Cosmological theory suggests that the universe began as a primeval atom. The "God Particle"? Through forces, as yet unknown, an enormous release of energy caused space to expand into all we see today.
In 1927, a Belgian priest and physicist, Georges Lemaitre, first proposed this controversial theory now known as the "Big Bang" [LINK]. In 1929, Edwin Hubble noticed that the galaxies visible to him in his telescope were moving away from the earth, supporting Lemaitre's theory. In 1964, astronomer George Gamow theorized that there would be universal residual microwave background radiation if it were true that the universe had begun with a big bang. In 1965 two scientists, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, accidentally proved him correct [LINK].
As with many scientific discoveries, they were not looking to prove Gamow's theory. They were searching the skies for radio signals from space, looking to make contact. But their efforts were constantly thwarted by background noise. Regardless of the direction they pointed their equipment, this sound was ever present. That sound proved to be the presence of cosmic microwave background radiation that had come from the original expansion referred to as the big bang theory of the universe. This continuous sound, in the key of B flat, is like the humming of a refrigerator. One is not consciously aware of the hum until the motor turns off. In the same way, we are not aware of this constant cosmic background noise: the sound of "Om," the sound of ShalOM-wholeness. But if it were to be turned off, we would notice it by the presence of its absence. Of the many names we have for God, one is, "The Presence of an Absence."
In the beginning there was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.(John1-3) God thought, spoke and breathed the Word of creation at once, in one motion and then again and again, over and over, thought to word to action to creation. And Wisdom (answering to the names Hochma and Sophia) was present with God at the beginning, in the creating, and in Wisdom were the hidden designs of God. And through Wisdom we will become closer to God. When God breathed and created with the Word, it was in the doing that He revealed Himself to us. And it is in our doing, our obeying as co-creators with God that we come to know God and hear His clarion call for we are like the ministering angels, "mighty warriors who fulfill His commands, attentive to the sound of His words."(Psalm 103:20)
The Word spoken by the One known as, "I was, I am, I will be," the first sound, like the spark that ignited the first burst of energy out of the darkness of the primeval black hole of nothingness, that expanded and became the universe, continues from alpha to omega, from yesterday to infinity. And in the beginning began with the Word, the Logos, and the Mystery of Incarnation, and like the initial blast of energy that generated outward and forward into time, the Word continually informs creation through ideas, thoughts, beliefs and behaviours. And that energy, like the divine spark given to us by God, continues to live within each of us today, connecting us, one to the other, to creation, to the past and the future.
We have been story tellers, across all cultures, from the beginning of time. Through stories, we pass down knowledge, values, and beliefs. Great stories, great literature, transform us. They make the invisible, visible, by turning one dimensional words into multi-dimensional tapestries, tapping into fragmented threads of memory, entering our hidden places, broadening our understanding. Words are like the notes of a symphony, building one upon the other, layer upon layer, speaking to the heart, stirring the blood, reverberating through the chest. That feeling, barely contained, reaches a crescendo that erupts, up, out and around us, to teach our minds and touch our souls.
Perhaps that is what happened to God. He was listening to the music of His ministering angels; the sounds of the trumpets blaring, the tambourines clashing, the clamour of symbols, the sweet sound of the strings and the soulful sound of the pipes. Then the archangel, Gabriel, blew his horn up into the infinite, but empty space. And God was so filled with the emotion of the sounds of the symphony that He could no longer contain Himself and there came from Him this sound, like a big bang and with it, the Word of creation.