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The Lord of History, by Msgr. Eugene Kevane. ©2003 The Miriam Press. All Rights Reserved Contents Directory • Next • Previous IX. The Lord of History and His Parousia The philosophy of history is fundamentally a corollary of the doctrine of Creation, always taught by the metaphysics of Christian Philosophy, and now becoming a postulate of physics and mathematics as well. Since the Creator is infinitely intelligent, furthermore, philosophical reason by itself can (and should) recognize that He will have a plan in mind when creating. In carrying out such a plan God is already the Lord of history. Philosophical reason need feel nothing untoward in this recognition, nor even in admitting that the plan in itself is beyond its own scope. For this is nothing more than recognizing creaturehood. The shame for philosophy is rather in the failure to recognize the Creator. Philosophy and the Creed These insights bring philosophical reason into correlation with the First Article of the Creed: faith in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. From this point an attitude of reasonable openness becomes possible to some word from the Supreme Being revealing the nature of His plan, to the message of the New Testament which E. Stauffer puts into a brief synthesis: “The Logos of the first day, the Creator’s fiat, Himself takes on historical form and becomes subject to successive development, completing in Himself the entire work of creation in its substantive historical reality.”153 The Catholic Fact, fulfillment of the Hebrew Fact, has been built into the empirically given of human history by the dynamics of Evangelization and Catechesis, activities which have proceeded historically in terms of this same Profession of the Apostolic Faith. For this Profession goes directly from Creation to the redeeming death of Jesus Christ, His resurrection from the dead, and His expected return to judge the living and the dead. This Parousia is at the heart of the Christian Message for it constitutes Him the Lord of history. Thus God is the Lord of history still, but not in a way humans would expect or philosophical reason discover. The Lord of history is the Eternal Son, incarnate — and crucified. He is not the same as the Prince of this world. He was the Lord of history when, a prisoner with His hands tied, He was brought before Pilate, who asked Him:
In enduring the translatio imperii which the Great Apostasy will effect, the Christian philosophy of history will help Christians greatly by reflecting upon this special character of His Lordship over history. This Lordship will not be according to the thinking and the ways of men. Thus the intellectual victory over Religious Modernism, which the philosophy of history helps to win, is not the same as a social victory for the Church, a success in this world according to the fallen thinking and desires of men. To desire this success inordinately for the Church is, in fact, the temptation which lies at the root of the Modernist project to reinterpret the Christian message, especially the Article of Faith on the Parousia.154 The Creed and the Parousia Yet the Parousia, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, is of the essence of the Profession of the Apostolic Faith, and has been since the Apostles and their writings. It is the characteristic thrust of the entire New Testament and the constant tenor of evangelization and catechesis in the Early Church as a whole.
The Mystery of Christ This is no isolated instance, but rather the typical teaching of the Early Church, centered in its characteristic way upon the Mystery of Christ. It is this mysterium Christi, “which affects the whole course of human history,” that Vatican II in Optatam totius, No. 14, desires philosophy and theology to “supplement one another in revealing to the minds of the students,” in a renewed coordination of their distinct intellectual activities. The philosophy of history, cultivated anew and in its authentic mode, seems to be indicated explicitly as the way to this “more effective coordination.” Mention has been made of the post-modern opportunities for scholarly research and philosophical analysis that are opening before Catholic students. These converge toward the renewal of theology and philosophy and this new kind of coordination between them which illuminates better the Lord of history. The work of research and analysis in the philosophy of history is a special need of the Church, both in academic teaching and in the pastoral and catechetical care of souls, as the Twentieth Century verges toward its end. Without attempting answers, this study can conclude with a few brief indications regarding typical questions and areas where a new approach, following Optatam totius, promises to be fruitful. There is the question of the basic quality of the interior life proper to the post-modern situation. When she was asked, in the last weeks of her short life on the threshold of the Twentieth Century, what she meant by her Little Way of confidence in an abandon to the Heavenly Father, St. Thérèse of Lisieux replied: “It is recognizing one’s own nothingness, and looking up to the good God as a little child looks expectantly to his Father.”156 This is the First Article of the Creed and a living of the doctrine of Creation. In her magnificent, lightning-flash intuitions, which put her beyond the Modern Age with its Fathers Renan, Loisy and all the rest, she was post-modern all the way. Then there is the question of the apostasy, an exercise in the philosophical judgment of values: whether cultural values are truly and authentically human. And the related question whether the present experience is the Great Apostasy of Scripture, or only a more or less distant preparation for it.157 Closely related to the apostasy from God is a set of problems relating to the human experience of the translatio imperii: deception, discouragement, doubt, misplaced attachment.158 The analyses made by the philosophy of history become increasingly practical, even essential. For example: as the movement against Christ wrests terrain from His sway, space will belong more and more to the Prince of this world. Catholics will be tempted to feel wrong and Religious Modernists, in return for cooperation with the cells of the new Empire, will be made to seem right. Catholics will be tempted to say: “Am I so sure, after all, that I am right? Ought I not be humble? In fact, do I not sometimes appear even officially to be in the wrong?” The philosophy of history has a vital role in such a situation, for it changes the fundamental perspective in Christian thinking from space to time, a perspective in which the Prince of this world has only a brief hour. This helps to preserve communion with the Saints of all the Hebrew and Christian times, and loyalty to Him who is the Lord of history. This historical dimension, ministering to insight and loyalty, is adduced forcefully by Bishop Graber: “If we look back at the Early Church, we can see the old false doctrines of those days reappearing in new garb. Arius, who denied that the Logos was of one substance with the Father, lives on. He lives on whenever attempts are made to avoid professing unequivocally that Christ is true God.”159 This loyalty, as a matter of fact, is an outcome of the study of the philosophy of history. It is the link between intellectual life and the Lord of history. It is the practical point where philosophy coordinates with theology in making more manifest, even in the darkness of the other one’s brief hour, the splendor of the mysterium Christi. It is the founder of Christian Philosophy and mankind’s greatest philosopher of history who deserves the last word: “Nam qualis amor est Christi, timere ne veniat? Fratres, non erubesciums? Amamus, et timemus, ne veniat.... Veniet, velimus nolimus. Non enim quia modo non venit, ideo venturus non est.”160 | ||
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