Published May 25, 2019

"Reason and Revelation"

The Catholic faith is like a lion in a cage. You don't need to defend it – you simply need to open the cage door. ~ Venerable Fulton Sheen

Lance's earliest memories of the Galaxy Garrison were of the annual Gold Mass that Veronica convinced their family to attend every year.

"Why is it called a gold Mass?" Lance asked the first time. He pictured the priests wearing gold vestments and the walls decorated with gold banners, the same way other colors indicated the liturgical seasons and holidays.

Veronica explained, "There are special Masses held for people with different kinds of jobs. A Red Mass is for lawyers—they called it that because lawyers in medieval Europe wore red robes. A Blue Mass is for first responders, like police, a White Mass is for medical professionals, and a Gold Mass is for scientists."

It seemed like an ordinary Mass to Lance, but as he got older and learned to pay better attention, he noticed that the Garrison's Catholic chaplain always talked about the great scientific discoveries that priests and religious had made throughout the Church's history.

"Catholicism is largely about the relationship between the physical and the spiritual," the chaplain said one year, when Lance was about ten. "Think of the Mass: you see the decorations, smell the incense, hear the music and liturgy, touch and taste the Eucharist. We know how to use our physical senses. That's why Catholics make great scientists, writers, and filmmakers."

Growing up with this sense that religion and science could go hand in hand, Lance was startled when he first ran into people who said that they did not believe in religion because they believed in science. The first was a boy in his Sunday School class. The second was a girl in his public school (his parents could not afford to send all five of their children to parochial schools).

Lance usually took his questions to Veronica, since she worked so closely with scientists.

"Were there dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden? How could they have lived millions of years before people existed, when the Bible says God made Adam just a week after he made the world?"

Veronica leaned back in her swivel chair. "I'm no theologian, but I think the Genesis story—along with certain other stories in the Bible—can be considered allegorical."

"What's that mean?" Lance asked.

"It means that it's symbolic, not literal. Was there really a talking snake? Probably not. But did people rebel against God? Yes. That's the core truth that we're supposed to get from the story: God made the world, the world was good, and human beings ruined that goodness by trying to be like God."

Lance was not sure he agreed with this outlook. When it came to literature, he was never good with inferences and implications.

Thankfully, when he got into arguments about whether one could believe in both religion and science, he knew where to find evidence. He could not remember all the facts, but he kept a running list and consulted it when necessary.

~ Bishop Robert Grosseteste, 13th century Bishop of Lincoln, chancellor of Oxford University, helped develop scientific method

~ Pope Leo XIII founded Vatican Observatory, still operational

~ Copernicus was a priest

~ Gregor Mendel was a monk

~ Buzz Aldrin read the Bible and took communion on the moon

Over the years he added many examples from the Galaxy Garrison chaplain's homilies.

Veronica sent her family postcards when she spent a summer studying at the Vatican Observatory, where she met some of the greatest astronomers and physicists, most of whom were priests or monks.

I hope you all can come here someday, she wrote. I've never felt closer to God than while I've been here.

Lance wondered what that felt like, and whether he would ever feel that way.

Author's Note: It's been a long time since I updated this story. There have been a few reasons for this: I started a new job; I got involved in other writing projects; and events inside and concerning the Catholic Church made me think people might not want to read a pro-Catholic story. But I remembered the wonderful responses this story got, and I still have some scenes and ideas I want to explore for this short story cycle, so I'm going to try to continue it.

Fun fact relating to this chapter's topic: A few months ago I had the honor and privilege of hearing a lecture from Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory. His name is Italian but he is actually from the Untied States, and he spoke extremely well about the relationship between science and religion, and why it is important for religious people to study and promote the sciences and liberal arts as well as charitable work.