A Star Shall Advance

Monday of the Third Week of Advent

I see him, though not now; I behold him, though not near: A star shall advance from Jacob, and a staff shall rise from Israel.  Number 24:17A

So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.”  He himself said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”  Matthew 21:27

Piety

Father, help us to admit what we do not know and accept through faith what you entrust to our being. 

Study

Limitations.  Our senses are amazing ways to relate to the world around us:  its sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures.  Our mind contains all the knowledge that has come to us and that we have pursued.  Yet we are limited by our "finite-ness," our smallness in the infinite.  We cannot know every fact.  We cannot taste every flavor.  We cannot hear every utterance.  We cannot see every sight.  We cannot smell every aroma.

Limitations.  What limits us does not limit God.  Time after time, when the Pharisees try to catch Jesus in an intellectual or theological or legal trap, Jesus turns the tables on them.  Jesus suffers not from all the same limitations we do. 

Recently, I read about an interview the author Kurt Vonnegut did with WNYC radio.  In it, he spoke about the limitations of the human mind:

I do have a strong idea about the limitations of the computer in our skulls — it’s just large enough to take care of our lives and must ignore an awful lot of what is going on around us. . . . I have a very primitive approach to science — I wonder how the universe originated, how could it have originated … how could you make something out of nothing … and sophomoric ideas like that. And so, after having banged around with that — how do you make a universe out of nothing — I have decided, just logically, that it can’t be done and therefore it must always have existed. And so, from that, I get a sense of permanence and, also, an annoyance with the limitations of my head. And I really do think that what we perceive as time is simply a processing device in our heads to let us consider a little of reality at a time — we couldn’t let it all come in at once.

Vonnegut considered these limitations and opted for a very agnostic view that the origin of the universe and more are relegated to permanent mystery because we can’t know everything.  Maybe, though, understanding our limitations is to understand how we are different from the divine creative force.  That Divine Oneness and Understanding will be embodied in a crying baby next week and forever.  We will remain under the infinite sky and stars during our finite time on this earth.  We can hold and behold only what is in front of us.  Only the Lord can hold and behold what’s in front of all of us.

Action

We know that there are nine finite days left until Christmas.  But how many days will pass before Christ passes through our lives?  He could walk through today in the form of a person we pass on the sidewalk, a patient we visit in the hospital, or a prison we visit in jail.  

In the stinky cave of Bethlehem, a baby will be born.  And real people will go to witness a real event.  In the two thousand and thirteen odd years since that birth, Jesus has been seen in the world even though he is no long near as a physical being.