The “why” and the future
The “why” and the future
The “why” and the future
In this day and age, it seems that reason overshadows all ways of “knowing”, in scientific, philosophical and religious fields of study and in practice. Even more, in our personal lives, we often get stuck in the bind of “cause-and-effect”, in the effort to find explanations for the “reason why”, and in our rigid predictions concerning the future. Trapped in this bind, we lose sight of the purpose of our being, together with the unknown and surprising factors that can change our life. Τhere is no doubt that finding the cause of any malady is a fundamental necessity for its treatment. The late and beloved Fr. Adamantios Avgoustidis always stressed that finding the proper diagnosis is half of the treatment in curing an illness.
Yet, the healing of the Blind Man sheds a new light on life-events, their consequences and the perspective of the future. When the disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”, He placed the question of causality into another realm, different from that of a deterministic perspective. Christ responds to the disciples: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” He, who is the Love that gives life to the world, drives everything towards the highest form of existence, to the pure actuality which moves the world not as a cause but as the object of love. In the ecstasy of His love, we grow as beings in the image and likeness of God, by which the “works of God” are revealed through us.
Love, or as the Areopagite says, “eros”, interconnects the “reason why” and “purpose” of our lives. This is where “mercy and truth are met together, where righteousness and peace have kissed; where truth springs up from the earth and righteousness comes down from heaven” (Psalm 84).
As an object of love, every human being is given the cause to seek and experience new possibilities, goals and ideals, which invite and draw them toward the future. This does not exclude the fact that we are shaped and influenced by the positive and negative life events and interactions of the past. It gives us the possibility though to recognize them and to overcome and to utilize them so as to unite with a force that fosters us to go beyond these events and our self-centeredness, that force being the grace of the Holy Spirit.
If we see our human predicament as a path that can lead us to considering the possibilities of the future, we will not be bound to a deterministic type of causality which creates a neurotic life full of compulsions and fears that blinds us. We will use our past to afford us the possibility of allowing someone new to enter and change our life, the possibility to participate in relationships that spring out of a love that is never ending. We will allow Christ to lead us into a new way of relating to others while, by relating to others, we will open ourselves to the possibility of being united to Him, the Savior and the light of the world.
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