He who goes along the road does not see those
who come after him; whereas he who sees the whole road
from a height sees at once all those traveling on it. (Summa Theologica I, 14.13)
Isn't it odd how sometimes one has a moment of 'epiphany' when you suddenly see something in a way you haven't seen it before? Yesterday I paid one of my regular visits to the Bookbarn near Bristol. [http://www.bookbarninternational.co.uk/] I was delighted to find a four set Works of Flavius Josephus, in English! At £1.00 a volume! This is what the first volume looks like except mine is dated 1811. (I can't get my scanner to work)
It is fascinating, and I look forward to exploring the contents over the next few months as and when I get time from my studies. (I have started a Literature/Classics Degree with the Open University).
Then today at Mass we had the second Reading from Ephesians 1:3-14:
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love5 he[a] predestined us for adoption to sonship[b] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he[c] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment —to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love5 he[a] predestined us for adoption to sonship[b] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he[c] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment —to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
As I listened I had a sudden vision of the whole vista of time, a sort of Gods-eye view. Here I was on a particular day in 2012, having bought a book written by a man who lived about 2000 years ago, who was writing about Biblical events covering some almost 2000 years before that, and listening to St Paul tell me that God knew all about me, and had specific plans for my life before the 'creation of the world'!
If I can use the image of a rubik's cube, I would say that my sense of identity - one face of the cube - had at that moment been changed into a whole new configuration. Suddenly I saw myself, not as an individual set randomly in time, but one whom God had placed specifically here for a reason and a purpose. I, and all of us who live today, are part of a great story - HISstory, and one day when the last page is turned, please God OUR story will also be written there.
Often it is easy to feel depressed about the state of the world, but perhaps we need to remember that in our fallen world, there never was the golden age of innocence for which we so often feel nostalgic. That world is ahead of us, not behind! So let us keep on struggling until the end, never giving in, never admitting defeat, keeping on working at the Lord's work, knowing that, in the Lord, we can never be defeated, as St Paul tells us.
And J R R Tolkien, that most Catholic of writers, expressed wonderfully in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, through the character of Sam, the little Hobbit with the courage of a lion, and the heart of mother:
Sam: It's like in the great stories Mr.
Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were,
and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be
happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had
happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness
must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the
clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even
if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do
understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning
back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to
something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in the world, Mr.
Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.
No comments:
Post a Comment