Sometimes I wonder
whether there are people who give up searching for God, simply because they
tried and failed to visualise and comprehend the vastness of His glory. It is not easier to give up rather than chasing something you realise you can
comprehend less than a tiny drop in the sea?
How can we fathom
the greatness of God? Throughout history painters and theologians have repeatedly
tried to capture the image of God, yet all their works fall short in adequately
portraying His glory.
When the Lord commanded Saint Faustina
Kowalska to paint an image of the Divine Mercy, the woman herself was so
disappointed with the artist’s piece she cried, “Who will paint You as beautiful as You are?” (Faustina, 2003). Even Saint Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the most
famous theologian of his time, was quoted saying, “All that I have written seems like straw to me” (Davies, 1993), and ceased writing his Summa.
Imagine being under the dome of a
palace, which is dwarfed by the mountain, which is dwarfed by the sea, which is
dwarfed by the sky, which is dwarfed by space. And in the end trying to fathom
what is greater than space, 1 Kings 19:12-13 comes in. I once tried to fathom the splendour
of God with the sound of thunder, drumroll and cymbals; what I received from
heaven’s choir was singing voices which blew past all forms of music. When I
tried to imagine the glory beyond the stars and galaxies, the image of a
sepia-like oil painting like those you find adorning walls come to mind: very
akin to the picture of the upper room of the last supper.
Source: http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/097/1/6/the_upper_room_by_radojavor-d4vcn8p.jpg.
Note this is not the exact image visualised.
Many people, when they find that their
work outshone by others, simply choose to give up and adopt the “shoganai” (it
cannot be helped) attitude, abandoning their pursuit for the top. If they act
as such amongst their peers, what more about the infinite divine? If we are
discouraged in chasing after what is humanly possible, what then of the calling
to exceed that which is humanly possible?
I have been following the Japanese anime
and light novel Log
Horizon
recently. A bit on the series: the story takes place whereby ordinary human
players are trapped in a world similar to the online game (MMORPG), Elder Tales
they were playing.
In
that world, humanity (as they see it) is divided into 2 main groups: Adventurers (human players stuck in the MMORPG
along with their Avatars and in-game skills); and the People of the Land, who are the native
inhabitants of the world, previously termed as non-player characters (NPCs). As
the story progresses, it was revealed that the People of the Land were more
than just pre-programmed NPCs they were when Elder Tales was still game – they
were just as human as the Adventurers are. Likewise, the People of the Land viewed
the Adventurers as a powerful (and also potentially threatening) group with
military and technological might leagues surpassing them (as an example: the knights
of the People of the Land average around level 30, while half of the Adventurers
were at level 90).
Over the course of the series, Lenessia,
a princess of the People of the Land, began to discover that, not only their
battle and technological prowess, the Adventurers’ behaviour and intelligence
far exceeded what she imagined. For instance, she was amazed that every
Adventurer understood battle tactics, and do not have a caste system like her
people. Part of the series deals with her lamentation of not being able to comprehend
the strength and customs of the Adventurers.
Lenessia musing over the Adventurers’
potential (source: Log Horizon, episode 18).
In a sense, I feel that I can somewhat relate
to this story. Just as the People of the Land represent the original
inhabitants of the world and the Adventurers gamers-cum-heroes that came down
from the sky, we are the people living on Earth while the God and His heavenly
host reign above in Heaven. How can we hope to fully comprehend Him whose
strength and intelligence infinitely exceeds us? When we cannot even grasp the
things of this world, how can we hope to grasp the things in Heaven and the One
who created them all?
In response to this, we can either
choose to let it all go, leaving behind all the responsibilities that come with
it; or, like Lenessia and Rundelhaus (another character in Log Horizon) we can
continually pursue that which is beyond our grasp, leaving our comfort zone in
order to understand, imitate our lives as closely as possible, and hopefully
one day come to be united in Heaven with God along with our brothers and
sisters – as Rundelhaus, a People of the Land came to be an Adventurer by
striving follow the path of an Adventurer.
The Glory of the Lord exceeds the
highest Heavens (Psalms
113:4).
Yet even we, a mere shadow of His image may have a share in that glory, if we ceaselessly
continue to pursue Him. Through this, even if we may not comprehend it, we will
one day come to discover and appreciate the fullness contained in that “drop”
of water in the vast sea. And, just as a drop of water mingled becomes a part of
the whole sea, so to our pursuits in Him contain the fullness of God’s glory:
“Because
there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake in the one
bread.”
(1 Corinthians 10:17)
RFG always.
REFERENCES:
Davies, B. (1993). The Thought of Thomas Aquinas. New York: Clarendon
Paperbacks.
Faustina, M.K. (2005). Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Stockbridge: Marian Press.
