Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
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| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
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Sunday, March 31, 2002 Thought from a Sunny Day (from my book Contentions) 107 At the heart of every story is the quest of the Hero. This quest provides narrative drive by formulating a conflict engaging the interest of an audience. Why is the Hero questing? To fulfill his destiny (a demand of some kind) which is often disguised as a necessity such as food, a mate, or recognition to be acquired or dragon-death-evil to overcome; or for more psychologically selfish reasons - power, pleasure, fame, wealth as substitutes for recognition and love. But the destiny the Hero seeks to fulfill ultimately means oneness with God. Even Jesus has to return to the Father through death to fulfill his human destiny and Godhood. Thus every Hero seeks God/Love/Immortality and every story is an extended metaphor of that ultimate desire. Every comedy, tragedy, satire, or romance is necessarily a unity of action for a Hero to find satisfaction of being. (Tragedy results in sobriety, restored peace, or rescue for the community. Oedipus Rex, for example, restores Thebes to peace with the gods; while Jesus' death restores or reconciles mankind to God along with establishing peace through our rescue from the nihilism of death.) Any antagonistic character is a charicature; that is, less than complete human figure because he (or she) represents one aspect of fallen being more than another which must be overcome. Positive characters who are fostering agents act as friends, oracles, guides, or sages thus representing divine grace and help (fortune, answered prayers). Horatio in Hamlet, for instance - a detached, non-judging, supportive companion. In essence, a foil for Hamlet's Heroic conscience and consciousness. The quest of the Hero ultimately ends in Heaven. * Serious Christians are those who have consciously embraced the quest and announced that they are Heroes and warriors who intend to storm the kingdom of heaven by violence (to themselves). Having become conscious of their destiny and quest, stories which disguise such a fact of reality become essentially meaningless to them. What they are interested in is information and grace that helps them achieve purity and simplicity in pursuit of their ultimate goal of perfection of spirit. Fiction cannot help them unless it is didactic or edifying to that end. Eventually, we cross over from a heroic to a post-heroic manner of being as we are purged and sanctified on our own cross; then, even the narrative of the Gospels loses resonance and emotional effect when identification with the Hero (Jesus or lesser heroes like Peter, Paul, et al.) begins to wane as the work of grace fulfills our return to God and brings about not only our rebirth, but our death and resurrection into whole (though still mortal and afflicted) people. Jesus' story becomes less of a tragedy and more a shared and ordinary experience of our own unhistrionic (I hope) human life.The work of grace and prayer draws us into transcendent and detached contemplation. (Not unemotional neutrality which is an impossibility, but we become mature and emotionally balanced; which is to say, saddened or elated by the import of various events in a sensible degree.) Savage, cruel, or rude treatment of anyone (or animal) is a source of sadness, anger, or sorrow for a Christian. We are not indifferent. Contemplation of Jesus' physical and emotional suffering can still cause anguish, but meditation on him becomes less frequent since the world provides us with many fresh examples to contemplate sympathetically and move us to intercessory prayers or helpful action. A perfect Christian is not so serene that he is free from all anguish at his own condition (when severely afflicted) or that of others. What I mean to say is that a post-Heroic state of being is a state that Jesus is now alive in, and a state that a Christian achieves spiritually even now when Self is lost in God so that neither an objective God or subjective Self remain. In this condition, Jesus does not appear to us bearing his wounds and calling for our abject apologies, remorse, or prostrations. His anguish is transcended and so, too, does our own become like that. We no longer project our 'selves', our emotions, or our unconscious on God. We no longer possess an unconscious (as far as I can tell!) such as we had before. As wretched as we know the human condition to be, we no longer know ourselves as unworthy of being loved by the absolute and pure being that we've discovered in God; nor fear the loss of such heavenly love since we know ourselves to have been eternally bound to this Love with unbreakable wedding bands. None of this changes the fact that we remain animals who are social, matrimonial, and fertile (artistically; or physically - if need be, apart from age). (Sometimes I marvel to watch someone dancing gracefully and think - what an odd thing for an animal to do; how truly strange. Or watch music made and consider the amount of work it takes to be a good musician and wonder that an animal should do so. Even though I hardly consider my own motions or musical skills when I play.) Even so, I realize that we are animals made for awareness of beauty in others and all things. The simple act of watching a child skipping along a sidewalk can fill me with an ocean of delight. The child-ness of purer human life, the fact that we resemble other animals simply as creatures born to mate, rear young, with nothing else of greater importance (as post-heroic beings) is a cause for rejoicing and some wonder at the nature of what ought to be obvious. It is obvious, but not delightful and soul satisfying to the world, perhaps (because others quest without a True object as their goal, while others have yet to fulfill the true quest they have found, and thus cannot take stock of reality and the obvious child-ness of human being). We are not created as such be 'gods' but animals who mate and rear young. That we can do so with more ability to engage in diverse pastimes (music, art, architecture, poetry, technology) different from other animals is no credit to ourselves but simply a function of our species as God has made us. When I look upon mankind in the world now, I don't see us as alienated from nature by reason of our consciousness. No, I see that we will correspond exactly as intended someday (in Heaven), and not know any separateness from Nature even though we are like 'gods' then, too. When I see an animal care for its offspring, I think - I am like that, too. When I watch an animal acquire food - I am like that, too. Or an animal take a mate - so too am I like that, and always will be, I think. I look at a newborn child as it quietly contemplates (makes sense of) what it sees. That is how I often look at the world. - Hmm, what is this thing of colors I see? Why are people moving around like that? Their motions alone are interesting. Who is holding me? Food tastes good. I like being warm. I like a gentle breeze. I like bright colors. I like light. I like being held. I like holding. I like the way some things move and reflect colors and light. I like some sounds I hear very much. Beauty is present to me. Love is present to me. Yet, I do not sense God in or out of me. posted by Mark Butterworth | 12:39 AM | |
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