There is in all things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness. … There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fount of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being, welcoming me tenderly, saluting me with indescribable humility.

*Thomas Merton. The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton.

The mystical Gospel of St. John, in the Christian Scripture, speaks of the Logos – or Word – becoming flesh. In the Jewish tradition, Logos corresponds to the Hebrew Dabhar, and this referred to a word having energy to bring into form, matter, shape, or event. Therefore, when the Gospel reads: “And the Word became flesh” - Jesus is given as a sign of a mysterious energy-process ongoing, an ever-manifesting of something unseen into seen. Yet, amazingly, while such Scriptures give indications, they do not give explanations. Possibly, we only need indications of an unseen Mystery, left to be called by many names.

When we consider our solar system, one of an estimated one trillion galaxies, we can be stunned at the chances that we would not and could not exists. We can look at, for example, Jupiter in relation to Earth.

Astronomy professor Benjamin Zukerman, in the journal Nature, writes that one fact adding to Earth sustaining life is Jupiter's size. Jupiter, next to earth after Mars, is a gaseous planet with a mass 318 times greater than Earth. Jupiter, consequently, has a much greater gravitational force.

This gravitational energy benefits Earth – and you and me. When huge objects hurl through the solar system and with capability to bring immense harm to Earth, Jupiter acts like a vacuum cleaner. Jupiter sucks comets and asteroids into itself or pushes them elsewhere away from Earth.

Zukerman notes that such massive gaseous planets like Jupiter are rare. This raises a question: “Is this alignment of planets a coincidence, or otherwise?”

Well, whom are you listening to? To many, pure accident. To many, a design formed in the Mind of God, created by God. In and between naturalistic materialism and theistic creationism the struggle goes on, opposing sides striking out with dogmatic fiats, certitudes of perception, and warlike creeds to bring the enemy a final demise - as though to win the war of words and, thus, establish a truth none can grasp.

In PhD studies I did a study on evolution and the Creation Story in the Book of Genesis, of the Jewish and Christian Bible. I found many different theories of evolution not excluding Divine agency in forming the universe. The only genre of such exclusion was naturalistic evolution, which sees natural forces within Nature forming, over extended periods of time, chance meetings and mergings of bio-energetic-elements to form exquisite and highly improbable formations of matter. To creationists, God put Jupiter exactly where it is, by mere force of will and power. To naturalists, we are darn lucky Jupiter is where it is.

In pondering these matters, I posit: “Is the human person satisfied with any such explanations, from either side?” Does this help us Worship, Adore, Wonder? Does this strike us with the fragrant spear of Awe, humbling us and exalting the Mystery of Life before our stunned eyes, filling body crevices and cavities with the nectar of Bliss and Laughter? At least for me, such explanation leaves me longing for something More. Such reificaton of Mystery is arid and coarse, compared to the Living Ebb-and-Flow. I leave you, for yourself, to decide.

I move before and beyond explanation to sacral Adoration. Some nights ago I looked into the sky in pregnant praise at the dark blue vault and its framing of the most beautiful Moon I can recall. I looked, I made sounds, I gazed as though at the most beautiful body of flesh of the most beautiful woman possible, astride and hanging in air for all to muse before and adulate.

This is Awe. This is beyond explanation. I look at the Moon. I do not seek origins, causes, destinations. I behold and adore, I praise.

I myself have no need to claim a theory of how Nature arises. I do not see naturalistic evolution and religious theories as exclusive, either. I see that naturalists and creationists, and others in between, can learn from each other.

Likely, as in other matters, the truth is within the partiality of apparently divergent claims. Nevertheless, I choose not to know, but to adore with receptive consent a Mystery immense, unfathomable. I call It many names, but I still do not know. I know a knowing of gratitude and beauty, but my every word is indicative, not explanative. At least for me, that is enough. In time, I may know more, but I am content amazed and in beatitude, laughing and smiling in the darkness of the Unknowning. Amen.