Synergy is an astonishing concept: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It has its applications in many aspects of life. There is drug synergy where two drugs combined are able to combat more pathogens than just either drug given alone. There is chemical synergy where two toxic elements (like sodium and chlorine) combine to make up an important nutrient, salt. Two wooded boards combined can carry a heavier load than either board alone. Therein lies the strength and utility of plywood boards. People working in a team are able to accomplish more and better results than each of the team members working individually. That is human synergy.
There is also spiritual synergy and I saw it at work last night during our RCIA session. There were nine of talking about our RCIA journey so far and how this shared experienced has molded us into a community. As we were gathered, there was yet another presence among us, a tenth person. He was the one who called us together. We came from different backgrounds, for different reasons and with different needs. Yet, we experienced one and the same call from him that made us come. In our sessions together, we have seen the signs he has left along the way for us and the wonders he has wrought in each and every one of our lives.
I feel this same synergy in my person. I am more than just the sum of the atoms and molecules that make me up physically. My body experiences hunger and thirst that can be slaked by food and water. But beyond that, there is hunger and thirst within me that cannot be satisfied by anything physical. I long for things that cannot be defined nor described physically. It is this part or thing in me that refuses to die even as my body is fading away. It is this spirit synergy in me that will bring me to eternity, still searching, still seeking – until I finally meet Him who promised to raise me up into eternal life.
Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
“For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.”
John 6:35-40