"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
—John 15:11
“In the beginning was the Word.”
—John 1:1
Last week, we considered the role of awe and wonder in scientific inquiry. This week, corresponding to Gaudate Sunday, we will contemplate joy. For most scientists, the joy of discovering how the universe works is one reason why they work on theories, collect data, and explore relationships among phenomena. Or, as Br. Guy expresses it:
I do science because of the exquisite joy I get in following the clever story that the Creator has woven into the universe. In the same way, we create stories ourselves to imitate the Creator who is the author of everything. And we read each others’ creations in imitation of the God who certainly must enjoy the creations we make of our own lives.
—Br. Guy Consolmagno, Vatican Observatory
The birth of the Christ Child was signaled by a star that led three wise men to Bethlehem. What can science tell us about stars? Where did they come from? Let’s see what we can learn from the scientific story of cosmic beginnings. It is the story of the Big Bang Theory, a theory that startled the world at the beginning of the 20th century.
From ancient times to the early 20th century, most cosmologists believed in a static and eternal universe. This belief fit some of the data at the time, but it was unseated by the Big Bang theory, now the most widely accepted model explaining the origins of the universe. The Big Bang theory is based on confirmed observations of the expansion of the universe. The Belgian priest and cosmologist Fr. George Lemaitre. founded the theory.
It is interesting to note that in a 1927 paper in a little-known publication, Fr. Lemaitre recognized the significance of the equations of Einstein’s theory of relativity: that the universe was shrinking or expanding. If expanding, they pointed to a beginning of the universe, “a day without a yesterday.” Lemaitre’s unrecognized insight was confirmed in 1929 when Edwin Hubble discovered a red shift in his observations of galaxies, indicating that they were moving away from us. The universe was expanding! Lemaitre proposed a further startling proposition in 1931 that this expanding universe originated with a sudden burst of energy from a primeval atom.
“The whole matter of the world must have been present at the beginning, but the story it has to tell may be written step by step.”
—Fr. Georges Lemaitre, Nature, 1931
It is difficult for us to imagine how contrary his theory was to the prevailing view at the time. For many of his contemporaries, any mention of a “beginning” smacked of religion and was viewed as an attempt to “prove” the story of Creation. Consider Sir Arthur Eddington (his 1919 observations confirmed Einstein’s prediction that gravity should bend light), who, while recognizing the validity of Fr. Lemaitre’s calculations, found the idea of a beginning “repugnant.” Even Einstein resisted the idea until he met both Hubble and Fr. Lemaitre at an astronomical conference and became convinced by their arguments. Or Fred Hoyle, who purportedly coined the term “Big Bang” as a derogatory moniker for Lemaitre’s theory. Hoyle and his colleagues at Cambridge University resisted, promoting instead the Steady State theory. Their explanation of the formation of the universe depended on the continuous creation of hydrogen atoms that became gas clouds forming the stars.
There were problems with some aspects of Lemaitre’s theory. In his later research, he focused on cosmic rays, believing that they were the “signature” left behind by the Big Bang. This time, his hypothesis was incorrect. However, in 1965, Fr. Lemaitre had the joy of having his theory verified by the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), the “signature” of the Big Bang Lemaitre had been looking for! Even with this evidence, Fred Hoyle resisted the theory until his death in 2001.
For Fr. Lemaitre, his faith and his cosmological investigations were not in opposition, but he did not believe that the Church needed science to confirm the truths of salvation. He stated in 1936: “Divine revelation never taught us what we could have found out by ourselves.” However, he also wrote:
But nothing human is alien to the Christian. How could the Church have failed to take an interest in the most noble of the strictly human occupations: the search for truth?
—Georges Lemaître
As this search for truth continues, the latest technologies have greatly expanded our ability to make astronomical observations. We now have pictures of the early universe created from data gathered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
On Monday, July 11, 2022, the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope were released to the public. This spectacular first Deep Field Image captures light from galaxies within 1 billion years of the Big Bang, which scientists believe occurred 13.8 billion years ago. As reported in an earlier post, time and distance are related to each other in this image because as the universe expands, light from the furthest reaches of the universe is stretched into the infrared range. The ability to capture this light with the multiple infrared instruments on board the JWST has increased our ability to “see back in time.” (The story of how astronomers are able to calculate the distance to stars and galaxies is an interesting story by itself! You can read about Henrietta Leavitt, the mind behind the math of the red shift, here.)
Color and shape provide additional information about the objects in this image:
Colors reveal a host of other details. The red objects shrouded in dust may be galaxies, but if the object is blue without spikes, it is also a galaxy. Stars will have tell-tale spikes—sharp rays of light emanating from them—and can be blue or yellow. The presence of green in the image is perhaps the most exciting for researchers because green in the dust of a galaxy reveals the presence of hydrocarbons and other compounds associated with life.
Startling discoveries and observations continue to emerge from the data collected by this incredible space telescope, including new images from our own solar system.
The beauty and order revealed by the incredible technology on board the Webb telescope is a cause for rejoicing, both in the beauty of God’s creation and in man’s God-given capacity to explore it.
May the “tidings of great joy” announced to the shepherds–that our salvation is near at hand with the coming of the Christ Child—sound deeply in your heart. Rejoice!
“Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! […] The LORD, your God is in your midst” - Zephaniah 3:14
“Brothers and sisters: Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!” -Philippians 4:4
Rejoice! Our Gaudete Sunday readings from the Book of Zephaniah and St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians make one thing abundantly clear: rejoice! As Christians, we have a vocation of joy. This joy is not because there is no suffering in our lives or sin in the world. In fact, our joy is despite these realities. The reason for our joy this Christmas season can be found in the next few lines in the Book of Zephaniah: “The LORD, your God, is in your midst.” God has become man and will dwell among us. But He hasn’t become a man only to be a teacher or to pass judgment on us. He has become a man to take away the sins of the world. “The LORD has removed the judgment against you,” writes Zephaniah. So, let us rejoice as we draw closer to Christmas and reflect on what the birth of Christ truly means for our salvation.
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