Advent’s Goal
Having already posted some thoughts on this Sunday’s readings, I hadn’t planned on writing a post today. Two things have conspired to change that plan. One, it is now snowing and is still rather cold out there. Two, I came across an idea in Bishop Robert Barron’s podcast homily for tomorrow that I’d like to play with a bit here today. As an aside, if you aren’t familiar with Bishop Barron and his work, do yourself a favor and go to wordonfire.org. You’ll find free podcasts, videos, as well as resources you can order (books and DVDs) that are all very helpful in exploring the Catholic faith and its implications in our time.
In his homily, Bishop Barron explores three notions of time – one which was common in the ancient Mediterranean world, one that is fairly common today, and the biblical notion. I would add that all three are still very much in play today, even among people who may not be religious in any obvious sense of the word.
The ancient notion of time that Bishop Barron begins with is time as cyclical. The same things happen over and over again. Think of the seasons that come again and again, in the same order, every year. The movements of the sun, moon, and stars (from the perspective of our unaided eyes). The recurring cycles of life – birth, maturity, death. In this view, the universe isn’t going anywhere. History simply repeats itself. We see an echo of that in the near-despair of Qoheleth early in the book of Ecclesiastes: “Nothing new under the sun!” We see many contemporary echoes of this cyclical idea. Check out “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King, for one. Astrology is based on this notion. The recurring zodiac. In this idea of history, there is nothing to hope for. Nothing ultimately new that will happen. It’s just the same old, same old: repackaged, perhaps, but coming back again and again.
Then, Bishop Barron moves on to one contemporary notion of time and history. Time is purely random. History is just a series of random events. No patterns, no logic, no meaning. Things just happen, one after the other. We see this idea reflected in some notions about quantum mechanics and chaos theory. But this notion shares one significant thing in common with the first: history is going nowhere. If, for the ancients, history just repeated itself, for those who hold this second view, there’s no “there” there. There’s nowhere to go. Everything that happens is luck of the draw, a random toss of the dice. Progress is merely an illusion.
Looking at these two notions, we must acknowledge that they remain as powerful influences on our thought and attitudes. Each of them contains a bit of truth. Some aspects of life are indeed cyclical and repetitive. At the same time, other events appear to us as totally random. In a time when people are tempted to believe that old certainties and traditions are disintegrating, the idea that history is ultimately random and meaningless begins to lure us, like the ancient Sirens lured Odysseus. Either notion can lead us to a kind of resignation, depression or despair. “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”.
The biblical notion of history and time is different. The Scriptures are filled, from beginning to end, with the idea that history is indeed going somewhere. Both the recurring events and the seemingly random events fit into a larger picture, a plan, that is guided by God. God begins by creating all that exists out of nothing, thus setting the universe in motion. God sustains the universe in being and calls it forth to become all that it is meant to be. In due time, humanity appears, called into being by God. God leaves throughout creation and history various hints of what is really going on, of what God is about, that we might find them and rejoice in them. We become, in Heschel’s wonderful phrase, “the cantors of the universe”, perceiving God’s works with the gift of grace and praising God for it all. Even human sin does not prevent the divine plan from moving forward. God intends that not only we humans, but all of creation (as Paul says in Romans 8), will share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. Through the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it is happening all around us. There really is a “there” there: a new creation, a New Jerusalem, which is about to be given us by God. No all things do not merely repeat themselves. No, all things are not random and chaotic. All things are being steered by a loving and faithful God. Evil makes this hard to perceive at times, like entering a fog bank, but it is there to be seen once the fog lifts. Until then, we walk by faith and the light of Christ.
In this light, we can see how even many people who wouldn’t call themselves religious also share this vision, at least to some point. The secular idea of “progress” is a faint echo of this Biblical idea of where God intends all creation to go. In fact, we can’t even speak of “progress” without some sense that there is some standard, some goal, against which we can measure our status, as C.S. Lewis reminds us. This may also give us some promising avenues for evangelization.
So, are we there yet? Not yet, but we are confident that we are on the way. We are confident that what we shall find at the end will be worth the journey. We shall, in some real sense, see God and be filled with God’s own life – not only us, but in some mysterious way, all of creation. This is truly a “there” worth going to!