Man is a rational animal, philosophers tell us. Yet, try as he does to always live by this truth, man often comes the edges and limits of his existence where reason does not make sense and rational logic is replaced by paradoxical logic. The coldest and strongest steel is forged in the hottest fires. New life springs from the detritus of rot and decay. And out there in the universe, space is curved an time is warped.
And so it is in our daily lives. We will never know how strong we are until we have plumbed the depths of our weakness. We discover how truly generous we are when we are able to give even when we have no more to give. We discover and truly appreciate the fullness of life when we are most empty of ourselves and of our hopes and dreams. We discover our true selves only after we have given it away in love and service to others.
Who would have thought, just using pure logic, that life could be coaxed out of dead rocks and unending sunshine? Who would have thought, just using rational processes, that this life could grow into such complexity and take on different forms and shapes? And who would have thought, just looking at all this shapes and colors, that his life could develop and acquire a consciousness of its own and speak and seek for its source? And who would have thought, just using human consciousness and reason, that that Source of all life and existence would join us in our nothingness and poverty so that we may share in fulness of his eternal life? We could not have done so unless he who preached about love and caring also talked to us about fire and divisions.
Jesus said to the crowds, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!
Luke 12:49-53