Who knew one of our Christmas Eve dinner staples would become a metaphor for the very life and structure of the Universe?  I am talking about mushrooms!  In a recent presentation entitled, “Pantheism in the Age of Entanglement:  The Advent God,” Ilia Delio expounds upon the deeply interconnected nature of the Universe.  Everything affects everything else; everything is in service of everything else.  There is no in-between, even no separate things. She uses the word, “Rhizomic.”  For fun you might want to listen to the opening minutes of the beautiful Netflix film:  Fantastic Fungi.  I think you will find yourself wondering about the identity of the “we.”

Ilia goes on to explain the “I” as the now of God’s creating love and reminds us of something we have all experienced in and through our contemplative practice, namely, “The ‘I’ is an activity. You are becoming something; to be is to be in the divine action of becoming. The ‘I’ is the now of God’s creating love.”  On the large scale this is Teilhard’s Omega, not a point, but at least partially, a centrating power within the process of evolution.  In the silence, the experience of which can range from boredom to ecstasy, do we not know this?  Do we not experience it?  Is this not what keeps us both sitting and acting on behalf of the life of the world?

In the hustle and bustle of the holidays let’s try to hold within our awareness the enormity of this reality of the Divine’s entangled wholeness in the depths of all that is:  Divine immanence a universal power present with all.  In so doing we with all creation also become privileged bearers of transcendence.  May this open up the meaning of the season for all of us.

Blessings of the Season!

Margaret and Nancy