Still Evolving

Such is the story of the heavens and earth at their creation.

The closing line of our reading from Genesis.

There's been, and still is, a lot of disagreement over that story.

Is it literal?
Is it figurative—poetic?

When it speaks of a day, does it mean a day as we know it now?

Is it at odds with the scientific concept of evolution?

I've been watching National Geographic's Cosmos series with my six-year-old grandson.

I'm learning as much as he is with glimpses of the limitless wonders of the Universe.

And how far science has brought us toward understanding it more and more.

It's well settled that our Church finds the Creation Story and evolution to be compatible.

But over the centuries, our Church has sometimes been wrong on matters of science.

Galileo was punished for teaching that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

Although our Church has Christ as its head.

And the Holy Spirit to guide it infallibly on matters of faith and morals.

Ours is a Church made up of humans.

We are the Church.

And, whether or not we're evolving in the Darwinian sense,

We are called to keep evolving in our spiritual lives.

Individually and collectively.

And as we evolve the Church evolves.

All growing together in human knowledge, understanding and holiness.

Working, as Jesus charged us, to build the Kingdom of God on Earth.

In our Gospel, Jesus criticizes a religion that was getting it wrong.

The Jews are obsessed with their human traditions.

They're treating human precepts as religious doctrines.

They're setting aside God's Commandments in favor of human traditions.

He gives an example: 

God's Commandment says Honor your father and your mother.

But Jewish law, through human interpretation, provided a loophole to get around that.

And, he adds, You do many such things.

We still do.

There was quite a flap when our own leader said that religions can get it wrong.

Terrible acts can be committed in the name of religion.

Even Christianity, even Catholicism.

A religion can suffer guilt by association from terrible acts committed by its wayward members.

The religion isn't really responsible, except perhaps for inability to form that member.
Hitler was a baptized Catholic—it's said he even considered becoming a priest.

But it's quite a stretch to say his terrible acts were in the name of religion.

A religion is responsible for the sanctioned, official acts of its representatives.

There were certainly strong provocations for the Inquisitions and the Crusades.

But were they fully justified?

Were they conducted in accordance with God's Commandments?

Or were they tainted by human interpretations, precepts and traditions?

Jesus said God's greatest commandments are just two.

Love God with all your heart, soul and mind.

And love your neighbor as yourself.

How are we doing with that?
Are we fully reconciled with God and neighbor?
It seems that on occasion, through human interpretation, our Church has found loopholes.

So should we admit that?

Should we even apologize for that?

Our leader did.

And he did it more than once and with determined forethought.

He shocked and offended many, and faced some strong criticism for saying what he said.

But we see that he was pushing us and our Church to evolve further.

And we and our Church now hold him in the highest regard.

We now call him Saint John Paul II.

Such is the story of heaven on earth at its current state of evolution.

5th Tuesday Ordinary Time

Mk 7:1-13      Read this Scripture @usccb.org