Campus Ministries: Catholic Ministries

THE DUST UNDER OUR BEDS HAS SOMETHING TO SAY

BOOM!!! So scientists say it all began. Correction, we all began. The Big Bang. Some 20 billion years ago. And before that? Only God knows. Maybe there was no "before."

The dust underneath our beds has something similar to say. The dust that gathers there, and in other nooks and crannies around the house, turns out to be made up mostly of star dust and us. That's right. Analysis has shown that what ends up beneath our beds are the dusty remains of burnt up shooting stars that are continually falling through earth's atmosphere, and the dusty remains of our outer layers of skin and hair that we are continually, imperceptibly, shedding.

Star dust and human dust together. Strange (under-)bedfellows? Not really. In fact what lies under our beds has a lesson for our heads.

We are all ONE. This is, indeed, a UNIverse; one great, swirling cosmos. The stuff of which you and I are made, the matter and energy that form our bodies and our thoughts, began to be some 20 billion years ago in the Big Bang. Everything that exists right now, the air that fills our lungs and the light that fills our eyes, the music that fills our ears and hearts, the closest blade of grass and the farthest star, EVERYTHING is made up of stuff that came into existence in that same Big Bang. We are all ONE.

For 20 billion years the stuff that came out of the Big Bang has continued to explode through space in an ever expanding universe, all the while divinely programmed to organize and reorganize itself into galaxies and apple trees, solar systems and ecosystems, planets and people. Whatever the different forms its children may take, all the universe is one. It is, we are, all made of the same stuff. We all share a common birth some 20 billion years ago. The stuff that now make up both stars and humans have been on a fantastic journey together for all these billions of years.

It is, therefore, fitting that beneath our beds star dust and human dust should intermingle together for a time. Eventually our brooms will dislodge this dust and send it on its way to new forms. But if we let it, it will speak to us.

It will tell us of our solidarity with the universe, moving to the beat of the Distant Drummer. It will call on us to live and move in harmony with all the children of the universe. It will teach us gratitude to God, Who lovingly invites us to join in the great cosmic dance.

Ronald Stanley, OP

For additional articles relating to this topic see:

THE COSMIC STORY

THE NEW ASCETICISM: WALKING SOFTLY ON THE EARTH

WHAT ON EARTH WILL WE LEAVE THE CHILDREN

AWE

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