33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (17.11.13)
BEYOND THE PHYSICAL
Templates are helpful guides. The Gospel for this 33rd Sunday (Luke 21: 5-19) might be described as a template for the end of the world. But then, how many occasions have there been in history when people, taking stock of the world in their era, have said the same? Our history is littered with the debris of explosive human behaviour at both the local and global level. The temptation to say, “What’s new?” is quite real and therein lies the danger.
What message do Jesus’ words have for us?
“All that you see here –
the days will come when there will not be left one stone
upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”
A physical interpretation might conjure up memories of aerial photographs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after each was nuclear-bombed in World War 2. From much earlier times, there is the description of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Army in 70AD. Was Jesus referring to events such as these?
Might it be that Jesus was referring to something ageless and unspecific and not a physical scenario? Whatever is ‘man made’ is, in truth, our reconstruction of pre-existing matter. The word ‘create’ is liberally applied to human invention but it is inaccurate. We humans have not ‘created’ anything – we have not brought into being matter that did not previously exist. We have reconstituted and reconfigured existing matter giving it new and, hitherto unknown, expression. Creation is the prerogative of God.
Some will argue making such a claim is being pedantic, as ‘everyone knows what is meant’. I disagree and cite, by way of proof, human behaviour reaching beyond itself, with impunity, into the realm of God. Science, divorced from an acknowledgement of God as Creator, assumes the role of master as opposed to collaborator. The complex field of human genetics is a prime example. Each newly discovered understanding deserves to be held against the Divine template, the better to discern the will of the Creator in the furtherance of his unconditional love.
‘Building’ can be defined as the construction and development of something over a period of time. It’s an anticipated consequence of the gift of intelligence with which the Creator endowed human life as opposed to animal instinct. I say anticipated because God would be fully aware of the freedom he was granting to those he was making in his own image and likeness. An attribute of true love is respect, which involves a deep admiration for another’s ability to reciprocate the love received without quantifying it.
God, as our Creator, has the hope that human ‘building’ would reciprocate his love, thereby revealing more of the Lover, God. Jesus’ words (“when there will not be left one stone upon another stone”) indicate that this has not always happened. It is inconceivable that God, who is Truth, should allow falsehood to ‘build’ in an unconstrained manner capable of inflicting eternal separation from the one loved.
Jesus’ words in Luke should not be restricted to an ‘end of world’ scenario. They exist to reflect the concern of our Creator when we, whom God loves unconditionally, are being deceptively mesmerized by Satan stroking our pride. Unconditional love is never uncaring; there must always be a unity between Love and Truth.
Separating ‘the good’ from ‘the bad’ in the field of human inventiveness is a complex jungle in which to navigate. Sat Navs require a good signal to operate effectively. Humans require a living, healthy, relationship with God to effectively and truthfully evaluate their latest discovery in respect of its potential application for humans. Holding up our evolving templates of discovery against the eternal template God has revealed of himself is required as a continuous act of faith made by the created in the Creator.
Parents, teachers, Church leaders, legislators, among others, have very specific responsibilities in this field because of their delegated responsibility for emerging intelligence that, one day, must stand on its own two adult feet in an unstable world.
If, hearing this Gospel read, our first images were of physical ruins as seen at sites of historical interest, it is time to step back and look again. Each building block growing from our understanding and use of the matter entrusted to us by the Creator, should reflect the Creator. When it does not do so, it is not fit for purpose. In addition it becomes an insult, detracting from the relationship between Creator and Created. Civil planning applications sometimes fail to gain approval if local authorities consider that, were they to exist, they would obscure the greater common good. What may appear, in the short term an apparent gain, may not necessarily bring eternal benefit.