Invitation to Peer Together...Through A Glass, Darkly

As I inaugurate this experiment in personal expression, finally joining thousands of bloggers as one who came late to the party, I suppose I should offer some explanation for the name I chose for my blog. One of the signs of the times is that so many are so willing to express their beliefs and opinions with so much conviction that they are in possession of the TRUTH. Our radio and television airways are full of strident voices confidently proclaiming that their conclusions are correct and that all voices to the contrary should be shouted down, drowned out by a cacophony of ideological certitude. “If you are not with us, then you are against us. Others may spout their foolishness, but we will remain pure, our hands firmly covering our ears, able only to hear our own voices frantically filling the ether with our truth.”

We live in the midst of endless debate. We do not seek to persuade but to overpower all opposition with the force of our pronouncements and the bite of our sarcasm. And when these will not do, we vilify and demonize those that we portray as the enemy, those who have the temerity to speak out against our ideas, and therefore against us.

Sadly, many of the most strident, those most caught up in this spirit of advocacy, identify themselves as conservative Christians. Boldly they proclaim the TRUTH, unabashedly telling others how to apply the teachings of Jesus and the rest of the Old and New Testaments to the details of their lives. They do not hesitate to attempt to remove the splinters from so many other eyes, while squinting and peering past the two-by-fours in their own. And there was a time when I took my place among them.

I was so sure when I was thirty that I had all the answers. I was so secure in my doctrinal understanding, so certain of the rightness of my views and the righteousness of my cause, almost I came to believe that any means were justified by my exalted ends.

Now, twenty plus years later, I realize that not only do I not have all of the answers, I have not even begun to learn all of the questions. Which brings me back to the name of my blog.

If it had first appeared on the Internet, I would say that the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is one of the most beautiful blogs ever written. Almost 2000 years later, Paul’s view of love stills slows us down, challenges and inspires us, and raises our hope for a kinder gentler age.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

“Love never fails.”

And when the chapter is read, we usually take a mental time out as the next sentences are read, checking back in at the last verse: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” And then we sagely nod and enjoy the warm feelings engendered for a moment or maybe two and then remind ourselves that this is an ideal that few can reach, maybe a Mother Teresa or a Florence Nightingale and we remind ourselves that we live in a cold, hard competitive world. And miss a pathway to discovery of such a love in our own experience.

For before his summation, Paul reminds us “where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” When will our knowledge become complete? When will we know fully as we are fully known? Not in this life.

Or as the translators commissioned by King James put it, for now we see through a glass, darkly… And I need to be reminded of it each time I come here to record my reactions to the events of our days, to add my thoughts and ruminations to this new tower of Babel that we call the Internet. When I am tempted to criticize the President, lampoon the politicos, and deride the special interests I need to be reminded that all of my knowledge is fragmentary, all of my perspectives limited, all of my ideas influenced, if not completely determined, by the mental models and images imbedded in the hard drive of my brain.

As Mortimer Adler wrote in The Great Ideas, there is Absolute Truth but there is not one of us who can claim to know it absolutely. Not even me. Could St. Paul’s recognition of the limitations on our knowledge be the place of beginning for the generosity of spirit, the graceful consideration, the affirmation of the inherent worthiness of others that Paul attributes to timeless love?

So come to this blog if you want to live in the question, in a spirit of inquiry. Your comments are welcome if you come here willing to voice your own doubts, your own questions, and at the same time, share with this beggar where you have found bread. I wonder how much more we will come to understand if we share what we each see as we peer together through a glass, darkly.