“As long as there have been humans, we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.” “
“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”
“All of the rocks we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff…”
An astronomer, astrophysicist, and more, Carl Sagan is famous for referring to us humans as star-stuff. Is it any wonder that we are mesmerized by the sight of countless stars in the dark sky or that we are star-struck by their number and beauty – we are them and they are us to our very bones – and blood, and teeth, and genes. We chart our course by stars on the ocean. We give names to their patterns (constellations). And thanks to the advances of modern technology, we can witness their birth and death.
But what, I wonder, does our oneness with the stars and the existence of planets, galaxies, and the whole panoply of celestial bodies have to do with love? Sagan claims that love makes the vastness of the universe bearable. We, and the planet on which we exist, are so small and the cosmos so unthinkably endless, that we could easily panic without something to hold onto – something real and tangible and enduring. Love, be it for our self, another person, a God, a cause, or for life itself, can anchor us in our soul in such a way that the larger uncertainties of life can cease to feel overwhelming. Yes, we are vulnerable. Yes, we lack the ability to sustain our existence – but we are capable of love.
Perhaps even the capacity to give and receive love has something to do with our oneness with the heavens, with our being star-stuff. When speaking of the harmonious complexity of the celestial realm, Benedictine brother David Stendle-Rast claims that “Ordo est Amore,” the order is love. The creative, animating, sacred energy that holds the universe together is the same benevolent force that holds and enfolds us, and moves us to give ourselves wholeheartedly to each other and to our life on this tiny globe.
Attuned to Soul 