The prayer begins: "God of all power, Ruler of the Universe, you are worthy of glory and praise. At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home."
So, someone asked "what is interstellar space?" To begin, I'll give you the NASA definition. At first glance, the answer seems simple. ‘Inter’ means between. ‘Stellar’ refers to stars. “Easy!” you think, “Interstellar space is the part of space that exists between stars.” Not so fast! Wouldn’t that pretty much mean that all of space is interstellar space?
For interstellar space to be something different, then there must be some defined boundary between the space near a star and the space in between stars. But what is that boundary?
Scientists define the beginning of interstellar space as the place where the sun’s constant flow of material and magnetic field stop affecting its surroundings. This place is called the heliopause. The sun creates this heliosphere by sending a constant flow of particles and a magnetic field out into space at over 670,000 miles per hour. This stream is called the ‘solar wind.’
Like Earth wind, this wind pushes against the stuff around it. What it pushes against are particles from other stars—pretty much anything that doesn’t come from our own solar system. Once you arrive in interstellar space, there would be an increase of “cold” particles around you. There would also be a magnetic field that does not originate from our sun. Welcome to interstellar space!
Okay, that's as far as I can go with the scientific definition of interstellar space. Now to let my theological imagination take over with regard to our prayer.
It seems that the first impulse I feel in uttering these words is acknowledging the majesty and power of God. At God's command, you, me, the birds, the earth, and the VAST expanse of interstellar space came into being. That's pretty powerful.
Connected to this reality are the words we hear in the Prologue of John's Gospel: through Him all things came into being.
Okay, that's as far as I can go with the scientific definition of interstellar space. Now to let my theological imagination take over with regard to our prayer.
It seems that the first impulse I feel in uttering these words is acknowledging the majesty and power of God. At God's command, you, me, the birds, the earth, and the VAST expanse of interstellar space came into being. That's pretty powerful.
Through the Christ, all things came into being. And Christianity is, at its heart, a call to follow that Christ, yes even when it feels we are following into unknown territory, maybe even interstellar space!
It is a call to engage purposefully and to live intentionally in the light of Christ. Yet it seems to me that we are tempted to add so much more to it-- Wear that. Do this. Don’t do that. Run in these circles.
Exactly how we follow Christ is a call that that you and I must wrestle with individually. How I follow Christ in my life may be nuanced a little differently than how you follow Christ in yours. We will spend our whole lives trying to make sense of what this call means. We will go left and we’ll go right. We’ll make U-turns. We’ll become lost in interstellar space and we’ll be found by God, again and again. As our prayer reassures: "again and again, you called us to return. Through prophets and sages, you revealed your righteous Law. And in the fullness of time you sent your only Son, born of a woman, to fulfill your Law, to open for us the way of freedom and peace."
It is through trial and error and God's unending mercy that we will find our way by following the light of Christ, by being still and listening for the whisper of God. It’s the ultimate great unknown. The "final frontier" isn’t interstellar space, it is the interior space of our spirituality, our relationship to and with God.
It is through trial and error and God's unending mercy that we will find our way by following the light of Christ, by being still and listening for the whisper of God. It’s the ultimate great unknown. The "final frontier" isn’t interstellar space, it is the interior space of our spirituality, our relationship to and with God.
If we truly follow Christ, and I mean truly follow Christ, that journey will lead us ultimately to the cross. That is the heart of all we do and remember this week.
Following Christ, living on the growing edge of justice and mercy, learning to love foolishly those who hate ruthlessly, and to give without thought of receiving, believing in life even while the specter death still haunts the shadows – following Jesus is hard work.
May we all give our heart and lives to this hard work no matter where it leads us. Indeed, interstellar space is not the final frontier.
Post-note: I learned to slow down while speaking the words of Eucharistic Prayer C--the...vast...expanse...of...interstellar space...and in slowing down I can pronounce the acclamation of our powerful and creative God with joy and great humility. I hope we can all slow down this week and digest the rich journey to Easter morning.
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