Teilhard de Chardin was right.
Anyone who knows me knows I feel a deep sense of urgency. The problems we face require us to be in the streets, on Twitter, on the phone, in prayer, in conversation, all with urgency, because sea levels are rising, gaps between the rich few and the poor many are widening, demagogues are amassing power, and bullets and bombs are being aimed at human targets. It’s because of this urgency that Teilhard’s guidance is so needed:
Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stage of instability—and that it might take a very long time.
His words do not excuse apathy, but they warn us against unrealistic expectations and the real danger of careless haste.
