January 25, 2004

Each year I receive the official calendar of the Vatican Observatory located at the papal summer residence in Castel Gondolfo, which has been at work for four hundred years, and now has international branches. The calendar integrates landmarks in space science with the liturgical cycle. This week the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas on January 28 is the anniversary of the destruction of the Challenger in 1986; on the feast of St. John Bosco on the 31st, the Russia Luna 9 returned the first photographs from the surface of the moon in 1966.

The successful landing of the exploratory robot on Mars on January 3, and recent Russian and British probes, have rekindled public fascination in the splendors of our galaxy. The director of the Vatican Observatory, Father George Coyne, remarks that “in the early stages of the planets being formed, a lot of material was exchanged between Mercury, Venus, Mars and the Earth.” As exotic as other planets seem, there is much that unites us, and our solar system in this galaxy is a rather cozy neighborhood when we consider a quarter of a million other galaxies. A basic Catholic principle holds that natural law, that is the harmony of the material order as willed by God, is both a key to the mystery of God and an indication of who we are and how we should live. The Church cultivates the physical arts and sciences because of her confidence in the goodness of creation. “Sun and moon bless the Lord.” Pictures from outer space are icons of God’s creativity. Images of the planets pay tribute to the Lord of Creation, just as liturgical icons depict the saints as masterpieces of creation. Thus a hymn asks of the saints, “Who are these like stars appearing…?” The Vatican Calendar has beautiful photographs of unusually visible Mercury, the Flame Nebula in Orion, the Rosetta Nebula in the Monoceros constellation, open star clusters of the Pleiades and Hyades, a Veil Nebula in Cygnus, and other images of ethereal splendor. One could go mad contemplating the immensity of all that, or bow in adoration that God should count us as worthier than all of it.

This is sometimes called the “scandal of particularity” because it is so hard to comprehend. Brother Guy Consolmagno, a planetary scientist and curator of the Vatican meteorite collection, recalls the manned landing of Apollo 11 on the moon: “That event of human beings setting foot for the first time on the moon was so momentous, it made me realize that life’s temporary crises will pass. It’s the work of the world’s scientist and saints that is remembered forever.” Jesus, who is the “Cosmic Christ” summed it up: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” The website of the Vatican Observatory is http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo.

Fr. George W. Rutler