But the trade-off for wearing shorts all year is that the insects never die. The trade for being able to take the kids down the street and see alligators in the bayou is that there are alligators in the bayou. Like I said; nearly perfect.
I could surf here the rest of my life and be fine. It's not California and it's not Hawaii. That's fine. The water is almost always warm and the crowds are light. Nobody here has delusions of being the next world champion surfer, so everybody just has fun. The local vibe is relaxed. Not a bad thing when you're relaxed, not a good thing when you want something done. It's not perfect. Nowhere is; and that's the point.
Nowhere in all of Creation is perfect and it has nothing to do with the location. The lack of perfection is us. If we run from place to place always searching a better place, we're doomed to fail. As the "prophet" Buffett said, "Wherever you go, you take the weather with you." (I quote Jimmy Buffett a lot). It may be silly, but there is truth there. As long as we are imperfect no place will ever alter that.
In reality, all of Creation is perfect. It has to be. If God created everything and declared it "good" and the things created have no free-will (like rocks and oceans and geckos) then they are exactly as they were created to be. In fact, they are more perfect than we are because their very existence is the fulfillment of the Divine Will.
The problem isn't with them. It's with us. Our perceived imperfection in Creation is a reflection of our own imperfection. Unlike the trees and waves and monkeys we are destined for greater things. Unlike the created order, we do not fulfill our created purpose because unlike the created order, we don't have to. We get hit twice here: in our hearts we know we are meant for something greater and our restless searching for a perfect spot on the map is how that longing is lived out. We are looking for heaven. We're not looking for the wrong thing, we're looking in the wrong place. The second hit is that no matter where we go, well, there we are. St. Augustine says "Our hearts are restless until they rest in You". Anything else is "striving after wind", as the Philosopher warns. Searching for contentment in worldly things is like taking the wrong medicine for your illness: not only is not curing you, but you just get sicker wondering why it isn't working.
For all the lack of contentment and longing we face that leads into sorrow and distress, there is a great cosmic joke being played. The moment we begin to recognize the futility of pursuing worldly contentment and turn inward; the moment we cease to look at God and look to God, everything changes. The imperfect world that could never satiate our hunger for the really good, true, and beautiful pulls back its veil to reveal what was there all along. When we change the world changes. The place we couldn't wait to leave becomes the place we love and it doesn't matter where that is because we understand that St. Palm-Tree and St. Dolphin are united in the will of God and therefore perfect. We understand that it is the love that makes for perfection, not the place. Besides, we're just passing through.
**If you like the photo above, check out G-Town Surf (link below) for awesome local photography and art. Updated daily.
First, I love your reference to "the Philosopher." Thank you.
ReplyDeleteSecond, this brings up a question I've been mulling over in my mind for years. What effect did Original Sin have on physical creation? The implication of your post is that it did not have any effect, but rather only had moral consequences for the human person. (I realize you didn't explicitly speak about Original Sin, but I think it's safe to assume that you are presupposing it.) In other words, physical creation was unaltered by Original Sin; we only see it as imperfect because of the problem in us (which is the moral result of Original Sin): that is, that we are looking to physical creation, instead of to God, to fulfill the longing we feel in our hearts. If we look to God, you seem to be saying, then we'll see creation in its proper light, and find that it is perfect, after all. In its own way.
But I always thought that the effect of Original Sin was not limited to its moral consequences on the human person. Rather, it somehow effected the very order of the cosmos. Perhaps this is the origin of entropy? I realize I'm on thin ice when I try to wax theological about concepts in physics, but my intuition tells me that there's a connection. Would there be carnivores if there had been no Original Sin? Would there be hurricanes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters?
The Pelagians taught (if I'm not mistaken, and I could very well be) that the Original Sin of the first humans was not passed on by generation; but rather, it was only by the bad example of their parents that future generations became corrupted. This is the other side of the coin, as it were, of their idea that a person can achieve salvation without the need for supernatural grace, since every baby is born in the same state as the first humans were, before Original Sin (according to the Pelagians):
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=35492
or
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11604a.htm
So, here's my point: the Council of Carthage, in 416 A.D., said that Adam would not have physically died, had he not committed his sin. This is one of the things that Pelagius denied--he said that Adam would have died anyway, by physical necessity. Well, I must admit that I have some sympathy for Pelagius, because he seems to be uncomfortable with the idea that Original Sin had physical consequences (and not just for Adam, but for all succeeding generations). But this is a defined dogma of the Catholic Church. To the modern mind, however (and Pelagianism seems to be revived in many ways in the modern mind), which is so influenced by scientism (as opposed to authentic, empirical science), it seems hard to accept how the moral can have an effect on the spiritual.
We moderns see death as a "natural" process--and part of a greater cosmic process of transformation and renewal that takes place all the time in the rest of creation. But Adam died only because of his sin. So, before his sin, was the "natural" world completely different from the way it is now? In other words, before Original Sin, did monkeys and zebras and banana trees physically not die? I find it hard to believe that they did not. But if they didn't, then it seems that Original Sin had a physical effect not only on Adam, but on the rest of creation, throwing it out of its original order--but into a new kind of order, where death has now become part of a greater process, a part of the system. Thus, all of creation would have been different before the Fall: there would have been no hurricanes, tsunamis, and the like; there would have been a different kind of order and harmony in the cosmos that, quite frankly, I find it hard to imagine. But then all of this would have changed with the Fall, resulting in the cosmos as we know it now.
[End of part 1 of the comment, since they only give us 4k characters in which to post.]
First, I love your reference to "the Philosopher." Thank you.
ReplyDeleteSecond, this brings up a question I've been mulling over in my mind for years. What effect did Original Sin have on physical creation? The implication of your post is that it did not have any effect, but rather only had moral consequences for the human person. (I realize you didn't explicitly speak about Original Sin, but I think it's safe to assume that you are presupposing it.) In other words, physical creation was unaltered by Original Sin; we only see it as imperfect because of the problem in us (which is the moral result of Original Sin): that is, that we are looking to physical creation, instead of to God, to fulfill the longing we feel in our hearts. If we look to God, you seem to be saying, then we'll see creation in its proper light, and find that it is perfect, after all. In its own way.
But I always thought that the effect of Original Sin was not limited to its moral consequences on the human person. Rather, it somehow effected the very order of the cosmos. Perhaps this is the origin of entropy? I realize I'm on thin ice when I try to wax theological about concepts in physics, but my intuition tells me that there's a connection. Would there be carnivores if there had been no Original Sin? Would there be hurricanes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters?
The Pelagians taught (if I'm not mistaken, and I could very well be) that the Original Sin of the first humans was not passed on by generation; but rather, it was only by the bad example of their parents that future generations became corrupted. This is the other side of the coin, as it were, of their idea that a person can achieve salvation without the need for supernatural grace, since every baby is born in the same state as the first humans were, before Original Sin (according to the Pelagians):
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=35492
or
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11604a.htm
So, here's my point: the Council of Carthage, in 416 A.D., said that Adam would not have physically died, had he not committed his sin. This is one of the things that Pelagius denied--he said that Adam would have died anyway, by physical necessity. Well, I must admit that I have some sympathy for Pelagius, because he seems to be uncomfortable with the idea that Original Sin had physical consequences (and not just for Adam, but for all succeeding generations). But this is a defined dogma of the Catholic Church. To the modern mind, however (and Pelagianism seems to be revived in many ways in the modern mind), which is so influenced by scientism (as opposed to authentic, empirical science), it seems hard to accept how the moral can have an effect on the spiritual.
We moderns see death as a "natural" process--and part of a greater cosmic process of transformation and renewal that takes place all the time in the rest of creation. But Adam died only because of his sin. So, before his sin, was the "natural" world completely different from the way it is now? In other words, before Original Sin, did monkeys and zebras and banana trees physically not die? I find it hard to believe that they did not. But if they didn't, then it seems that Original Sin had a physical effect not only on Adam, but on the rest of creation, throwing it out of its original order--but into a new kind of order, where death has now become part of a greater process, a part of the system. Thus, all of creation would have been different before the Fall: there would have been no hurricanes, tsunamis, and the like; there would have been a different kind of order and harmony in the cosmos that, quite frankly, I find it hard to imagine. But then all of this would have changed with the Fall, resulting in the cosmos as we know it now.
[End of part 1 of the comment, since they only give us 4k in which to post.]
[Part 2 of comment.]
ReplyDelete(Sorry, I posted the first half of my comment twice! I think you should be able to delete it, though.)
Or, the other possibility is this: Adam would not have died, had he not sinned, but only because he was being supernaturally maintained by the grace of God. So, in this case, what was "natural" was the same as the way things are now, in terms of the existence of hurricanes and tigers killing bison. Only Adam was different; and when he sinned, he lost that difference, and sunk down to the level of the natural. Hence, he died. How this gets transmitted to his offspring, by generation, remains a mystery to me, but I accept it as a defined dogma. But this option still leaves me wondering how to interpret St. Paul, when he says in Romans 8:18-23...
"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies."
This seems to imply that physical creation was thrown into disorder and decay--i.e. death--because of Adam's sin. Or, on the other hand, that that was the natural state, and that the New Creation will raise things to a supernatural level, where physical death is no longer a part of the system.
So, maybe the physical consequences of Original Sin were only for Adam and the rest of the human race. But I'm inclined not to think so. Still, I don't think I've come to a conclusion either way. What do you think?