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object:2.02 - The Monstrance
book class:Hymn of the Universe
author class:Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
subject class:Christianity
class:chapter




The Monstrance

When he had reached the end of his narrative my
friend remained for some time silent and lost in
thought, his clasped hands resting in a characteris-
tic attitude on his crossed knees. The light was
fading. I pressed a switch, and the lamp on my
desk lit up. It was a very pretty lamp; its pedestal
and shade were made of diaphanous sea-green
glass, and the bulbs were so ingeniously placed
that the entire mass of crystal and the designs
which decorated it were illumined from within.

My friend gave a start; and I noticed that his
gaze remained fixed on the lamp, as though to draw
from it his memories of the past, as he began again
to confide in me.



42 Hymn of the Universe

"On another occasion," he said, "X was again in a
church and had just knelt down before the Blessed
Sacrament exposed in a monstrance when I experi-
enced a very strange impression.

"You must, I feel sure, have observed that optical
illusion which makes a bright spot against a dark
background seem to expand and grow bigger? It
was something of this sort that I experienced as I
gazed at the host, its white shape standing out
sharply, despite the candles on the altar, against
the darkness of the choir. At least, that is what hap-
pened to begin with; later on, as you shall hear, my
experience assumed proportions which no physical
analogy could express.

*1 had then the impression as I gazed at the host
that its surface was gradually spreading out like a
spot of oil but of course much more swiftly and lu-
minously. At the beginning it seemed to me that I
alone had noticed any change, and that it was tak-
ing place without awakening any desire or encoun-
tering any obstacle. But little by little, as the white
orb grew and grew in space till it seemed to be
drawing quite close to me, I heard a subdued
sound, an immeasurable murmur, as when the ris-
ing tide extends its silver waves over the world of
the algae which tremble and dilate at its approach,
or when the burning heather crackles as fire
spreads over the heath.

"Thus in the midst of a great sigh suggestive
both of an awakening and of a plaint the flow of
whiteness enveloped me, passed beyond me, over-
ran everything. At the same time everything,



Christ in the World of Matter 43

though drowned in this whiteness, preserved its
own proper shape, its own autonomous movement;
for the whiteness did not efface the features or
change the nature of anything, but penetrated
objects at the core of their being, at a level more
profound even than their own life. It was as though
a milky brightness were illuminating. the universe
from within, and everything were fashioned of the
same kind of translucent flesh.

"You see, when you switched on the lamp just
now and the glass which had been dark became
bright and fluorescent, I recalled how the world
had appeared to me then; and indeed it was this as-
sociation of images which prompted me to tell you
this story.

"So, through the mysterious expansion of the host
the whole world had become incandescent, had it-
self become like a single giant host One would
have said that, under the influence of this inner
light which penetrated it, its fibers were stretched
to breaking point and all the energies within them
were strained to the utmost. And I was thinking
that already in this opening out of its activity the
cosmos had attained its plenitude when I became
aware that a much more fundamental process was
going on within it

"From moment to moment sparkling drops of
pure metal were forming on the inner surface of
things and then falling into the heart of this pro-
found light, in which they vanished; and at the
same time a certain amount of dross was being vol-
atilized: a transformation was taking place in the



44 Hymn of the Universe

domain of love, dilating, purifying and gathering
together every power-to-love which the universe
contains.

"This I could realize the more easily inasmuch as
its influence was operative in me myself as well as
in other things: the white glow was active; the
whiteness was consuming all things from within
themselves. It had penetrated, through the chan-
nels of matter, into the inmost depths of all hearts
and then had dilated them to breaking point, only
in order to take back into itself the substance of
their affections and passions. And now that it had
established its hold on them it was irresistibly pull-
ing back towards its center all the waves that had
spread outwards from it, laden now with the purest
honey of all loves.

"And in actual fact the immense host, having
given life to everything and purified everything,
was now slowly contracting; and the treasures it
was drawing into itself were joyously pressed close
together within its living light

"When a wave recedes or a flame dies down, the
area which has been covered for a moment by sea
or fire is marked by the shining pools, the glowing
embers, which remain. In the same way, as the host
closed in on itself like a flower closing its petals,
certain refractory elements in the universe re-
mained behind, outside it, in the exterior darkness.
There was indeed still something which lit them,
but it was a heart of perverted light, corrosive, poi-
sonous; these rebellious elements binned like
torches or glowed red like embers.

"I heard then the Ave verum being sung.



Christ in the World of Matter 45

The white host was enclosed once again in the
golden monstrance; around it candles were burn-
ing, stabbing the darkness, and here and there
the sanctuary lamps threw out their crimson glow."



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