What’s more astonishing than the Big Bang? Ask the
man who proposed it
On Easter Sunday, we contemplate with wonder the
empty tomb, and the circumstances of the Resurrection transport us all the way
back to Genesis. That tomb is situated in a garden, just as the history of the
human race began in a garden.
Mary Magdalene mistakes Our Risen Lord for the
gardener. Adam’s task had been to tend the garden which God entrusted to his
care. Where Adam’s disobedience brought expulsion from that first garden, Our
Lord defeats Satan on the Cross and, in the garden close by, reverses the
consequences of Adam’s rebellion, the most terrible of which is death. All of
this makes Christ the New Adam, whose Resurrection marks a New Creation which
promises us an eternity infinitely more wonderful than anything to be found in the
paradise of Eden.
Sceptics might argue that the academic consensus
that the origins of this universe lie in an “explosion” in which space expanded
from a single point relegates all belief in a Divine Creator to the status of
mythology. The father of the Big Bang theory would disagree. He was a Belgian
Catholic priest, Mgr Georges Lemaître. After Mgr Lemaître had presented the
theory at a seminar in California in 1933, his friend Albert Einstein is
reported to have led a standing ovation and commented that this was the most
beautiful and satisfactory explanation for the beginnings of the universe he
had ever heard. For Mgr Lemaître, the Big Bang was just one manifestation of
God’s creative genius, something that reinforced his Catholic faith.
The Resurrection is infinitely more marvellous even
than the Big Bang. The creation of the universe cost God nothing. He could have
fashioned a hundred million universes like ours in less than the blink of an
eye. The Resurrection, on the other hand, cost God very dearly. In the
Incarnation, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity united Himself with our
human flesh and entered a world in which He would be vulnerable to the jealousy
and political intrigue of fallen human creatures. On Good Friday, we meditate
on just what a price God was willing to pay, as we see the King of Creation
scourged, mocked and nailed to a Cross. His precious blood was the price of His
glorious triumph over sin in the Resurrection.
Einstein was apparently enthralled by Mgr
Lemaître’s proposal that the power of that primeval explosion known as Big Bang
was still, in the 1930s, transmitting energy through an expanding universe in
the form of cosmic rays. Likewise, the Resurrection continues to pulsate its
supernatural power to this day. In Holy Week, countless souls are lifted up
from the death of sin and restored to the life of the Resurrection in the
Sacrament of Penance.
The grace conferred in the Sacrament of Holy
Matrimony remains live and active throughout the life of a married couple, enabling
them to meet the challenges and opportunities that come their way, just as long
as they remain tuned in to the Presence of Our Risen Lord in their marriage.
In the Sacrament of the Sick, the souls of the
suffering and fearful are raised up and filled with hope in the general
resurrection of our bodies that will happen at the end of time. In the Blessed
Sacrament, Our Lord feeds us with His living Body, making Holy Communion the
most perfect encounter with the Resurrection that we can experience on this
earth.
Looking at the history of the Church, we see how,
when her lustre has been tarnished by the venality and waywardness of her
shepherds, faith in the Resurrection has raised up new generations of saints to
bring refreshment and renewal to her sacred mission. Of course, the power of
the Resurrection is not restricted to the visible confines of the Church and
her Sacraments. The hundreds of thousands of baptisms taking place at Easter
Vigils around the world this year testify to its potency to raise up new
Christians from the mire of unbelief, superstition and false religion, and to
incorporate them into Christ’s mystical risen body.
Intriguing and persuasive as it may be, the Big
Bang remains a theory. A scientific consensus only holds sway for as long as it
remains unchallenged by a more compelling explanation. Even if it stands the
test of time, most scientists seem to agree that this universe and time itself
will come to an end. The Resurrection, in contrast, is not a theory but a fact.
Its effects are in their youth and will endure into eternity.
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