"Why the Apocalyptic?"
"Why the Apocalyptic?"
The apocalyptic style emerges to free prophets from taking themselves or their role in history too seriously. It says that after all is said and done (the work of the prophet), give history back to God and be at peace in the transcendent truth. Don’t try so hard that you become part of the bigger problem. The prophet might appear to be saying, “Work as if it all depends on you.” The apocalyptic figure says, “Pray and trust as if it all depends on God.” At the end of the day, cool it; forget it, and give history back to the Holy One who is going to achieve the victory anyway.
The apocalyptic prophet has two simultaneous and self-correcting messages: (1) Everything matters immensely; (2) It doesn’t really matter at all. How many people do you know who can live out their lives on that pure and narrow path? I don’t know very many at all. It seems that some are called to take the strongly apocalyptic position and all of the accompanying criticism in order to free the rest of us from our over-engagement with and idolatry of “the way things are.”
Probably the most visible and effective witnesses to this position in our time are Dorothy Day, with her “holy anarchy,” and Thomas Merton, who left it all to sit in a hermitage in the hills of Kentucky. They will always be criticized for not doing more, but their absolute stance, as we have clearly seen, is the home and school for the emergence of true prophets.
Without the apocalyptic “No,” prophets are no more than high-energy and idealistic activists, often working out of their own denied anger or denied self-interest. Apocalypticists are willing to be seen as fanatic, anti-American, anti-anything so that the rest of us can rediscover the Absolute. They are bothered and bored by our relativities and rationalization. They demand an objective ground from which all else is judged and will not be nudged from their uncompromising stance,
I believe one has to be a true and lasting contemplative to maintain apocalyptic firmness and freedom, and to keep from becoming a righteous and defeated prophet.
from Radical Grace, “Christ Against Culture or Christ the Transformer of Culture?”
The apocalyptic style emerges to free prophets from taking themselves or their role in history too seriously. It says that after all is said and done (the work of the prophet), give history back to God and be at peace in the transcendent truth. Don’t try so hard that you become part of the bigger problem. The prophet might appear to be saying, “Work as if it all depends on you.” The apocalyptic figure says, “Pray and trust as if it all depends on God.” At the end of the day, cool it; forget it, and give history back to the Holy One who is going to achieve the victory anyway.
The apocalyptic prophet has two simultaneous and self-correcting messages: (1) Everything matters immensely; (2) It doesn’t really matter at all. How many people do you know who can live out their lives on that pure and narrow path? I don’t know very many at all. It seems that some are called to take the strongly apocalyptic position and all of the accompanying criticism in order to free the rest of us from our over-engagement with and idolatry of “the way things are.”
Probably the most visible and effective witnesses to this position in our time are Dorothy Day, with her “holy anarchy,” and Thomas Merton, who left it all to sit in a hermitage in the hills of Kentucky. They will always be criticized for not doing more, but their absolute stance, as we have clearly seen, is the home and school for the emergence of true prophets.
Without the apocalyptic “No,” prophets are no more than high-energy and idealistic activists, often working out of their own denied anger or denied self-interest. Apocalypticists are willing to be seen as fanatic, anti-American, anti-anything so that the rest of us can rediscover the Absolute. They are bothered and bored by our relativities and rationalization. They demand an objective ground from which all else is judged and will not be nudged from their uncompromising stance,
I believe one has to be a true and lasting contemplative to maintain apocalyptic firmness and freedom, and to keep from becoming a righteous and defeated prophet.
from Radical Grace, “Christ Against Culture or Christ the Transformer of Culture?”
posted by LuisVelasco @ 9:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home