Gravity, the Body of Christ, and Saving the World

“Set me free, leave me be, I don’t wanna fall another moment into your gravity…”

This quote is from a song by Sara Bareilles. The song is from the perspective of the singer, directing her words towards a man she has been with for quite some time. She refers to his ability to bring her back time and time again as his “gravity”.

This song was stuck in my head yesterday and it got me thinking about the communion of saints, and the state of all souls, specifically in regards to a quote from Therese of Lisieux.

During high school physics class we were taught that gravity is an effect that objects have on other objects based on their combined mass and their distance from one another. We would often go up to the people we liked and get really close, blaming gravity…I guess even physics can encourage flirting.

Gravitational pull is broken into a simple equation . Notice the ‘r’, the closer the objects are, the more pull they feel (for lack of a better word), and no matter how far away they are, the equation will never reach zero, but only an infinitesimally small fraction. And this is really cool, because it means that every single object with mass, no matter how small, it attracted to every other object in the universe that has mass, and the closer they are, the more attraction they feel. If seen in a large scale understanding, one can say that one thing cannot grow or move without affecting everything else in the universe.

In our understanding of the spiritual life, we often picture ourselves as being in a private relationship with God, and if we choose to hurt or help other people, only then have we made an effect on them. However, Christ teaches that we are one body within His Person, that we are part of the universal Church, and that the actions of one affects the whole community.

Scripture, in the Song of Songs, says, “Draw me, and we shall run…” When Therese of Lisieux read this, she had this to say,

“O JESUS, it is not even necessary to say ‘When drawing me, draw the souls whom I love!’ This simple statement; ‘Draw me’ suffices; I understand, Lord, that when a soul allows herself to be captivated by the odor of your ointments, she cannot run alone, all the souls whom she loves follow her train; this is done without constraint, without effort, it is a natural consequence of her attraction for You.

Can we believe this? Even in history we see that Saints tend to come in groups. Is it possible that by changing my own soul I can change others? Just as every object affects every other through gravitational pull, so we have an effect on every other soul in the world. I am not teaching Pantheism, but the truth of the Gospel.

This would mean that we do not live private lives, and to be a Christian we must lose the idea that we have private sins, or private virtues. Even for the monk, or hermit, there is an intense connection to all other people, in Christ.

If you wish to draw others to Christ, first and foremost draw close to Him yourself. Do you wish to see suffering persons relieved, first and foremost ask God to cut out sin from your own life. Let God remove selfishness, anger, lust, and envy from your life, so that these sins might have less of a hold on the entire human race. And let Him give you patience, joy, love, and hope, and faith, so that all peoples may see Him more clearly.

Do you want to save the World? Be a Saint.

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