Weekly Thoughts

  FATHER MICHAEL’S DIARY 

 1 JULY 2022  

EVOLUTION REVOLUTION 

 Where did we come from? How did we get here? What are we here for? Where are we going?  Those big existential questions have intrigued humankind from time immemorial and different ages have produced different answers, all of them tentative of course but none the less profoundly believed. The most recent and most widely believed perhaps was the theory of evolution. Propounded by Charles Darwin and the subject of furious debate as it challenged traditional Christianity the theory of evolution in a nutshell said that changes to organisms occurred spontaneously and if they were beneficial aided the organisms’ chances of survival; this was the process of natural selection and the survival of the fittest.  

Now however all this is being challenged. Like most grand theories it is over simplistic and now its most ambitious claims have been dropped or are now subject to big caveats. Instead of evolution the talk is now of Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES). This takes account of the way organisms can alter their environment in order to reduce the normal pressure of natural selection. These stretch all way from beavers building dams to chemical modifications to DNA. What this does is to bring into the theory the idea that evolution is not an automatic process over which organisms, including humankind, have no control, but shows to the contrary that organisms have a part to play in the developmental process.  

That includes humankind of course. In fact, because of our advanced technology as possibly the only intelligent life in the cosmos human beings have a key role in the process of evolution. Think of the way we now know that human activity is responsible for the climate changes that could threaten our very existence. The biblical view of humankind as the stewards of creation has become infinitely more significant that the writers ever imagined. Perhaps the future of creation depends on us, a staggering thought.       

  READINGS AND PRAYERS

  3 JULY – THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINTY – Luke 10.1-11, 16-20 – the 70 sent out – the evangelistic work of the Church 

 4 JULY - Monday – Matthew 9.18-26 – healing miracles – the Church’s ministry of healing

  5 JULY – Tuesday – Hosea 8.4-7, 11-15 – they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind – the healing of our sinful world  

6 JULY – Thomas More, Scholar and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535 – 1 Peter 4.12-19 – encouragement to those suffering persecution – all who suffer for the Faith today

  7 JULY - Thursday – Hosea 11.1, 3-4, 8-9 – how can I give you up? – for the courage to persist in our faith 

 8 JULY – Friday – Matthew 10.16-23 – do not worry about how you are to speak –our own work as evangelists  

9 JULY – Saturday – Isaiah 6.1-8 – here am I send me – our Christian discipleship