Hugo Aristides
Contemplative Assets · free

The tree of life.

It all begins in the small things: the duties of your state in life.*

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*Before any shiny object: the duties of your state in life1: your family, your work, your word.

The risk: shiny objects that pull you off your way
  1. MoneyExtreme money, above life.
  2. EgoSelf-illumination, above your duties.
  3. ApplauseExternal recognition, instead of the witness of Jesus.

1 “We are frequently tempted to think that holiness is only for those who can withdraw from ordinary affairs to spend much time in prayer. That is not the case. […] Are you married? Be holy by loving and caring for your husband or wife. Do you work for a living? Be holy by labouring with integrity and skill. Are you a parent or grandparent? Be holy by patiently teaching the little ones how to follow Jesus.” Pope Francis, Gaudete et Exsultate, 14.

One Christ, in every tree

In this 12th-century mosaic in Rome, the cross is a tree of life, and everyday life grows in its branches. Nothing is left outside.

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”Colossians 1:17
Tree of Life mosaic, apse of the Basilica di San Clemente, Rome
Apse mosaic · Basilica di San Clemente · Rome, 12th c.

Music, film, books, art and prayer are not different pursuits; they are the same seeing. Look closely enough at any of them, and the same Light is looking back.

Père Teilhard de Chardin called this convergence the Omega Point — all of creation, and every person, drawn toward Christ as its center, even those who have never heard His name.

"Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience." — Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 16 (cf. Gaudium et Spes 22). Pope Francis draws on Teilhard's vision directly: "All creatures are moving forward with us and through us towards a common point of arrival, which is God, in that transcendent fullness where the risen Christ embraces and illumines all things." — Laudato Si' 83 (with Teilhard de Chardin cited in the accompanying footnote).