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58:1-4 2013
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same anguished cryand still, few are those who have ears
to hear the response of Jesus of Nazareth, their brother and
friend: 1 have come from my Father ... and 1 am returning
to my Father (John 16:28).
Fosing this question is enough to make us realize that it
takes us beyond the limits of this world. By meditating on it
and going deeper, we are faced with the enigma of the origin
ofthe world and of mankind, the final end ofthe evolution of
the cosmos, the meaning ofhuman history, each ofour fates,
and the final orientation ofthe humanization of our planet,
taking place before our eyes through the concerted efforts of
all mankind.
The world cannot be explained with itself as the reference
point. Its meaning and its supreme goal are hidden in the
history of mankind, not in the evolution ofthe cosmos. The
positivist idea of historical progress^riented toward some
ambiguous brighter tomorrowis nothing but a deformed
transposition ofthe conscious and creative hristian aspiration for the final end ofthe world: the kingdom of God. We
should also not forget that the whole natural world (natura
naturans') has received at its creation its task, its dynamic
teleological energy, its ontological seeds (the logoi spermatikoi2ofthe Stoics), which is what St. John speaks about in
the prologue to his Gospel when he says, All things were
made through him, and without him nothing was made that
was made. Thus, this same intuition that has taught man
that the world is alive, that it is in a perpetual state of becoming, that it evolves-since my Father is working right
until the present (John 5:17)this intuition is right, but that
does not mean that evolutionary theories, which express this
intuition, are correct and sufficient. In universe, which
undoubtedly has a soul, man alone possesses freedom and
spirit. The spirit of man is the meeting point of two worlds,
the divine world and the human world. Mankind seeks in
vain to explainoutside Christ-the enigmas ofthe world.
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its ongoing drama, and its crucifixion. It searches but cannot find the meaning and purpose ofexistence-it is tom by
the problem suffering, evil, and death that prevails in the
world.
Neither science nor natural reason can solve these accursed questions, to use Dostoevskys expression. All utopias
an earthly paradise that arose in toe feverish imagination
of Dostoevskys own characters, as well as toe ideals ofsimplistic optimism (devoid, alas! of prophetic depth) advanced
by Marxismor again, toe intellectual acrobatics of existentialists and contemporary phenomenologists-are only mind
games carried to toe limits of emptiness and absurdity. All
toese conceptions ultimately lead only to a black hole, to total death, to nothingness^ to what is even more frightening: toe nightmare an eternal return a cyclical repetition
in infinite time of an identically absurd life.
We are already seeing toe beginning a certain decline,
of a disillusionment that is eating away at toe faith of toe
militants who call them selves materialists their faith in toe
building of a golden age, in toe fellowship toe new classless society, in toe messianic peace ... The de-Christianized
masses still accept, but without enthusiasm and reluctantly,
working and living for an ideal that is always in toe future,
but that devours their present. The young elite ofthe supposedly free world, like toe so-called nonfree world, tormented by their conscience, tired of toe monotony and dullness of phraseologies of all kinds-whether socialist, democratic, totalitran-begins to doubt, and even timidly to
affirm that man does not live by bread alone (toe title ofa
novel by a Soviet writer), and to feel a great weariness with
any ideal ofdolce vita.4 Without fear of being mistaken, we
can assert, following Father de Lubac, that toe tragedy
atheistic humanism is already in gestation-it is underway.
course, none of this is new to Christians. Throughout
all history we are always toe actors and toe spectators ofthe
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ourselves first pass through a series heart-rending selfexaminations, that is, through repentance.
We see how the whole world stands attentive and awake,
having felt the breath-though still very w e a k ^ fth e spirit renewal that has yet only barely touched Christianity.
Certainly, it seems that the whole Christian world now feels
that one of the most urgent tasks, incumbent on us all, is to
make the walls that separate Christians fall and thus finally
visibly manifest our Christian unity to the world. Disunited,
we are without strength and we do not know how to become
again the real sah of the earth leaven, whose purpose
is to be thrown into the dough of humanity. Disunited, we
are, the eyes the world, a glaring refutation own
religion of reconciliation and unity.
But this is not enough. To announce to everyone who is in
darkness and the shadow of death the hope of the transfiguration of this worlda world that is proceeding through all
of its vicissitudes toward the convergence of all oppositions
in the one ideal worthy of the name the kingdom love,
which is a kingdom not of this worldit is also necessaty
to revise all our exclusivist theologies and abolish the
barriers, erected by zealots all churches, barring access
imo the coming kingdom. Woe to us! for it is we ourselves
who shut men out the kingdom ofheaven: You do not enter
yourselves, and you oppose those who wish to enter (Matt.
23:13). The light of Christ illumines all mankind. All
humanity-without exceptionis called to be heirs of the
kingdom of heaven-and those who do not call themselves
Christians too, for Cod knows his own who do not know
him. All nations will come to bow down before him (Rev.
21:24). And genuine Christians know they shall enter after
(if you can say after)-a fte r all, after all the sheep from
the other sheepfolds, because they know they are chosen
to save the others, to ensure that others pass through them.
As for those who for centuries threatened others with hell.
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and who love to recite, There are many called, but tow are
chosen, let them reflect on whether it would not he appropriate to distinguish between chosen and saved: the chosen being those who, through toe unifying call of the Holy
Spirit, and of their own free will, consciously undertake to
work for toe salvation of the world.
And y e t-a n d this is very im portant-ifour vocation and
our duty as toe people God is to witness to the world
faith and our hope, we must never forget that faith is a vision
of the invisible, something that does not exist in the eyes
toe world. Faith is what makes present the things we hope
for; it is toe evidence of realities we do not see (according to
toe inspired definition of St. Faul). Therefore, we cannot
we must not-preach and propose to toe world our ontological ideal by placing it at toe same level as all other human
ideals, alongside other objectives to be attained. ideal,
which has its origin in history, brings the world out beyond
toe limits of history. ideal-that of toe New City-is
placed above all other ideals invented by fleshly reason;
it is on toe boundary of two worlds, two eons. We cannot,
without betraying faith, witness to the mirabilia del' by
adapting and reducing them to toe level toe concepts
toe average man. Also, it would be futile to continually offer
toe same milk as food to contemporary man, who is now
an adult. His soul, which has passed through the depths
doubt and temptation, has grown, has become more complex, more refined. The apologetics scribes all sorts
appear too naive to toe new consciousness. It is impossible
to impress him or to attract him to toe Church by our timid
attempts at renovation and by supercially optimistic perspectives. Master never promised us toe golden age
happiness on this earth. He teaches that man and the world
must carry toe cross, and he himself will remain crucified
along wito all those who suffer until toe end of the world.
One of the causes not toe main oneof the crisis in
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and his desire for foe kingdom eoming in glory, by his efforts
to become a house of God in foe spirit, the Christian can and
must hasten foe advent of the Day of God (2 Pet. 3:12).
Today more than ever, fois eschatological tension cannot
remain a passive and futurist waiting (for which we are
often criticized). We Christians must participate, each in
his own place, in his state, to use St. Pauls expression, in
foe combined efforts of humanity to build a better world,
let us say more hum bly-a world habitable for all. We
must understand participation in foe sense explained by
foe great nglish theologian C. H. Dodd, in foe sense of
The Divine Milieu of Teilhard de Chardin, before him,
foe active eschatology of s. Bulgakov and N. Berdyaev. We
do not preach an exit from foe world but of Christian action in the world, ft is not a case of social Christianity,
norworse y e t- a theocracy, but the building up of the
Body of Christ transfiguring all life. And foe summit of
fois actionmust we be rem inded-an only be foe cross. A
creative religious culture is possible and necessary, but not
as an ^ apart, objectified in parallel wifo foe world.
Whatever a Christian does in foe world, he does in God, in
Christ. De no longer brings death to beings and things but
rather foe life-giving Spirit-and fois is authentic religious
culture. The multitude of Christians who have shone wifo
foe light of the resurrection in foe world and therefore have
illumined foe world from the inside have contributed-and
are contributn g -to its building up, edification.9 This
is foe edification often spoken of by St. Seraphim of Sarov
when he says, Acquire foe Holy Spiritand thus peace and
inner light-and thousands will begin to live and be saved
around you. This is foe edification also spoken of by
Elder Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov. If you were to
shine with light, your light would show others foe way ...
even if your light is shining and yet it seems that people are
not being saved, remain firm and do not doubt foe power of
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The advent ofthe life of the world to eome implies the end
of the one in which we livethat is, the end of the world
But our world, which God its Creator has called into existence, is, for this very reason, indestruetible; for there is no
greater power than the one that created it. What is passing
away is the [present] form ofthe world' ( Cor. 7:3 ).
It is precisely in this sense that we must understand the
end ofthe world. The final catastrophe of the universe does
not entail a new creation from zero, from nothing, but it is
a renewal of the world that has been created once and for
all. The continuity between the old earth and the new earth
is not interrupted, but there is a passage, a transcensus.'" a
leap from one mode of existence to another. The parousia.
second coming of Christ, is not part of the sequence of
historical events but is an event that completely changes the
state ofthe world and is beyond history. It is a metaphysical
^en o ran o n -m etaco sm ic-th at modifies the nature of the
universe. The change that will happen will not be the result
of a combination explosion of exclusively natural cosmic
forces. It requires the intervention-the bursting fo rth -o f
supernatural, divine power. The Father sends the Son. who
comes in foe glory ofthe Holy Spirit. The fire, which is the
action ofthe Holy Spirit, renews, glorifies, and deifies all
creation. That is why it is wrong to speak of a real possibility of provoking foe end ofthe world by the power of an
atomic explosion, by a material disintegration. The action of
foe Holy Spirit cannot be forced: we cannot cause theparousia. A global atomic catastrophe that would cause the total
disintegration of our planet (but not foe cosmos ...) would
only be foe suicide ofthe world, or a planetary assassination.
Our universe is not only foe place in space of the advent of
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himall the writhing vipers in his heart-m ust he eliminated through suffering and thus he redeemed through hims e lf also-
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sinners and becemes a source ofjoy to tirse who have performed their duty. In my opinion, adds this Father, the
torment of Gehenna is repentance.15
We have arrived at the crucial point: Gehenna, hell, damnation, eternal suffering ... First, one remark: the notion of
eternal (Greek: aionios) does not belong to the category of
obvious and clear concepts. In the vulgar sense of the term,
eternity is understood asameasure oftime, or rather as a lack
of measurement, as an essentially hawed infinty - a n absence of end. But in toe Bible, eternal is synonymous with
God or divine life. For this reason, eternity is not commensurate with time (although etem ity-the tem al-can enter toe
content of the temporal). And this is eternal life, that they
may know you, toe only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
you have sent (John 17:3). Where is toe concept of time
here? Eternity is a life of another nature, another quality.
Eternity is toe fullness of divine life. And hell? Goes it exist
or not? St. Thrse ofLisieux has written somewhere, I believe that hell exists, but 1 do not think anyone is there. It is
easy to understand her. The pure and angelic Thrse seeks
to defend toe infinite love of her God against toe dogmas of
toe implacable guardians toe faith ... But she, along with
them, is mistaken if she thinks hell exists as an objective
place, designed created by toe Creator and predestined
for toe damned. Bell as a place objective sphere is only
toe projection (or even alienation) of the tendency of the
ethical will that wants to partition humanity into two parts,
two camps, two categories: toe good and toe evil, toe righteous and toe sinners. These categories have their respective
o utcom es^ne paradise, toe other hell. The objective hell
is nothing other than toe construct of those who consider
themselves toe good people, toe righteous, toe guardians
toe truth-and who, already from this world, dispatch toe
souls of toe wicked to torture, whether temporary eternal. But this is toe case with verdicts in human tribunals,
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Must not each of us plead with the Lord in the same way:
May all my brothers be saved along with me! otherwise,
may 1also be damned along with them! Does not our Lord also
wait for us to pray sueh a prayer? And would not this prayer
also be the solution to the problem of hell and damnation?
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