The Body of Christ

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Planetization and Transcendence In the previous section we saw how the growing universality of mankind seemed to call for a transcendent element that would motivate and animate ("amorize" in Teilhard's terms) this process. Teilhard finds this element in a theme of Christian theology, predominant in St. Paul: Christian tradition is unanimous that there is more in the total Christ than Man and God. There is also He who, in his 'theandric' [fostering the unity of God and humanity] being, gathers up the whole of Creation: in quo omnia constant [in whom all holds together]...this third 'nature' of Christ (neither human nor divine, but cosmic).[1] Following this theological theme, Teilhard sees this role of Christ as the continuation of the Incarnation. God is integrated more fully into creation as humanity grows in solidarity, from the relative simplicity of  "where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in your midst" (Matthew 18:20) to the more mystical: "You, then, are the body of Christ. Every one of you is a member of it." (1 Corinthians 12:27). In this "cosmic Christ" the collective assumes a personal face: However compressed the human particles may be, they must ultimately, if they are to group themselves ‘centrically’, love one another- with a love that includes all individuals simultaneously and as one whole. Yet there is no true love in an atmosphere, however warm it be, of the collective; for the collective is the impersonal. If love is to be born and to become firmly established it must find an individualized heart, an individualized face.[2] Directed towards such an object, the heart is in no risk of drying up in impersonal and diffuse aspirations. Without losing contact with the concrete reality of the beings around it, it discovers the means of embracing them all together in a feeling which, despite its unlimited extension, preserves the warmth of human affection.[3] The process of working to improve the well-being of mankind, of seeking a more united and cooperating world can be motivated in individuals by this "distinct and professed consciousness that the least of their achievements in the natural field provides nourishment for souls and thereby serves, in a word, to bring about the growth of the Body of Christ."[4] Any increase that I can bring upon myself or upon things is translated into some increase in my power to love and some progress in Christ's blessed hold upon the universe. Our work appears to us, in the main, as a way of earning our daily bread. But its essential virtue is on a higher level: through it we complete in ourselves the subject of the divine union; and through it again we somehow make to grow in stature the divine term of the one with whom we are united, our Lord Jesus Christ.[5] Teilhard believes that the neglect of this theme by theologians in the past has been due the fact that it requires an awareness of the "planetization" process which has gathered impetus only in recent times: St. Paul's imagery made a rather vague impression, no doubt, on the Romans, the Corinthians, the Ephesians, or the Colossians, because in those days the 'world', the 'whole' (with all that those words now imply for us of the organically defined), had not yet come to exist in man's consciousness; but for us, fascinated by the newly discovered magnitude of the universe, it expresses exactly that aspect of God which is needed to satisfy our capacity for worship.[6] Love and Unity In becoming conscious of this "cosmic" dimension, it is important to maintain our relation with the historical Jesus of Nazareth, otherwise it would not be truly personal: The immense enchantment of the divine milieu owes all its value in the long run to the human-divine contact which was revealed at the Epiphany of Jesus. If you suppress the historical reality of Christ, the divine omnipresence which intoxicates us becomes, like all other dreams of metaphysics, uncertain, vague, conventional- lacking the decisive experimental verification by which to impose itself on our minds, and without the moral authority to assimilate our lives into it. Thenceforward, however dazzling the expansions which we shall try in a moment to discern in the resurrected Christ, their beauty and their stuff of reality will always remain inseparable from the tangible and verifiable truth of the Gospel event. The mystical Christ, the universal Christ of St. Paul, has neither meaning nor value in our eyes except as expansions of the Christ that was born of Mary and who died on the cross.[7] But this effect is not only at the global level, our opening to a loving center can also help us improve our personal relationships: "In that center every activity, if I may use the phrase, is 'amorized'" [turned into love].[8] This is something that can be experienced: The more the soul's desires are concentrated on him, the more he will flood into them, penetrate their depths and draw them into his own irresistible simplicity. Between those who love one another with true charity he appears- he is, as it were, born- as a substantial bond of their love.[9] Christ consumes with his glance my entire being. And with the same glance, the same presence, he enters into those who are around me and whom I love. Thanks to him therefore I am united with them, as a divine milieu, through their inmost selves, and I can act upon them with all the resources of my being.[10] It happens sometimes that a man who is pure of heart will discern in himself, besides the happiness which brings peace to his own individual desires and affections, a quite special joy, springing from a source outside himself, which enfolds him in an immeasurable sense of well-being. This is the flowing back into his own diminutive personality of the new glow of health which Christ through his Incarnation has infused into humanity as a whole: in him, souls are gladdened with a feeling of warmth, for now they can live in communion with one another.[11] [1] Pierre Teilhard the Chardin, , “The Christic” in The Heart of Matter (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978), 93. [2] Pierre Teilhard the Chardin, "My Fundamental Vision" in Toward the Future (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975), 187. [3] Pierre Teilhard the Chardin, "Sketch of a Personalistic Universe" in Human Energy (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1969) 84. [4] Pierre Teilhard the Chardin, "Note on the Presentation of the Gospel in a New Age" in Heart of Matter, 217. [5 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), 63. [6] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "The Awaited Word" in Toward the Future (New York: Harper and Row, 1964), 98-99. [7] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu, 117. [8] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "Super-Humanity, Super-Christ, Super-Charity" in Science and Christ 171. [9] Pierre Teilhard the Chardin, "The Struggle Against the Multitude" in Writings in Time of War (New York: Harper and Row, 1968), 109. [10] Ibid., 110-111. [11] Ibid., 111.