Abouna’s Reflections

In prophecy, it is often the case that several realities, historical and otherwise, are telescoped. All creation and revelation is that of the ineffable divinity, the Hidden One. All existence both in nature and in grace is meant to communicate the divine reality of the Creator and Origin and all. The Hidden One is made manifest through His actions and creative work. Among intelligent beings, men and angels – the human race and the watchers – there is a further and more profound communication. God communicates according to our nature and thus speaks to us as it were in an intelligent and rational manner. Because of this, the Syriac Fathers saw all existence, nature and prophetic revelation, to be all one, different modes and lessons, but all one purpose and origin. All was created to manifest and glorify the Divine Goodness and, subsequent to the sinful fall of mankind, to bring redemption, healing and restoration to human beings as they are given to move supernaturally toward the Living One. In the Old Testament, everything in varying degrees foreshadows in one way or another the Messiah. Jesus of Nazareth is the “Anointed”, the Messiah, or in our Syriac, m’sheeHo. As the Divine Word, He is the fullness of God’s communication to the world. The Hidden One manifests Himself to the human race in the unique and definitive manner of the Christ. All this lies at the origin of our Syriac love of types and antitypes: foreshadowings to be found in the Sacred Scriptures. This is the poetry of our theology. And yet in the Gospel, Our Lord speaks of a further manifestation when He will return “on the clouds of glory”.1 This is less about a physical return as if travelling from one place to another and more about unveiling His present reality that is simply hidden to our bodily eyes. It is toward this moment of epiphany and revelation that all history is directed. When the Compassionate One sets to reveal Himself in all the splendor possible for creation to bear, then created time as we know it will end and we will have arrived at the “last day”. This is the meaning of “the powers of the heavens shall be shaken”2. Destruction is not the purpose of the Last Day; it is the effect of a natural world that is not disposed to receive divine life. Our Lord said that He had come to give life and to give it more abundantly.3 Life will be given whether we wish it or not, however only those disposed to the gracious life of God will be able to enter the Kingdom of Light. As it is, we are told in the Gospel that some (many? most?) elements in creation, and among men in particular, will not be disposed to receive this Life in its full manifestation of the Son of Man’s glory; hence the convulsions of that Day when men will call to the mountains “to fall on us”4 as they attempt tardily to hide form the Life that had been offered to them in mercy all throughout their lives. This will be definitive and cosmic human tragedy with eternal consequences. We live in the “last days”,5 the final age of creation awaiting the full glory of the Compassionate One’s revelation. Let us each seek this true life of God while it is offered gently, compassionately and with patient mercy. This is, after all, the true intent of God. May we embrace His grace, love Him in return, and allow ourselves to be raised to the transcendent divine Beauty. Although foretold, God’s desire is not for wrath and justice; wrath and justice will result from the free choices we make and the dispositions that we create each day. This freedom makes us correspond either to grace and divine love, or to repulse the divine embrace and turn away from the gentle call of grace. These last weeks of the Holy Cross are meant to serve as a time to consider and pray over the final truths, the “last things”, of death, judgment, heaven and hell. May we reflect wisely and enter freely the divine light and love while we have the time to do so. 1 St. Mark 13; 26 2 St. Luke 21; 26 3 St. John 10; 10 4 St. Luke 23; 30 5 I Cor 10; 11