Wood carving of The Sacred Heart at the Sanctuary of Chimayo. It contains an important message about the nature of quantum reality for the scientists of Los Alamos. Note the tile pictograph at the top of the carving.The following is an NCR editorial by Father Tissa Balasuriya dealing with Pope Benedict's recent encyclical Caritas en Veritate. It has been edited for length. The entire editorial can be accessed here.
This encyclical is a valuable document, but has some missing dimensions. It does not analyse the way the modern world has been set up as an association of Christians with governments and colonial powers, especially from 1492 to 1945. The pope seems to overlook the inadequacies of the church in the course of history.
The Catholic church, it needs to be recalled, was closely associated with the invasion of the lands of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Oceania. In addition to plundering the riches of these lands, the Western invaders virtually exterminated almost the whole of these people in North America. It is estimated that there were 80 million Native Americans in these lands in 1492, but by 1600 their numbers had been reduced to one million due to wars and diseases brought by the invaders.
The map of the modern world was made mainly by European (colonial) expansion which was by invasion and capture of weaker peoples territories, by expelling the natives further into the interior, by their murder and virtual extermination, by wars among colonial powers, and even by purchase of vast areas of land from colonisers, usually after their conflicts......
This is what passes for the present world order, legitimized by the United Nations, set up with their national borders as inviolable. It consolidates centuries of European victories, pillage, colonization, exploitation, and marginalization of other peoples. The structural adjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank do not call for structural improvements in relation to population and land. Only factors such as capital, resources and technology are considered mobile in the so called "free market" and "free world". The present distribution of land among the peoples is taken as legal and unchangeable, except with their consent.
The church needs to analyse how the message of love of God and neighbor revealed by Jesus Christ seems to have been gravely distorted during many centuries until the Second Vatican Council in 1962-1965. Further, has not the truth of history been so overlooked by Christians and the church to forget the harm they have done to other peoples, other religions and nature itself during nearly a millennium? We can all profit by reflecting on the hundred and more apologies of the Pope John Paul II to the groups thus offended.
Pope John Paul did not, however, take these apologies to their practical consequences of a good and integral confession and penance including: to assess the extent of the damage, reparation, compensation, firm purpose of amendment, avoiding occasions of sin. The tone of the encyclical would be less self justifying and more self purifying if it would undertake a good analysis of these historical realities, seeing also the neo-colonial re-domination of the world by the super powers and their multinationals. Can not the universities, seminaries and research institutes of Christians and civil society help us all in seeking the truth and action of justice and charity to build a better world as the pope desires? (I see this neo colonization as more of one of multinationals and their super power lackeys. Multinationals have no national allegiances.)
The church would have much to learn and gain from a serious dialogue on these issues with activists and scholars of other faiths and cultures, who have a not so pleasant experience and memory of powerful Christian powers during the past five centuries. As the pope mentions, the human community can get together to build a civilization of love and truth in this century, which commenced with a “war against terror” since March 2003.
In his inauguration homily, Pope Benedict XVI said: “My real program of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen with the whole church, to the word and the will of the Lord, to be guided by Him, so that He himself will lead the church at this hour of our history.”
This reflection shows that the Catholic church has had to correct herself on several issues during the course of the centuries. Some issues include the claim that the Catholic church is the sole possessor of the truth about God, ignoring that the Spirit of God is present to all persons, cultures and historical events and processes and unique and necessary path to human salvation. (The presence of God is the foundation on which all creation is built. One can be ignorant to God's presence in their life, but God is still there.)
The church has shown it could:
--marginalize women in church and society and exclude them from decision making.
--use violence as a means of spreading the faith,
--adopt authoritarian ways to suppress dissent on doctrines.
--tolerate and even encourage colonial imperialist policies and profit from them.
--teach that the way to human salvation depends on amends made to God the Father for the sins of humanity by Jesus Christ by his death on the cross.
--use violence as a means of spreading the faith,
--adopt authoritarian ways to suppress dissent on doctrines.
--tolerate and even encourage colonial imperialist policies and profit from them.
--teach that the way to human salvation depends on amends made to God the Father for the sins of humanity by Jesus Christ by his death on the cross.
This view has overlooked the social mission of Jesus in working for the liberation of the poor and oppressed. The church accordingly stressed works of charity but neglected action for social justice and the reform of the social structures within countries and the world at large. (I would go further and state that the Church actively used personal acts of charity as a means of undermining any real social justice reform specifically to support the colonial powers.)
On this basis Christian spirituality encouraged humble acceptance of domination by others, as a way of discipleship of Jesus who accepted suffering even unto death on the cross. This is said, to make amends to the Father for the sins of humanity. Due to this perspective, the spiritual life was interpreted more as a flight from the world rather than as a commitment to realise the kingdom of God on earth.
During 15 centuries, until recently, the accent in Christian spirituality was more on charity and works of mercy rather than social justice. There was no insistence on the need of reforming the unjust world order which Christians helped to set up. Thus, even at the beginning of the 21st century, Euro-Americans, controlling most of the land and resources of the world, are forgetful of the core teaching of Jesus on sharing with the needy.
In the process the Catholic liturgy was made more a ritual than an expression and experience of the love of God and neighbor. Thousands of Holy Masses can be celebrated in a country without much serious reflection on and impact on social justice in a world of great inequalities and armed conflicts. Prayer and meditation can be, de facto, indifferent to unjust social realities and to gross violations of human rights. (And they can be purposefully taught so that they in fact support gross violations of human rights and leave people stagnant and ineffectual in their spiritual life.)
It would be beneficial if pluralist groups would dialogue on these issues for our common good.
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One didn't have to look hard to see the effects of 500 years of Euro-American rule on the indigenous population of the Southwest. The city of Santa Fe and the communities surrounding Santa Fe show the effect. I couldn't begin to afford living in Santa Fe, but twenty miles out of the city it's a different story--a different world.
Santa Fe seems to revolve around wealthy international tourists and the professional population of Los Alamos. It was mind boggling to meander down the Old Santa Fe Plaza and see the unbelievable mark up on Native art and all the outlets for some of the more expensive stores one would find on Rodeo drive in Los Angeles. It didn't take long to figure out I was not one of the elite Old Santa Fe exists to serve. Santa Fe serves the rich scientific modern world in the way that Chimayo serves the poor spiritual old world.
The ironic thing for me is that both the Catholic spirituality of Chimayo and the Indigenous spirituality of the Navajo and Pueblo tribes co exist with the cutting edge science of Los Alamos. In my scheme of things both world views deal with quantum reality and their respective effects on Newtonian reality. I guess it's not surprising these two world views are in the same area, with Santa Fe in the middle, benefiting and profiting from the adherents of both mind sets.
What I have called spiritual technology works from the quantum level to further the common good and is always holistic, balanced, and healing. It is based in unconditional love, as love is a real force in the quantum world. See these previous postings.
Man's technology is often beyond man's capacity to predict the full consequences of it's use. It all too frequently does not result in balance and holistic integration. The consequences of it's use throw cultures and societies completely out of balance, resulting in little that resembles healing.
On that note it was interesting to see that many of the exhibits at the Bradbury Museum in Los Alamos stressed that one use of the discussed weapons technology was medicinal. With out their nuclear and computer research there would be no CAT or PET scans, no use of radioactive isotopes in diagnosing and treating cancer. Without research into bio weapons there would be no human genome project and fewer break throughs in vaccine technologies and delivery systems. Very little of the modern medicine we all know and love (and most of us can't afford) wouldn't exist without the weapons related research of the scientists of Los Alamos.
Los Alamos is worth the trip. The Bradbury museum is really well done. The exhibits extolling the scientific progress made at Los Alamos are informative while mostly devoid of any mention of the negative impact the created technologies have had on the world. It is never the less, a mind boggling experience.
The exhibit on the progression in computer technology starts with the slide rule and ends with the latest super computer. That's a progression in data processing speed of a half a bit per second to three trillion bits per second. My daughter was floored to think that a lot of this progression happened in my life time. She came away with a much better appreciation of the amount of change society has undergone since World War II.
For people in Pope Benedict's age bracket, whose lives have experienced one endless technological revolution after another, this has been especially theologically challenging. Catholic leaders like Benedict grew up with a ritualized formal spirituality which, as Fr. Balasuriya points out, was specifically designed to be a spiritual flight from the world, not an active participant in the world. This has not only resulted in a lack of real social justice, but in a theology which has allowed the Western scientific community to define reality on their terms. Western science does not have the whole truth. It isn't close to having the real truth.
A more complete world view must also contain the truth about the quantum force Jesus called love. This truth is not part of the Western scientific model. It was the truth Jesus came to teach. It is the truth which is timeless and limitless and the one where western Christianity has seriously dropped the ball. The consequences of that fumble now threaten the entire world. Love has no place in our quantum calculations when it should have first place.
More on this tomorrow.
