A consistent Eucharistic thread in Teilhard de Chardin

In yesterday's blog I introduced some of the ideas of Fr Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (TDC), the French Jesuit priest and scientist who left a significant mark on the spiritual, ecclesial and scientific worlds.

His essay-poem The Mass on the World (MOW) is a remarkable meditation on creation and its relationship to the Eucharist. It is important to state at the outset that The Mass on the World is not a sacramental Mass. TDC wrote it while on an expedition in the Ordos region of Inner Mongolia, where he had no access to bread, wine or altar for the celebration of Mass. What he offers is a meditation and prayer, not an attempt to celebrate the Eucharist without the matter required for the sacrament.

Underlying Catholic theology of the Eucharist are three fundamental realities:

• Presence
• Communion
• Sacrifice

Let us look at how The Mass on the World strongly hints at each of these themes.

Presence

TDC writes:

at the touch of the supersubstantial Word the immense host which is the universe is made flesh. Through your own incarnation, my God, all matter is henceforth incarnate.

An editorial note has been added to the online text as follows:

there is no confusion here between transubstantiation in the strict sense and the universal presence of the Word: as the author states explicitly in Le Prêtre,

When Christ, extending the process of his incarnation, descends into the bread in order to replace it, his action is not limited to the material morsel which his presence will, for a brief moment, volatilize: this transubstantiation is aureoled with a real though attenuated divinizing of the entire universe. From the particular cosmic element into which he has entered, the activity of the Word goes forth to subdue and to draw into himself all the rest.

In other words, the central miracle of transubstantiation, as understood in Catholic tradition, is surrounded by what TDC describes as a wider process of divinisation. Creation is touched by Christ and drawn towards him, though not in the same way as the consecrated host. The Eucharistic Presence remains unique.

TDC prays in MOW:

Grant, Lord, that your descent into the universal Species may not be for me just something loved and cherished, like the fruit of some philosophical speculation, but may become for me truly a real Presence.

Later he writes:

Over every living thing which is to spring up, to grow, to flower, to ripen during this day say again the words: This is my Body. And over every death-force which waits in readiness to corrode, to wither, to cut down, speak again your commanding words which express the supreme mystery of faith: This is my Blood.

Teilhard is speaking poetically and mystically here. He is not suggesting that all created things become the Eucharist or are transformed into Christ's Body and Blood in the sacramental sense. Rather, he is contemplating the presence of Christ at work throughout creation.

Another writer, Nicolas Corte (The Life and Soul of Teilhard de Chardin) points out that TDC:

shows himself preoccupied above all with giving his daily Mass a cosmic function and planetary dimensions . . This, of course, he considered could be linked up with the most orthodox theology of the holy Eucharist.

A year after writing MOW, TDC explains in his work, Mons Univers, that:

To interpret adequately the fundamental position of the Eucharist in the economy of the world . . . it is, I think, necessary that Christian thought and Christian prayer should give great importance to the real and physical extensions of the eucharistic Presence. . . As we properly use the term "our bodies" to signify the localized centre of our spiritual radiations . . ., so it must be said that in its initial and primary meaning the term "Body of Christ" is limited, in this context, to the consecrated species of Bread and Wine. But. . .the host is comparable to a blazing fire whose flames spread out like rays all round it.’ [Source N.M. Wildiers STD).

Communion

A second Eucharistic theme in MOW is communion. For TDC, all creation finds its unity in God:

All things individually and collectively are penetrated and flooded by it [the Fire of God], from the inmost core of the tiniest atom to the mighty sweep of the most universal laws of being: so naturally has it flooded every element, every energy, every connecting link in the unity of our cosmos; that one might suppose the cosmos to have burst spontaneously into flame.

Sacrifice

The third Eucharistic reality is sacrifice. In MOW we can discern the mystery as gathering up both the joys and sufferings of human existence and offering them to God the Father in Christ.

TDC writes:

How could I refuse this chalice, Lord, now that through the bread you have given me there has crept into the marrow of my being an inextinguishable longing to be united with you beyond life; through death?

Here the language of sacrifice is unmistakable. Union with Christ entails participation not only in resurrection but also in the mystery of the Cross.

"In Him All Things Hold Together"

Running through all of TDCs writings is the profound Christological vision found in St Paul's Letter to the Colossians:

 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)

For TDC, Christ is the one in whom creation finds its unity and meaning. Christ is present in every human person and is encountered in a special way among the poor and forgotten.

This vision reaches its fulfilment in another Pauline text:

When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28).

For TDC, the Eucharist is not merely a sacred action that takes place within creation. It reveals the deepest destiny of creation itself: that all things are being drawn into Christ and offered to the Father. The bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, while the labour, suffering and hopes of the world are gathered into Christ's self-offering.

This cosmic vision culminates in what TDC called the Omega Point: the fulfilment of creation in Christ, when God will indeed be 'all in all'.

On Friday of this week, I will look at how Teilhard de Chardin's vision influenced at least one contemporary spiritual writer - Fr Richard Rohr OFM.

Dun Briste - Shane Coogan