The most fundamental thing is what is; "To be, or not to be" is not the question. We are, and even an act of self-termination does not resolve the problem of Being; the real question is, what is our reaction to the reality of our existence? What answer can even God make to one who chooses to deny the goodness of being? Every possible act of beneficence, every beauty and pleasure provided to demonstrate goodness would be regarded by such a one as simply bait in a trap designed to reconcile him to the futility of existence. It is this absolute exercise of will which defines the person; to affirm or deny. The denial of Being is the deepest dimension of evil, an insatiate rage against the Creator as the Fountain of Being. "Evil, be thou my Good" is simply its most characteristic expression. All the Author of Life Himself can do is to say, "I set before you Life and Death, a Blessing and a Curse; therefore, choose Life". There is nothing much that can be done for those who don't.
2 comments:
Thats supposing one participates in the 'fulllness' of being. What if cirumstance and predicament denies this fullness of being? Is the font of being to blame? If life becomes death, then what to one who wills death.
You're thinking of the wrong kind of fullness; I'm thinking much more abstractly here. The type of goodness I'm talking about nothing can deprive you of; all it takes is a movement of the Will, yet how difficult it is to find this thing, lost as we are in the labyrinthian folds of our disorder!
Modernity labors mightily to convince us that we are not free; that, if there is any kind of essential nurturance missing from our environment, we are condemned to be crippled spiritually. This is in contrast to the word of scripture, in which the poor are blessed, and the rich "sent empty away". One can starve to death in praise of their Creator, and another be possesed of every material good, and life be but a desert to him; indeed, I believe the abundance of material goods produces dependence on them. Christ was not trying to be mean to the Rich Young Ruler when He told him to sell all he had, He was just saying "Shake off your chains, and be free". If you live all your life with every want met, it is to these things you look for blessedness in life, and Joy cannot spring from such an impoverished soil, Pleasure and Pain alike are irrelevant to it. In the end, either Love triumphs over Pain, or Pain triumphs over Love; Christianity is in the former condition, and Modernity in the latter. Modernity is completely conditioned by pain, Christianity is not even touched by it.
If life becomes death, it is by our will that the sky is darkened, by our rejection of the higher good God offers instead of the paltry goods on which our hearts are set.
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