Hope Archives < For Better or For Worse

Ready, Set, Go!

During my five years in the major seminary, we did a lot of prayerful singing—especially Gregorian chant in Latin.
   For three of my seminary summer vacations I worked in the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s camp where five times each summer busloads of inner-city kids came for a twelve-day vacation.
   They would hear some religious songs, not chant and easy to understand. One that still sticks in my memory was a spiritual; it has different versions, but here’s some of what I remember:
   Did the good book say that Cain killed Abel? Yes, good Lord!
   Hit him on the head with a leg of the table! Yes, good Lord!
   Daniel in the lion’s den said unto those colored men,
   Get your long white robe and starry crown and be ready when the great day comes.
   Oh, Lord, I’m ready, indeed I’m ready.
   Oh, good Lord, I’ll be ready when the great day comes!
   Forget the leg of the table, but don’t forget to be ready when the great day comes!
   And, don’t overlook the part about being dressed in a long white robe and starry crown. It means to be spiritually clean and spotless with your mind and heart fixed on the promised great and beautiful things yet beyond our present experience.
   It’s sort of like Latin chant: beautiful thoughts in a foreign (symbolic) language that need translation to be fully understood!
   The great day is the great paradox of our faith. The great day is when we definitively totally surrender our mind and heart and life to the loving God who made us and guided us all our life long.
   Like the team ready to run onto the field responding to their coach’s last-minute charge, I’m ready, indeed I’m ready.

   A whole lifetime may seem to be a bit much for preparation and practice for the great day, but compared to eternity it’s but a drop in the bucket.
   The ultimate purpose of our lives isn’t to endlessly drill and practice until we have no strength left to continue. Our ultimate purpose is to get ready and set to go on to that fullness of life and love that we were taught about, yearned for, and sacrificed for.
   When the moment comes, without hesitation, we charge onto the field of eternity, fired up in faith and responding in our hearts as we often did in our lives: Oh, Lord, I’m ready, indeed I’m ready.
   Don’t let any of this scare you! It may be that you’re so involved and occupied by your daily duties, tasks, and demands that all this may seem imaginative and remote.
   It’s a certitude that this present stage of the life of each one of us has an ending, but it’s also a certitude in faith that another, better stage of life awaits us.
   We’ve heard tales about it, predictions and promises and imaginative descriptions about it, but we haven’t played in the great game yet; we’ve only been practicing as we were coached and taught.
   We were coached and taught well, maybe not perfectly, but well enough. No need to fear the field if you’re ready and set to go.
   And, of course, the God who made you, loved you, and guided you all life-long is the one and the same God who calls each of us to a fullness of life beyond our imaging and experience.
   So, don’t forget or fear to get your long white robe and starry crown and be ready when the great day comes.

19 February 2023

Shout with Joy

Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth;
   break into song; sing praise.
Sing praise to the LORD with the lyre,
   with the lyre and melodious song. With trumpets and the sound of the horn
   shout with joy to the King, the LORD.

Let the sea and what fills it resound,
   the world and those who dwell there. Let the rivers clap their hands,
   the mountains shout with them for joy,
Before the LORD who comes,
   who comes to govern the earth,
To govern the world with justice
   and the peoples with fairness.
(Psalm 98:4-9)

   In 1719, Isaac Watts, an English Congregational minister and hymn writer, inspired by this psalm, composed “Joy to the World”, the now well-known Christmas Carol.
   C.S. Lewis, speaking of joy, said, “Joy…must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and Pleasure. Joy…has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again… I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world.”
   The modern world, with all its innovations, diversions, and pleasures, seems strangely joyless.
   St. Luke tells us in his Gospel story of the nativity of Jesus that the angels told the shepherds, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord…”
   Please note, not good news of great happiness nor good news of great pleasure, but good news of great joy!

   Curiously, joy can coexist with pain, with fatigue, with confusion, with difficulties, with fear, with rejection, even with suffering and with death.
   The angels’ good news of great joy was for all people, not just for Mary and Joseph, for the shepherds, for the wise men (Magi), for the children of Israel, for the future followers of the newly born child.
   It still remains good news of great joy for you, for me, for everyone. But, again, it is good news of great joy, not necessarily of great pleasure, happiness, contentment, ease, or satisfaction.
   Joy is something stronger, deeper, more powerful, more lasting. If you’ve ever tasted it, you know what I mean; if you never have, it’s a word that refers to your deepest hunger, yearning, and life search.
   I’m no expert on joy.
   I’ve had moments of indescribable feelings of joy in my life, but not often. I also have had, in spite of so many things to the contrary, a sort of deep strength and fundamental contentment about my life in spite of its many challenges, failures, and successes. This, too, is a kind of joy.
   The message of the angels is still a powerful pointer for each of our lives. Don’t forget it and don’t fear it. But, it’s not a recipe for happiness and pleasure; it probably won’t resolve or respond to your every question, doubt, fear, or yearning.
   Remember, Jesus was born in a stable, far from home, and when he was still only a few days old his parents had to flee with him to a foreign country (Egypt) to escape his certain death.
   In the midst of life’s worst challenges, you too can have and be strengthened by joy!

5 February 2023

DDP

It’s the one daily exercise that we hardly ever miss. In fact, it’s the one daily routine that’s hard to skip, even if we want to.
   Sooner or later, every day of our lives we tire and need rest. We usually try to find a secure and reasonably comfortable place and then surrender our consciousness, but no matter what we intend, it usually happens anywhere, anyhow, no matter what our intentions, sooner or later!
   Of course, it’s falling asleep—but, in a way, falling asleep is DDP, a kind of Daily Dying Practice. Of course, we don’t call it that, but, in effect, it really is something like that.
   Mysteriously, daily we somehow surrender our consciousness, some healing processes takes place in our bodies, and then we return to consciousness, we wake up.
   It’s curious, why in the world would we consider “resurrection” as something strange and mysterious, when, in a way, it’s so similar to our daily routine?
   Dying and sleeping, reviving and awaking—they’re similar and easy to confuse.
   Not everyone would agree to this. Some, trusting only in medical science and scientific observation, would deny that any revival from death is possible; others, trusting additionally in divine revelation and religious belief, would disagree.
   In any case, we all engage in the same daily, somewhat deathlike, process, willy-nilly, which we identify as sleeping.
   And, as a matter not merely of science but also of faith, religious believers see dying as a kind of sleeping from which there is an ultimate future awakening or resurrection.
   Unique historical data supporting this confidence and belief is associated primarily with what we have come to call the “resurrection” and “ascension” of Jesus.
   In any case, health and exercise conscious folks that we are, we need to be sure that we’re following a good DDP routine.

   First, before putting out the light and falling asleep, remember that this could be your last day! Presuming that it is, give thanks to God for the day (and all the past days) and all the good things, graces, and blessing that you receive.
   Then, give thanks for all the people, near and far, who have loved, guided, and strengthened you recently and all through your life—and commend to God all those who are now part of your life and who may be relying on your help and support.
   And, examining your conscience, don’t forget to ask God to forgive your impatience, exaggerated self-concern, and other failings and beg his favor and grace for those you know to be in need.
   Don’t be afraid to close your eyes and drift away. You can be fearless: you’re not going to fall off a cliff, you’re not in any ultimate danger, and there will be a tomorrow—though it may not be like all the thousands of tomorrows that you have experienced to date. Remember, God is love and loves you!
   Grateful—concerned for others—without fear of what comes next: these all parts of “dying practice.”
   Waking up, the first reaction should be more gratitude—gratitude for the new day or for the startling, never previously experienced, new stage of life, whichever the case may be.
   This is Daily Dying Practice: awareness, gratitude, contrition, trust. Like all exercises, if you practice them each day, they become like second-nature, and the stronger and more developed you become.
   And, beware of the deadly opposites that can make you sleepless—fear, absorption in self and self-regret, and clinging to the past.

8 January 2023

Entropy and the Evolving Kingdom of God

Entropy originally referred to the measure in thermodynamics of how much energy is not available to do work—a sort of energy or heat loss. In a broader sense, almost metaphorically, it is about social decline and degeneration.
It’s hard to apply this concept to living things, since in biology an almost opposite point of view dominates: evolution—that is, that living things are constantly becoming ever more complex and diverse.
   Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, scientist and theologian, made a brilliant synthesis of the findings and concepts of science and the developing insights of biblical studies and theology.
   He knitted together cosmology, biology, anthropology, and faith into a grand evolutionary vision starting with origin of the universe, through the creation of life, the emergence of humanity, divine revelations, Christ, and the contemporary world, culminating in a final union of all through Christ in God.
   Especially in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, teachings, and contemporary faith there is a radical optimism about the universe we live in and the direction of its ongoing development.
   This is a realistic optimism, It realizes that there is a certain “entropy” in our lives, a certain sinking to the least common denominator, a kind of decline and loss. Our old words about it were error, failure, disobedience, and sin.
   But, fundamentally, it is an optimism, a point of view that sees each person, all human societies, all life, all creation as essentially good and constantly growing, progressing, developing, and evolving—in spite of occasional “entropic” deviations.
   In the words of St. Augustine, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
   That’s a great way of describing evolution!

   Okay, we’re incorrigibly optimistic, confident about evolutionary development, and yearning for an ultimate culminating future for each and all of us.
   What do we call it? The kingdom of God? The Omega Point? The Cosmic Christ? The After-Life? Heaven? Paradise” A Better Life?
   How do we describe it? A place of everlasting happiness? joy? pleasure? wealth? fulfillment? reunion with others? union with God?
   Where is it? No, it’s not up since the world’s not flat. No, it’s not down, either. It’s not a place in the usual use of the word.
   What do we really know about it? The only one who briefly returned to tell us of it and show us the way there was Jesus.
   Actually, he didn’t give us much detailed information at all, but he was pretty clear about directions to get there. He didn’t give us any road maps but he did propose a pattern of life that leads there.
   “Thy will be done…” That’s a sort of title for the detailed lifestyle that Jesus witnessed to and proposed to us.
   It’s very consonant with a vision of a developing and evolving universe, for it’s a vision of each of us as developing and evolving persons.
   St. John said it beautifully (1 John 3:1-2):

See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

6 March 2022

Inactive, Dormant, Dead

…it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. (Romans 13:11-12)

   Sleep. It is a strange thing we do for more or less one-third of every day of our lives. It involves the suspension of voluntary bodily functions and of consciousness. It also is a vital necessity; without this resting, we die.
   Sleep also has metaphorical meanings. When we’re careless or not alert we seem to be allowing our vigilance or attentiveness to lie dormant. We also use the word to describe lying in death.
   In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul is sort of switching meanings of the word. He consider the living of our present lives as being asleep (night) and death as an awakening to the fulness of life (day).
   Further, still using this metaphor, he urges us to truly wake up—to cast off the lingering remnants of our night’s dreams and get dressed with the armor of light, ready to live the new, great day.
   It’s beautiful imagery. But, it’s not merely imagery, it’s the confidence, in faith, of our real destiny, of God’s ultimate plan for our lives.
   St. Paul is not giving a technical, scientific explanation of a kind of metamorphosis. But he is asserting what he believes to be a certain fact.
   It’s a familiar process, in a way. We know many things for certain, even if we have hardly any idea at all of how to explain them. We trust the knowledge, integrity, and truthfulness of others all the time.
   Some would relegate faith to the category of wishful thinking, imagination, or impossible dreams, but it, too, relies on the knowledge, integrity, and veracity of others.

   When St. Paul says, “the night is advanced; the day is at hand,” he’s talking about the end of our present, limited stage of life and about our future one, when we wake up to the fulness of life God has in store for us.
   Look, if you know you’re leaving very early tomorrow morning for a wonderful vacation, you’ll certainly try to have your bags packed today before you go to sleep and the clothes you’re going to wear tomorrow selected and ready.
   Shouldn’t we do the same when we remember that “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed”?
   Why is it that we are so illogical about the awaking from the sleep that St. Paul is talking about? Any day could be our last day before we die—that is, any day could be the last day we are asleep until we awaken to the wonder of what God has in store for us.
   So, so to speak, always have your plans made, your bags packed, your travel documents in order, and everything in readiness for a great departure as soon as you wake up!
   If all you worry about and plan for are details of things you want or feel you need to do tomorrow that you couldn’t complete today, you’re actually just rolling over and asking to be left alone to sleep some more—and missing out on all that could have been, if only you had remembered what the really new day was offering.
   We know not the day nor the hour, but the end of the night (of our present lives) always may be sooner than we expect or have planned for. That’s why our best course of action is to do the best we can every day of our lives, and treat every day of our lives as though it were the last.

9 January 2022

Sing Alleluia!

Let us sing alleluia here on earth, while we still live in anxiety, so that we may sing it one day in heaven in full security…
   Even here amidst trials and tribulations let us, let all, sing alleluia. “God is faithful”, says holy Scripture, “and he will not allow you to be tried beyond your strength”, So let us sing alleluia, even here on earth…
   O the happiness of the heavenly alleluia, sung in security, in fear of no adversity! We shall have no enemies in heaven, we shall never lose a friend. God’s praises are sung both there and here, but here they are sung in anxiety, there, in security; here they are sung by those destined to die, there, by those destined to live for ever; here they are sung in hope, there, in hope’s fulfillment; here they are sung by wayfarers, there, by those living in their own country…
   You should sing as wayfarers do—sing, but continue your journey. Do not be lazy, but sing to make your journey more enjoyable. Sing, but keep going. What do I mean by keep going? Keep on making progress. This progress, however, must be in virtue,…true faith and right living…
(Saint Augustine)

   (“Alleluia” or “hallelujah” comes from the same Hebrew word meaning literally “Praise Yahweh”—i.e., “Praise God” or “Praise the Lord.”)
   Maybe here and now is not entirely a matter of anxiety, trials, and tribulations. but it may not be much to sing about! But, that’s the whole point. What is difficult to bear, to endure, is helped by the prospects of things getting better, of great expectations.
   We’re not stuck in the mud, imprisoned in in helplessness, doomed to a life of emptiness, meaninglessness, hopelessness, grief, and pain.

   We’re en route, we’re on our way to a promised land. We’re strengthened by our anticipations. We struggle on in hope.
   No matter what, we sing in our hearts—we sing alleluia! We thank and praise God because we trust that he will not let us be tried beyond our strength, we trust that God has a destination for us to hope for, we endure as we journey to the promised land.
   How can I sing with so many anxieties, trials, adversities, insecurities, difficulties, and even enemies? That’s the whole point!
   You may sing, praise God, with thanksgiving for life and so many present good things—but the greatest joy and gladness lies in the trust that you have a wonderful future and that, slowly but surely, no matter what, you are on your way there.
   The great temptation of hopelessness is well described by Shakespeare in Hamlet’s famous soliloquy:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;…
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;…

Alas, poor Hamlet—you never learned to sing alleluia.

2 January 2022

Bucket List

To “kick the bucket” is a sort of slang expression in English for dying. Whatever its origin, it was popularized by the 2007 film, “The Bucket List”, meaning a list of things you want to do before you die.
   One way or another, we all may have one, whether we identify it as such or not. That is to say, we all tend to have unfulfilled desires, wishes, hope, and plans that we end up deferring for consideration “tomorrow”.
   (Like Scarlet O’Hara in last scene of the famous movie, “Gone With the Wind”.)
   We also have a very good word to describe this kind of behavior—“procrastination”. And, sometimes, recognizing that we’re doing it, we resolve to change—and then often we procrastinate again!
   The moral seems to be, do not put off until “tomorrow” what you can do today, even if what you can do today is no more than a first step in long or continuing process.
   (Remember the Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”)
   Logically, since we fundamentally have absolutely no certitude whatsoever about the length of our lives, we should not put off until “tomorrow” whatever we consider vitally important today.
   That’s why having a bucket list is a pretty good idea. Forget about fantasies, dreams, and wishful thinking, but figure out the undone things that you really want to do and should be doing.
   If they are possible and important, put them on your bucket list—which should be arranged in priority order—and then resolve to begin to implement it.
   Never mind how formidable, how challenging, how demanding your undone thing may be. With the help of God all things are possible.
   (As the Beatles used to sing; “Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends”)

   Obviously, and maybe likely, your list may prove to be longer than your life. No matter. That’s why it’s in priority order.
   All you can do is to do as much you possibly can. You’re not omnipotent, you can’t fix everything, you can’t erase the past—and you can’t control the future, either.
   Trust in and be grateful for the help of God and the little help of your friends. Also, since you’re not superman/superwoman, be at peace with your limited successes and failures. Do your best, and God will do the rest.
   Your bucket list may, so to speak, range from the sublime to the ridiculous. That’s okay, after all it’s your bucket list—and no one else is exactly like you, nor will there ever be another person exactly like you!
   But, getting your bucket list in priority order is very important. After all, in the scheme of things, e.g., is climbing Mt. Everest more important than being reconciled with your estranged relative? Never mind that, for you, climbing Mt. Everest may be easier!
   Maybe you won’t live long enough to accomplish it, but the moment you add it to your list truly as a top priority you have taken your first step towards accomplishing it.
   Don’t leave any of the weighty, really important things off your list or give them a low priority on it.
   If you’re not sure, think of it this way: If today was the last day of your life, what undone thing would you like to accomplish, no matter how difficult, no matter how unlikely it may be that you could achieve it.
   Making the decision is what counts!

28 November 2021

Look Where You’re Going!

Look out! Look ahead! Look back! Look what you did! Look lively! Look what you’re leaving behind! Look what’s in front of you!
   There are so many “looks” in our lives that there’s no possibility of doing all of them, but we to tend to favor one or another direction.
   Getting older, the temptation may be to indulge in a lot of looking back. It can be kind of negative if it’s a matter of bewailing the past. “I used to be able to …” or “I wish I could … again” or “Things used to be so great a long time ago”.
   On the other hand, it can be very positive, when we recall with pleasure, joy, gratitude, and thanksgiving the wonderful experiences or blessings we’ve enjoyed over the course of our lives.
   But, even getting older, we still are challenged to and need to look ahead. How sad it is to fear tomorrow and to do our best to keep our head in the sand.
   If we are living a life of faith, we have great expectations and even an impatient yearning for the future. Alas for us, if we can’t see anything ahead of us and have closed eyes and no hopes for tomorrow.
   Looking back from time to time to celebrate happy events, accomplishments, and achievements is only natural and a source of satisfaction and happiness—but it’s no excuse for not looking ahead.
   If we live, we are in forward motion. It’s shear folly to close our eyes and grit our teeth like one with no future at all. Look around all you want, but no matter what, don’t forget to look ahead!
   If you can’t see anything on your own when you try to look ahead, look for someone who can see to guide you on your way, dog or human!
   And, of course, it goes without saying that asking for help from the One who always knows the way forward ensures making headway in spite of all our limitations.

   Be careful not to confuse looking ahead with knowing what’s ahead. Looking ahead is a matter of hope and discerning our direction—but we don’t actually entirely know what’s ahead of us until we get there.
   Not looking ahead means we’re abandoning responsibility for our own future. We’re not bothering to try to control the course of our lives, we’re simply drifting and passively accepting whatever transpires.
   Each of us is a free agent. We’re free to speculate, imagine, seek, set goals, work to achieve them or just drift through life or allow our course to be set or influenced by others and their decisions.
   We all once lived like this, at least for a while. It’s called infancy or early childhood and was appropriate for a brief period many years ago, but not anymore.
   We’re not a 007, licensed to kill, but we are accredited by God, licensed to live. If we deliberately stunt our growth, if we bind ourselves tightly with behaviors that prevent us from developing, if we pretend that one stage of our lives was the best and only one and cling to it dearly, we are opting for blindness, deafness, immobility, and dying.

   O Lord, you have probed me and you know me; you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar.
   My journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar…
   Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence, where I can flee?…
   If I take the winds of the dawn, if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
   Even there your hand shall guide me, and your right hand hold me fast.
   (Psalm 139:1-3,7,9-10)

8 August 2021

Remembrance Rituals

Passover is a divinely commanded remembrance ritual that celebrates the liberation of the enslaved descendants of Jacob/Israel—the Hebrew people.
   The Bible describes the repeated, failed attempts to convince the Pharoah to grant them freedom. Ten plagues or divine actions were meant to force his hand. He resisted nine, but with the tenth, the death of every firstborn son, he relented and allowed the Hebrews to leave Egypt.
   Through Moses and Aaron, God instructed the Hebrew people what to do to safeguard their firstborn sons during the final, dreadful, and decisive plague.
   They were to sacrifice a lamb, smear some of its blood on the doorposts and lintel of their dwellings as a marker to spare them from the angel of death, and make a meal of the sacrificed lamb.
   For centuries the key element of the Passover ritual was the actual sacrifice of a lamb followed by the sacrificial meal. However, after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, it was no longer possible to have sacrifices according to the Law.
   Ever since that time, the remembrance ritual changed. The remembrance now includes that of the sacrificial lamb itself, but the meal, no longer actually sacrificial, became more symbolic, a reminder of the ancient salvific acts of God.
   The Passover ritual meal now called the Seder includes various other symbols that remind the participants of details of what they are remembering of the past with thanksgiving and hope.
   Jesus’s death is tied to Passover, and his last supper meal with his disciples before his death is usually identified as a Passover ritual—and anticipatory to the great sacrifice of Jesus’ life.
   For Christians, this ultimate sacrifice of Jesus is at the heart of their version of the ancient remembrance ritual, the Mass.

   Just as on the evening of the tenth plague a lamb was sacrificed and its blood became salvific, so the first followers of Jesus viewed his death on the cross.
   Just as in the Seder the sparing of the firstborn of the Hebrews and their liberation is remembered and symbolically celebrated, so too in the Mass, our being spared and liberated by the death of Jesus is remembered and symbolically celebrated.
   Jesus himself gave the remembrance symbols to his followers: the broken bread, shared by all at the table, this was his body, broken for their and our salvation—the cup of wine, shared by all at table, this was his blood, shed for their and our salvation.
   “Do this in remembrance of me.” he said.
   This remembrance ritual, rooted in the Passover and associated with the Resurrection, began to be enacted every Lord’s Day (Sunday), not just once a year at Passover (Easter) time. It even became a daily ritual for many.
   Because of centuries of theologizing and analyzing of the specifics of the ritual and the meaning of the Lord’s words, as well as great religious divisions about the matter, emphasis was placed on transubstantiation and real presence.
   An unintended consequence has been less attention to the significance of the remembrance ritual’s principal symbolic actions, the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the wine.
   Liturgical reforms in the last century were not so much refinements of complex ceremonials, elaborate vesture, and special architectural arrangements as a challenge to us to rebalance our understanding of this core remembrance ritual of our lives.

21 March 2021

This World or That

Americans have a great respect for their Constitution. You can see it especially when there is a disagreement about the merit of an action or a law. The final appeal for justice seems to involve finding a basis in the Constitution.
But—as hearings for candidates for judgeships often show—with the passage of time there are different schools of thought among judicial scholars and lawyers about how to understand and interpret the words of the Constitution.
And, if and when the Constitution is amended—a complex legal matter involving the federal and state governments and ultimately the citizens themselves—then a brand-new fundamental concept or interpretation is placed on equal footing with the original document!
Americans also have a great respect for the Bible. You can see it especially when there is a disagreement about the rightness or wrongness of certain behaviors or actions or about the values and ideals that inspire them. Often the final appeal for morality involves finding a basis in the Bible.
But, with the passage of time, there are different schools of thought among biblical scholars and religious authorities about how to understand and interpret the words of the Bible.
And, most importantly, the Bible isn’t a book in the sense of one continuous narrative, one planned literary work. It’s a collection of significant religious writings assembled and redacted over a period of some thousands of years.
The Bible cannot be “amended” as the U.S. Constitution, but the understanding of God and his designs clearly evolves over the centuries—and the process still continues!
Later books of the Bible often go beyond and/or enrich the thoughts and teachings of earlier ones—as do the successive generations inspired by them.

Our understanding of human nature and destiny—God’s designs, will, and plans for us—is like that. How we see the stages of life and our expectations for the future gradually have changed and been modified as time passes—and continue to do so.
For example, early books of the Bible tended to identify worldly success and esteem with goodness and vice versa.
Yet the Book of Job overwhelmingly shattered that simplistic point of view, although it had no detailed alternate explanations beyond the mysterious and overwhelming will and power of the Creator.
Gradually the belief in an after-life, the next world, began to develop, rooted in trust in the justice and love of God and culminating in the life and teachings of Jesus and in his resurrection.
In centuries when life was hard, painful, and short with little or no prospect of improvement—and when people heard of a better place to live in this world or in a better world to come—they yearned and hoped for it and, as best they could, planned to get there some day.
However, in times when life is easier, more comfortable, with expectations for betterment, there is less interest in relocating or less thought, yearning, and planning for a world to come.
Of course, for each person a time comes when health declines, life wanes, and death needs to be faced—either as an end or as a gateway to a better place and stage of life.
Those who have hope for the next world—even though they have not yet experienced it and can only imagine it—are sustained and encouraged by their confidence and trust—their faith—in God’s mercy and love.

31 January 2021