Evolutionary Consciousness Points to a Trinitarian Cosmic Order by Fr. Michael Crosby

http://ncronline.org/news/spirituality/evolutionary-consciousness-points-trinitarian-cosmic-order

..."When I tell other religious and priests that my exploration of these ideas have made me more conscious of how the Trinity and Christ constitute the source and summit of everything in creation, I sometimes find their first reaction is skepticism or fear. However, when they truly examine the idea for themselves, their resistance turns to enthusiastic acceptance. One example might show what I mean. It involves a group of women religious, a U.S. province of an international congregation whose leadership belongs to LCWR.

The whole community had decided to study "the universe story." However, because some of the sisters knew little about evolution while others feared the idea didn't reflect a "sentire cum Ecclesia" Catholicism, the leaders experienced significant "pockets of resistance."

Because I had explored some of these ideas in my recent book Repair My House: Becoming a "Kindom" Catholic, I was invited to the province. The book had outlined three related points:

• The crisis in Western Catholicism is not so much a crisis of relativism as much as the inadequacy of an organizational model of church that too often reflects a culturally received, historical patriarchal model still based on a "flat earth" cosmology.
• This invites us to return to the "Gospel" proclaimed by the historical Jesus, namely the "kingdom of God" which we can interpret today as the "governance of Trinity." This must serve as the archetype for all our relationships and structures in the church.
• The consequent demand that we "repair the house" invites us to a Catholicism grounded in communities that are cosmically Christic, consciously connected, contemplative and compassionate.

The workshop's theme was "How Can We Evolve in Consciousness of Our Connectedness in the Cosmic Christ?" I used a model I've developed that shows that the "economy of salvation" involves us evolving in our consciousness to realize that God's plan for the universe is that Trinitarian and cosmic patterns become embodied in the church and world of today..."

[Fr. Michael Crosby belongs to the Midwest Province of the Capuchin Franciscans. His website is www.michaelcrosby.net.]