I’m a huge fan of the series Counterpart on STARZ.

The main character, a low-level bureaucrat named Howard Silk (played by J.K. Simmons) discovers that the agency he works for is guarding a passage to a parallel dimension. The show takes off when Howard meets the “other” Howard from this dimension. As the show progresses, the Howards discover how similar they are to each other.

I love the idea of infinite universes. The universe is expanding forever—that is, space time is infinite. There is only a finite number of ways (an inconceivably big number to be sure, but still finite) particles can be arranged. At some point, I am going to encounter a copy of me (or maybe I’m the copy and the original will encounter me). If I keep looking hard enough, I can find an infinite number of Bob’s! (I know some people might find that terrifying.)

Or as the cartoon character Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty nicely summarized: “Most timelines have a Rick, and most Ricks have a Morty,”

Of course, I’m sure I’m getting the science wrong.

But the idea of meeting an infinite number of me’s brought to mind the last words St. Lorenzo Ruiz spoke as he was hanging upside down over a pit:

I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God;
Had I a thousand lives, all these to Him shall I offer.

I don’t know if the me’s from other universes or timelines (if there are others) will offer their lives to God. But I do have this life, and I wonder: What does it mean for me to offer this life to God? Am I holding any part of my life back to serve myself and my own vain interests?

This is the spiritual mission: to discover the “hidden Bob’s” (the parts of my life I hide from God, and there are a lot of them—you could say that they are a legion) and learn how to bring them out of the shadows of aversion and into the light of God’s love.

And in that light, I will discover the one true Bob, which is simply the Christ who lives in me.