The Story of the Universe, of Earth, of Humans, and the Easter story
by Robert Fontana
“O God, you have been our refuge from all generations. Before the sun was born, before the galaxies came forth, and the Great Beginning, you are God from eternity and forever.” (Adapted from Psalm 90:1)
I remember the first time I saw photos from the Hubble telescope. THEY WERE STUNNING! Hubble captured images of stars, galaxies, nebulas and so much more, thousands of light years from Earth.
Hubble scientists focused its lens on a dark section of space and saw an astounding 50,000 galaxies. THAT’S GALAXIES NOT JUST STARS! Our own Milky Way Galaxy has an estimated 100-400 billion stars. EGADS! Our sun is a star. Imagine 400 billion of them times 50,000 that makes…wait let me ask one of my grands… “Ty, compute this for me!” There are unimaginable numbers of stars in the universe which is incomprehensibly vast.
Scientists estimate the universe to be 13.79 billion years old and Earth to be about 4.55 billion years old, give or take a few hundred million years.
Keep in mind that the “stuff” that makes up the stars and the planets, including Earth and all the creatures that inhabit the Earth, have a common origin in the beginning of the universe. Fr. Thomas Berry, who described himself as Geologian (Geologist + Theologian), wrote,
“To tell the full story of a single particle we must tell the story of the universe, for each particle is in some way intimately present to every other particle in the universe.” (The Universe Story – https://thomasberry.org/quotes/)
And…
“It takes a universe to bring human beings into being.” (Evening Thoughts – https://thomasberry.org/quotes/)
We humans emerged on earth only about 300,000 years ago. We are latecomers to life on the planet. According to Astronomy Workshop, if one could compress “the time the Universe existed into the span of a single day, with the Big Bang occurring at the stroke of midnight…humans crash the party at 11:59:56 pm, just four seconds before the end of the day.” (See https://janus.astro.umd.edu/front/pages/links/Time1.html)
In universe time, Jesus lived and died a nano-second ago.
As I marvel at the vastness of the universe story, I feel a tension between science and the Easter story, the Paschal Mystery: that God’s beloved son died for our sins, rose from the dead, was seen by a handful of his companions, ascended into heaven, and will come again at the end of time. All who are faithful to Jesus will live forever in paradise, and the unfaithful, well…
WHOA! It’s a story that sounds too good to be true. Too neat, too convenient. Why do only the followers of Jesus get to see the Risen Jesus? Why does he not show himself risen to all people? Can we really trust their story? No one can see him now, but don’t worry, he’s coming back. And when he does, he is going to wield a sword to strike down all the ungodly and bring everlasting life to his faithful followers. In the meanwhile, we try to live lives guided by the Holy Spirit as we wait for Jesus to come again.
AND HOW DOES ALL THAT MESH WITH THE EVIDENCE FROM SCIENCE ON HOW THE UNIVERSE BEGAN, THE GALAXIES CAME FORTH, THE EARTH WAS FORMED AND HUMANS EMERGED?
I can just hear my agnostic college roommate saying, “With the evidence you have from science about the age and formation of the universe, do you believe this S**T?”
And, YES, I do believe, but it is not without some doubt and uncertainty.
Why do I believe the Easter story as presented in the Scriptures, proclaimed by the Christian community, and embraced by the saints? I think the primary reason is that I have experienced God’s love and forgiveness through my faith long before I began to grapple with the evidence from science. Initially, when I first saw the images of deep space taken by Hubble, I felt really scared. How could the story of Jesus and the story of the universe both by true? I felt like Moses when he was confronted by God in the burning bush. Do I throw water on the bush? Do I run away? Or do I follow God’s command to Moses: “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5) I chose the Moses route. And, yes, it was, and still is, a choice.
I also take my doubts to St. Paul. Reading his description of the appearances of Jesus gives me great comfort. Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians some 25 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is the earliest written account that we have of the resurrection appearances, 15-20 years earlier than the written Gospels:
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. (1 Cor 15:3-9)
Paul’s summary of the appearances of Jesus is remarkable. Do I trust what he says? Do I trust what the Christian community has continued to say about Jesus for the past 2000 years even if Jesus’ life on Earth is just a nanosecond in universe time? YES!
During this Easter season I hold onto both remarkable stories as true: the story of the unfolding universe on which the human story is radically dependent, and the story of the saving work of Jesus through his life, death, resurrection, and sending of the Holy Spirit, on which the Christian story is radically dependent.
Alleluia! Happy, holy Easter!
