“Christian faith . . . by the very fact that it is rooted in the idea of the Incarnation, has always based a large part of its tenants on the tangible values of the World and of Matter . . . [This connection is so intimately] linked with the essence of Christian dogma that, like a living bud, it needed only a sign, a ray of light, to cause it to break into flower. To clarify our ideas let us consider a single case, one which sums of everything. We continue from force of habit to think of the Parousia, whereby the Kingdom of God is to be consummated on Earth, as an event of a purely catastrophic nature — that is to say, liable to come about at any moment in history, irrespective of any definitive state of Mankind. This is one way of looking at the matter. But why should we not assume, in accordance with the latest scientific view of Mankind in an actual state of anthropogenesis, that the parousiac spark can, of a physical and organic necessity, only be kindled between Heaven and a Mankind which as biologically reached a certain critical evolutionary point of collective maturity?” — Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man, pp. 266-267.
Teilhard de Chardin 
Should we accept this mission, we are all heading there 🙂
I want to accept the mission but sometimes I fall back into old patterns. I guess that is where God’s grace comes in:-)
This is a way of thinking that is much more in keeping with how God has been present in the world up to the present. God works through God’s people. Claire has expressed this beautifully in her comment.
It is often so much easier to ask for a Divine parent to make everything right rather than doing the hard work ourselves. I envision that God gives us the vision, the tools and the grace to help bring about a better world. Whether we accept that mission is up to us.
Judging by growing inequality worldwide, and lack of compassion for our suffering brothers and sisters, it would seem that humankind has a long way to go towards biological, evolutionary, collective maturity.
I wonder, Rosaliene. http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/0143122010 This is a link to Steven Pinker’s book which asserts that, with all the means that we have at hand now to calculate trends over many centuries that there is plenty of evidence which points to Teilhard, once again, feeling the pulse accurately and offering us a way to discern God’s plan at work within humanity, “rooted in the Incarnation”.
Thanks for the referral, Freescot. Will check it out.
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