Monday, June 27, 2011
John Paul II.3: God is a Playwright
Everything is trivial if the universe is not committed to a metaphysical adventure. --Don Colacho's Aphorisms
[snip]
"...Even as a lad, Wojtyla recognized the cosmic significance of language, and was struck by the "intimacy" afforded by words, "between the one who spoke and the one who listened." In a way, this goes to man's ontological status as "priest" or pontifex of the cosmos, the living link between time and eternity, Creator and creation, the medicine of Truth above and its side effects herebelow. One of his literary mentors taught that properly communicated -- and received -- words could "open up, through the materials of this world, the realm of transcendent truth" and universal moral values.
And if the world of the stage "could unveil the deeper dimensions of the truth of things, might there be a dramatic structure to every human life? To the whole of reality?"
In the past we have written of how we are drawn to music because it discloses vital information about the nature of reality. If John Paul is correct, the same could be said of man's universal appreciation of, and need for, drama.
Here is how Cardinal Ratzinger describes the plot line and theme of this cosmic Broadway -- actually, narroway -- production:
"Man can be and should be a synthesis, comprising every floor in the whole building of creation," ending -- and beginning -- in the living God," for "it is in this that the whole thrill of the human adventure resides."
On the one hand, the drama "has a fixed shape -- it is always the same -- and yet it is inexhaustible and is ever new. It always leads us farther on. We are not just chained to a past in which there is nothing more to be discovered; rather, it is a whole country of discoveries, in which each of us can also find himself anew" (ibid.).
In any event, God may be a mathematician, but his major is in drama. ..."
One of his literary mentors taught that properly communicated -- and received -- words could "open up, through the materials of this world, the realm of transcendent truth" and universal moral values.
Words are symbols for thought, the way we communicate ideas. However, I am not sure what John Paul means by "drama."
In the past we have written of how we are drawn to music because it discloses vital information about the nature of reality. If John Paul is correct, the same could be said of man's universal appreciation of, and need for, drama.
Music I can understand, for music is just a mathematical arrangement of the finite number of notes. Perhaps music is the emotional tie to mathematics, making math more than just dry equations, and maybe drama is the same, connecting emotion and therefore new meaning, to everyday experiences. Both allow us to experience new things vicariously, as do poems and novels.
And if the world of the stage "could unveil the deeper dimensions of the truth of things, might there be a dramatic structure to every human life? To the whole of reality?"
I could continue to do point/counterpoint but I will just say that although this is very informative and helpful it doesn't address my main point, at least that I can see.
However, it does make me think of one of my other beliefs that is not always shared by others - the belief that our minds are more than a genii-in-a-box or an expanded Magic 8 Ball. To me, this ties together the aforementioned interaction with music and drama. We already know that we remember things better that cause our emotional involvement, sometimes inaccurately though, and perhaps that plays into this.
Yet, what I am thinking is that, just as Jesus is our connection to God, that our minds transcend the assumed physical limitations of our brain and allow us to interact with the Holy Spirit and the universe. That ties back into what is above and to the rest of your post but I am not sure it addresses the change from our present selves into the Heavenly Eternal selves. Perhaps this does but I am not certain:
On the one hand, the drama "has a fixed shape -- it is always the same -- and yet it is inexhaustible and is ever new. It always leads us farther on. We are not just chained to a past in which there is nothing more to be discovered; rather, it is a whole country of discoveries, in which each of us can also find himself anew".
I suppose that unburdened by sin and temptation, we could find continuing adventure in God's Heaven and that if each day produced (are there days in Heaven?) new opportunities that time would pass rapidly. But eternity ....??