics who support the inherited structure. Rather, he challenges his brothers and sisters to recognize that the renewed, post-scandal church they hope for is in the making. Adult Faith is a major and welcome contribution to the spreading wisdom revival within Roman Catholicism. 

 - - - - - - -

Copyright (c) 2011 by Alfred J. Garrotto

This article appeared in the May 2011 issue of U.S. Catholic magazine (Vol. 76, No. 5, page 43).

"If I Had My Child to Raise All Over Again"

Always on the lookout for words of practical wisdom, I came across the following poem by author Diane Loomans:

If I had my child to raise all over again,

I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.

I'd fingerpaint more, and point the finger less.

I would do less correcting and more connecting.

I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.

I would care to know less and know to care more.

I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.

I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.

I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.

I'd do more hugging and less tugging.

I'd see the oak tree in the acorn more often.

I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.

I'd model less about the love of power,

And more about the power of love.

Retrieved from Scrapbook.com, February 21, 2011

http://www.scrapbook.com/poems/doc/11/14.html

 Used with permission

100 Ways to Build Self-Esteem and Teach Values (Loomans, Diane)

This Imperfect World

Here's a ray of wisdom that needs to be proclaimed from the housetops:

"Being human means to be imperfect, to be limited, and thus to change and travel on a perpetual journey. Mature spirituality gives us the ability to live joyfully in an imperfect world. This is important because an imperfect world is the only one we have. And if God does not love imperfect people, God has no one to love."

Richard Rohr, OFM
On the Threshold of Transformation: Meditations for Men

Day 255

On the Threshold of Transformation: Daily Meditations for Men

Loyola Press

2010

$14.95

380 pages

Something has gone terribly wrong when a Catholic parish with wise leadership, vibrant liturgies, consistently challenging homilies, and over sixty active lay ministries reports a weekly attendance of 20-25 percent of registered parishioners. 

In On the Threshold of Transformation, Franciscan Father Richard Rohr, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, offers the clearest connect-the-dots reasons yet for our current Roman Catholic ennui: absence of a focused male spirituality and disinterest among church leaders for encouraging men to develop their unique inner lives. His solution? Churches must "validate, encourage, structure, and teach men an inner life." 

What is at stake if churches continue to stand on the sidelines and simply watch as disenfranchised men drift away? Rohr's high-alert warning is, "I'm not sure what the church's reason for continued existence might be."

For generations, traditional parish ministry has promoted a unisex spirituality, one designed even to meet women's needs better than men's. Connect the dots. Rohr has made it a central work of his ministry to identify men's particular spiritual needs. In his latest book, he draws a year-long roadmap of one-page meditations, challenges, and journaling prompts that free men to honor their distinctly male way of being with God. 

On Day 363, he offers a summary statement: "At the heart of male spirituality is the knowledge that we are imperfect, that we come to God not by doing it right, but ironically and wonderfully by doing it wrong!" In a grave assessment of parishes' failure to promote male spirituality, he says, "More transformation is taking place . . . with things like twelve-step meetings, than in Sunday morning sanctuaries."  

On the Threshold of Transformation is a book that needs to be in the hands of every Catholic priest and every adult male parishioner--now. We can only hope it is not too late.

A Model for 21st c. Catholic Bishops

I matured as a Catholic in the years following the Second Vatican Council and listed among my formative heroes many American bishops and their peers in France, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, and, yes, even Italy. Towering above these forward-looking prelates was my all-time papal hero, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, Pope John XXIII.

Fast-forwarding to the present, I am challenged to identify more than a handful of bishops at home or abroad as models of Spirit-filled, gospel-driven leadership. I and others who share my Catholic history grieve the lacuna.

The recent Year of the Priest turned a spotlight in America on an aging and embattled clergy. These men, especially parish priests, are the remnant in the trenches of a no-longer flourishing clerical caste. With their breakfast they have had to swallow a bitter chronicle of abuse accusations and episcopal cover-ups, each one creeping higher up the ladder of ecclesiastical responsibility. One thing 21st century priests still have going for them is a model of exemplary ministry in St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney (1786-1859), the Curé of Ars. One of their own, he served his parishioners with selfless love and inspiring dedication to the Body of Christ on earth.

It is hard to imagine who might serve as living models and heroes for today’s bishops. As a lay minister in a vibrant parish community, I pray and listen with aching hope for voices of gospel-inspired sanity and humanity among the American and world hierarchies. Instead, there is faith-deadening silence. In this wasteland, the only voices belong to the few whose righteous pronouncements serve as fodder for nightly sound bites and morning stomach turners. There have to be bishops and cardinals alive who cringe along with the rest of us. The few bishops I personally know who might be capable of sparking a Spirit-led revival cower in silence.

Let me propose an international, time-tested model for today’s bishops: Charles Francois Bienvenu Myriel, Bishop of Digne, France. Myriel is, of course, the fictional prelate who serves as the catalyst character of Victor Hugo’s classic and eminently Catholic novel, Les Miserables. What could a non-historical, backwater bishop possibly have to say to today’s real-world hierarchy? Plenty! 

Every bishop would do well to reflect on the true meaning of episcopal servanthood as found in the book’s opening one-hundred pages. Bishop Myriel provides a spiritual and moral compass for bishops whose ministry has devolved into fending off abuse victims (and their attorneys), while presiding over shrinking human and financial assets.

Hugo was no saint himself, but he knew what one should look like. We can speculate about the possibility of the author’s admiration of his contemporary and fellow countryman, the Curé of Ars. In his protagonist Jean Valjean, Hugo created the ideal Christian man—a lay saint. It might not be farfetched to call Valjean the principled, virtuous man that Hugo wished he could be. In Bishop Myriel, he brought to life the kind of post-Revolution bishop France needed, but rarely found. Portraying Myriel’s character and the quality of his ministry, the author revealed a deep understanding of true episcopal ministry and priestly spirituality.

Bishop Myriel is a man of prayer, whose holiness is rooted in Sacred Scripture. He takes seriously the call of St. Paul to be like Christ in every possible way: “As most beloved children of God, strive to imitate him. Follow the way of love, the example of Christ who loved you” (Ephesians 5:1-2). His hands-on ministerial style epitomizes the radical option for the poor. The pastoral “buck” stops at this bishop's door, as demonstrated when a priest of his diocese refuses to accompany a condemned man to his death. Myriel claims it as his solemn episcopal duty to spend the night in prayer with the poor man and accompany him along the dreaded final steps to the guillotine.

This is a wise bishop who sees possibilities that others do not in fallible human beings. On a night when no other citizen of Digne will offer shelter to specter-like parolee Jean Valjean, Myriel welcomes the stranger to his table and lodging (only to be robbed of heirloom silver by his ungrateful guest). 

Having no further contact with Valjean after forgiving the man’s misdeed, Myriel never learns that his generosity has produced a Damascus-like effect, setting in motion a lifetime of virtue and good works.

I studied philosophy and theology in the 1950s with many seminarians who went on to become bishops and cardinals, both in the United States and the Vatican. How I wish one of them were writing this post, instead of me! Today’s Catholics crave the kind of bishop that Victor Hugo presented as a model of the sacrament of Holy Orders. We, the lay baptized priests of the Church, pray that our Myriels-in-hiding will soon step forward with courage to catalyze the Spirit-led renewal destined to occur in this century.

______________________

Alfred J. Garrotto is the author of the suspense novel,

The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story.