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A Working Paper for Reflection and Discussion Offered by Mary Ellen Sheehan, IHM, STD January 2007
Interfacing the Universe Story, the Christian Story, INTRODUCTION Reflecting on the inter-relationship of the scientific story of the universe, the Christian narrative, the earth story today, and our IHM story is challenging and stimulating. These four stories are unique, and each one is amazing. We live in them in an all-at-once way, and while they have different time spans, they are equally important to us. They describe our context; they give us images, symbols, and truths that shape our values. They reveal our life's call and purpose, individually and in community; they source our cultivating God's life in us and circling it about widely in our world today. While these stories are so interwoven in us, they are also distinct and therefore somewhat separable from one another. The universe narrative is a scientific account of our origins, elaborated largely by Western scientists using the scientific method of theory and empirical verification. Today, the scientific knowledge of our cosmological and evolutionary unfolding is vast. Indeed, we can be astounded by it; it can almost overwhelm our imagination. Science has established that the universe is about 13.7 billion years old, and all that is in it evolved and is connected. It is a story because it has a beginning: the singularity event of the Big Bang created time and space. It is also a story that is still unfolding; its plot is not yet fully worked out. In fact we are most likely only a few paragraphs into this story. In contrast, the Christian story is only about 4000 years old, counting its integral relationship with Jewish history and writings. This story is also a spectacular one. It makes wondrous claims, some from fact and some from other forms of apprehension, about its narrative center, the historical Jesus of Nazareth. He is proclaimed as the icon of God in our midst, the Christ, the one who, filled with the Holy Spirit, preaches and teaches and realizes the reign of God on this earth, and who calls and empowers disciples to do the same. This story is unfolding, too. It has a long and layered history, one that is filled with many other stories as different human cultures encountered the Christ event and made it their own. While its unfolding has been rather contentious at times in its processes of transformation, it has yielded lasting transporting truths and transforming actions. It is a story centered on life altering values. It is a dynamic story, one whose telling is meant to take its listeners into it intimately. It is the hearers of this story that keep it alive and reveal its transformational power today. Download entire paper and reflection questions A Working Paper by Mary Ellen Sheehan, IHM (PDF 259 KB, 40 pages) Universe Story Reflection Questions (PDF 15 KB)
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