Hymn to the Great Song
with Brother David Steindl-Rast
“There is really only one song, and it’s the Great Song, the cosmic song, the song that all things, animals, plants and humans sing in their deepest heart. And every song that a human sings with his or her voice is only an expression of that one Great Song that is there from the beginning and will be there after the end.” -Br. David Steindl-Rast
The Song of the Universe as God
A Process Interpretation and Appreciation
In open and relational (process) theology, God is the Song of the Universe, God is more than this, but not less. God is the Song in the sense of being the very Life of the universe in whose heart all finite songs are woven into a great Song. God's Life is an ongoing and everlasting process of weaving each and every event in the universe (each voice with its own song) into an ongoing harmony, again and again, forever.
But God cannot do this alone. We, too, are the Song of the Universe, along with the hills and rivers, trees and stars. Our own human experiences are among the events, the songs, that we give to God; and so are the experiences of all other living beings: animals and plants, for example.
Indeed, say process theologians, there is something like experience all the way down into the depths of matter. The universe is organic through and through. All things, not God alone, are singing. "The hills are alive with the sound of music." .
Open and relational (process) theologies add that as we sing our finite songs, moment by moment, we are inwardly beckoned by God to sing in ways that are true to ourselves and loving toward others. We are beckoned to sing truly, with harmony and intensity, with beauty and love. The beckoning consists of what process theologians call initial aims. These aims are fresh possibilities, available to us through memory and perception, intuition and imagination, for expressing ourselves in ways that are attuned to the world as it is and can be, if love is all in all.
Sometimes we sing truly and sometimes we don't; but always we carry within our lives the desire to sing truly. The truth of our singing is relative to the circumstances of our lives. If we listen carefully to what people say and also what people do, we can hear the desire, the longing. They can hear it in us, too.
This longing, when fulfilled, emerges from the silence of the heart. It is in silence that we are most in touch with the initial aims of God. To the degree what we are in touch with the silence, we are in touch with the truth of our lives and of the world. Our words and deeds are beautiful. The Song of the Universe is engraced, not only with the ongoing miracle of God's weaving, but with the finite miracle of our own lives. We join the hills and rivers, the trees and stars, in the great Song, which ultimately is the only Song. From the silence comes the Song. In the beginning is the Listening.
- Jay McDaniel (11/1/2019)
But God cannot do this alone. We, too, are the Song of the Universe, along with the hills and rivers, trees and stars. Our own human experiences are among the events, the songs, that we give to God; and so are the experiences of all other living beings: animals and plants, for example.
Indeed, say process theologians, there is something like experience all the way down into the depths of matter. The universe is organic through and through. All things, not God alone, are singing. "The hills are alive with the sound of music." .
Open and relational (process) theologies add that as we sing our finite songs, moment by moment, we are inwardly beckoned by God to sing in ways that are true to ourselves and loving toward others. We are beckoned to sing truly, with harmony and intensity, with beauty and love. The beckoning consists of what process theologians call initial aims. These aims are fresh possibilities, available to us through memory and perception, intuition and imagination, for expressing ourselves in ways that are attuned to the world as it is and can be, if love is all in all.
Sometimes we sing truly and sometimes we don't; but always we carry within our lives the desire to sing truly. The truth of our singing is relative to the circumstances of our lives. If we listen carefully to what people say and also what people do, we can hear the desire, the longing. They can hear it in us, too.
This longing, when fulfilled, emerges from the silence of the heart. It is in silence that we are most in touch with the initial aims of God. To the degree what we are in touch with the silence, we are in touch with the truth of our lives and of the world. Our words and deeds are beautiful. The Song of the Universe is engraced, not only with the ongoing miracle of God's weaving, but with the finite miracle of our own lives. We join the hills and rivers, the trees and stars, in the great Song, which ultimately is the only Song. From the silence comes the Song. In the beginning is the Listening.
- Jay McDaniel (11/1/2019)