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Far off Gleams of Evangelium

“He fell into a sleep as it were into an abyss of shadow and waking he was cold as stone, and his heart barren and forsaken” (165).  ~ Beren and Luthien,  Dyscatastrophe and Eucatastrophe

Last year, I got on board with Bible in a Year rather late, and missed more than I actually followed, so I probably read (or listened to) only a quarter of the Bible in the year.  This year, I get to start close to the New Year, but if you are like me, and have to sometimes catch up several episodes at a time, you can, like me, go to Youtube, turn the settings to X2 speed, and read the captions instead of listening.    

Father Mike comments that things went downhill FAST after the creation, at least in the terse Biblical telling.   You go from Genesis 1 and 2, where everything is created and it is GOOD, to where it all turns wrong.   Then it gets more and more wrong -- again, fast.   By Day 5 in the Ascension schedule, you have seen the momentary triumph of the serpent, fraternal murder, the nephilim, the tower to the sky, the Deluge.   Enough dyscatastrophe for any urban fantasist or manga artist.  

The Psalms and other canticles in the Divine Office let us revisit again and again during the ordinary day and week the goodness of creation in itself.   Often these canticles take place in moments of eucatastrophe -- the 3 young men in the furnace; Miriam and Moses celebrating the exodus of their people.   It is good that we can go back and contemplate the original heritage, because it's easy in dark moments to forget that light existed and does exist.  

When sin and death came to the world, God was already providing for their defeat.   He clothed our first parents with animal skins (Father Mike points out that this is the first evocation of something dying for someone else) and He protected them from eating of the Tree of Life and becoming immortally broken, like Jadis in the Narnia books, like vampires, like Voldemort, like Satan.    He promised a Redeemer even back then.

Epiphany -- the octave is going on right now -- is a reminder that light shone in the darkness for us, if we heed it.   It doesn't mean that there was never darkness, just that there is hope beyond it. 

“The Evangelium has not abrogated legends; it has hallowed them, especially the 'happy ending'. The Christian has still to work, with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope, and die; but he may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. "

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