In the course of a lifetime, two worlds become known. Only two. They are familiar to everyone. Certainly, the first is inborn. It arises from the holy expectations of innocence: a yearning to receive love and to give love, an anticipation of friendship in every person we meet, a belief that all people, even all things, live in happiness and harmony. People care for one another and protect a common code known as decency. In this world we sense God all around us. We speak with Him as a child to a Father. Here, it is safe to share the intimations of our hearts and souls.
Gradually, this world gives way to another one, at least in the progress of most lives. This second reality is called the world of experience. It is a darker reality. We learn we must guard our hearts. We see that we are in rivalry with others (though we have no desire for this), even intense competitiveness. Many in this world are indifferent toward God or reject His existence out of hand. In this world, people exploit each other saying they are "out for 'number one.'" or "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?" Loving oneself is taught as a highest good. And what has become of morality and simple decency? These are scoffed at as "fairy tales" .... or perhaps as evidence that one is "ripe for the picking."
The world of innocence is the life of abundance and fruitful cooperation. The world of experience is one of isolation, emptiness, finally devoid of all meaning.
When we read the Beatitudes recorded by St. Luke and St. Matthew, we see in them both worlds. We see the Heavenly vision of the love of God and the love of neighbor captured in the word harmony. But in them we also see that other, darker world, which is implied, the world the Beatitudes seek to redeem. That dark world is captured in the phrase the food chain.
The world of innocence and goodness has been cherished from the earliest writings of Western civilization. Can anyone date the opening chapters of Genesis with its story of Eden? Do we even know what it is? It is not literature, for it precedes the first instances of literature such as Homer. It is not history, for it precedes the earliest histories such as those of Herodotus. It is not any kind of science or natural philosophy, for it precedes Thucydides. It is not philosophy for it precedes Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. All we know is that it is holy coming down to us from the mists of pre-history.
Elsewhere, we find other writings describing a golden time, a world of harmony, peace, and abundance for all. In the sixth century B.C. writings of Hesiod, we find this:
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[they] lived like gods without sorrow of heart, remote and free from toil and grief:
miserable age rested not on them; but with legs and arms never failing they made merry with feasting beyond the reach of all devils. When they died, it were as though they were overcome with sleep, and they had all good things; for the fruitful earth unforced bare them fruit abundantly and without stint. They dwelt in ease and peace. (Works and Days, 109-126) |
This "Golden Age" was said to have centered in Greek Arcadia.
The world of experience has been systematically studied and taught since the nineteenth century with the rise of historicism and paleontology. This view of history is taught in all schools worldwide describing a progression from Homo sapiens and Neanderthals to modern humans. These proto-human and later fully human creatures, it is said, lived successively in epochs named for the tools they made: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and so forth.
During the twentieth century two scholars at Johns Hopkins, Arthur O. Lovejoy and George Boas, coined the phrases "Soft Primitivism" — the descent from a golden age to a leaden world — and "Hard Primitivism" — the ascent from cave dwellers to modern humans living in heated or air conditioned homes. Hard primitivism is summed up in Charles Darwin's phrase: "survival of the fittest." And we say that food-chain life has supplanted fantasies concerning a world of harmony.
But are we to believe that the ancient Hebrews and Greeks, who towered over us in so many ways, were ignorant of human striving and rivalry? That they had no experience of personal degradation? Certainly, their literatures and histories overflow with depictions of warfare and treachery.
From a personal perspective, Eden and Arcadia continue to speak to our inner yearnings univerally. Eden speaks to our eternal, interior lives while the ascent of man speaks to externals.
If we have settled on the world of experience as being our only reality, and the freedom to do anything as being our inalienable right, then we must come to terms with its dark fruits: entire cities where mostly women, children, and the elderly huddled each obliterated in a matter of minutes or hours. We rightly cry out as individual civilians are killed and injured by missiles of war. But we also must put on sack cloth and ashes when we recall whole cities we have vaporized: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, Frankfort, Hamburg, Tokyo .... the list goes on and on. Here there were no soldiers, for they had gone off fighting wars, only women, children, and the innocent elderly.
In a more horrific vision still, we behold the destruction of our planet home and the unravelling of civilization all carried out by our evolved technologies. Only a fool could say that the present age is the best of all possible worlds, or a narcissist clutching his smart phone and virtual reality visor. And we wonder why our young people, preoccupied with dystopian fantasies, should exhibit self-destructive obsessions, even annihilating their biological identities?
In this dark world, even the golden rule must fail. For if we are to treat others the way we desire to be treated, then the key question points back to what we desire. In a highly eroticized culture such as ours, with every thought and image constantly on sex, sex, sex, and every variety of sex, the question answers itself. And we inherit a leveling wind of depravity and emptiness.
Our Gospel reflection this morning contemplates both worlds. Certainly, a golden age is seen in our Gospel lesson revealing a world in which we love our enemies and freely give to people who have no intention of paying us back. We know the rest of these proverbs of Heaven: if someone strikes your cheek, offer the other also; if someone wants your cloak, give him your tunic as well.
Yet, Luke's Gospel does not forget the dog-eat-dog world as we shall find four chapters later. As Jesus sends out the Seventy, He instructs them:
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"Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag,
knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road .... But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 'The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the Kingdom of God has come near you.' But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city." (Lu 10:3-12) |
The Apostles are ordered to guard their hearts. "Salute no one!" Jesus commands. They are not to be taken advantage of. And "love your enemies"? Not in this more practical setting. Or if it is love, it is a very tough kind of love.
In the verses following the commissioning of the Seventy, Jesus, far from loving His enemies, pronounces curses upon whole cities: Capernaum and Chorazin in Galilee and against nearby Bethsaida:
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"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done
in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon [pagan Phoenicia], they would have repented long ago, sitting in sack cloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to Heaven, will be brought down to Hades." (Lu 10:13-15) |
Does the Lord Jesus suggest, then, that the Beatitudes are a fantasy? No. Actually, He is declaring the opposite. But let us return to His counsels to the Seventy to read them more closely:
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"But whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house.' And if a son of peace
is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you." (Lu 10:24) |
Two scenarios are contemplated. love offered and received, completing a circle or the impossibility of love, in which case they are to move on. To ensure His Apostles understand Him aright, Jesus expands the principle to entire cities:
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"Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you.
And heal the sick there, and say to them, 'The Kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 'The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the Kingdom of God has come near you.'" (Lu 10:8-12) |
In this case, if the peace of God is received, then a very great circle will have been completed, the entire city in a circle of light known as "the Kingdom of Heaven." As Jesus sends out the Twelve and then later the Seventy, His advice is the same. The Kingdom must be sown and cultivated like a vineyard or garden. But notice that, in this fallen age, the vineyard in Luke's Gospel now is walled in and features a watch tower (Lu 20:9-16), for the world beyond the garden bears watching.
Yet those within its gates pray every morning,
"On earth as it is in Heaven."
For
within these walls,
the Proverbs of Heaven are spoken with confidence:
For within these goodly confines, decent love and the golden rule is golden once again: decent affection desired and decent affection given.
Here are circles of light drawn beneath Heaven, which were sown with the Word of God. Here are communities planted by the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy and then cultivated by multitudes who call themselves "The Way." No doubt, they mean "a different way" than the dark world beyond the garden walls.
We might ask, what ever happened to the goodly cities founded by the Apostles? What became of those oases in the deserts of food-chain life? Certainly, we see them in Luke's other Gospel, known as Acts:
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And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship,
in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. (Acts 2:42-45) |
And after that they multiplied these circles of light all over the known world. Even down to our own time, a very great oasis of living water is seen today on a peninsula in Greece: Mount Athos. This nation of monks is more than a thousand years old. Indeed, we find oases scattered throughout the world, some founded centuries ago and others last week. They are found wherever you step through the gates of a convent or a monastery or a hermitage everywhere on the earth. There the Gospels are believed. The Beatitudes are spoken with reverence and lived in safety. There you will meet the Lord Jesus Himself. He is present in the Breaking of Bread. And He lives in the hearts and souls of kindly sisters and brothers. For each who follows Him sincerely and diligently becomes transformed into Him, little by little, hour by hour, day by day. His followers are steeped in His word as they labor within His Vineyards, which are open always to all.
Let us conclude by remembering that
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the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb 4:12) |
The Beatitudes .... they are a sharp instrument laying open the pulsing heart of humankind, revealing both dark areas and eternal light. And a boundary is drawn across our entire lifeworld. "You cannot serve both God and Mammon" (Mt 6:24), Jesus teaches. St. John the Theologian, the norm of Orthodox confession, wrote decades later,
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Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him. (1 Jn 2:15) |
Three centuries after that, the Desert Father St. Makarios the Great, wrote,
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There are Christians, and there are lovers of the world.
Between them is a vast abyss. |
No doubt Makarios thought of Luke's Gospel and Chapter Sixteen where the beggar Lazarus, who loved God, lay in Abraham's Bosom while the lover of the world, the rich man, suffered in flames. Jesus, in the voice of Abraham, says,
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"'.... between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want
to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'" (Lu 16:26) |
Two interpretations of human history are placed before every school child today: the material history of the fossil remains of the human race (a race that is declining with ever greater velocity) and the eternal, spiritual truths of God that continue to shimmer before us, never growing dim, and ever shall.
In the dimming light of our material world, let us not forget the words of our Lord Jesus when He said,
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"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you." (Mt 6:33) |