Reflections on Today's Gospel

I know that I try to have a deep and meaningful¹ reflection about the Gospel each week, but I find that my mind isn’t really catching on any of the many available hooks that the readings are filled with. As seems to be my custom, there is a part of the reading that I struggle with.

In the first reading, we hear the Prophet Isaiah say that a voice cries out to prepare a way in the desert.² In the Gospel, however, we are told that the Prophet Isaiah says that a voice in the desert cries out.³ Interestingly, both happen in the third verse of the chapter, for all that the first happens in the fortieth chapter and the other in the first chapter.

Now, what about this bothers me, especially as a person who knows that ancient languages had a much different approach to punctuation than modern people do? Primarily, it’s the fact that if there was no punctuation, we⁴ could have made the two line up. But, we didn’t.

I’m sure that there’s some deep spiritual meaning for this, for all that I cannot find it. The commentary on the USCCB website notes that, despite claiming to be a direct quote from Isaiah, there are references to other prophets’ prophesies.⁵

So, let’s take the readings where I’m at today. The first reading reminds us that struggles are both temporary and meant as purification. Any hardship we endure now is either to cleanse us from some past wrong or⁶ to prepare us for some future glory.

One part I find interesting is the idea that the geography of the world is something less than perfect. There is a heresy that became popular near the Enlightenment⁷ known as the Watchmaker G-d. This heresy states that, much like a watchmaker, who carefully sets gears and winds a watch before stepping away, the Lord created the universe, along with all of its laws, and then stepped back to watch and see what happened.

Of course, as a scientist, I believe something similar. As a Catholic, though, there is room for nuance, which I find very important. So, where’s the nuance?

First, an obvious contradiction to the Watchmaker⁸ is the existence of miracles. The water turning into wine or Our Lord’s rising from the dead cannot happen without active intervention. Even in the modern day, miracles are still performed wherever the Lord sees that it would most help the faithful.⁹ It goes deeper than that, though.

One thing that the Watchmaker heresy implies, however accidentally, is the preexistence of nature. A watchmaker does not conjure the gears and hands of a watch from the formless void. He may shape them from metal, but even the ore he gets comes from some other cause. In contrast, the Lord created the universe from nothing.

So, it’s an imperfect metaphor at best. All metaphors are, which is why they’re symbolic rather than literal. What else is wrong with the Watchmaker?

The crucial issue in the Watchmaker heresy is the idea that the Lord stopped. When a watchmaker finishes his work, the watch is done, and he can sell it or give it away. Without the Lord constantly willing reality to remain, we would cease. At every moment of every day, we are sustained and continued solely through Love. Our Creator is not some dispassionate worker toiling for His pay. Our Creator made us with Love, from Love, and for Love.

Returning to the readings, we see an oblique reference to this in a letter from the first Pope. St. Peter reminds us that, though we experience life in something resembling a linear fashion¹⁰, the Lord does not. For Him who is outside of time, everything happens as it should. It is a hard concept to imagine, for all that I know that it’s essential for mathematicians, who often visualize high dimensional spaces.

I’m reminded of a movie¹¹ called Flatland. In it, a two dimensional creature is exposed to the concept of three dimensions, in part by seeing zero and one dimensional existence. Thinking of it like that helps me resolve the whole “how does Free Will work when G-d knows every thought I’ve had before I have it?” How, exactly, it works with miracles or the Divine Revelation, which explicitly happened to a specific people at a specific time, though, remains a mystery. For all that I can trust that it is true, I would not be able to give a reasoned defense should that be someone’s stumbling block to joining the Church.

So, where are we? The readings appear to contradict themselves, for all that I know that any punctuation we add is a modern decision. The universe is not a machine created by someone thoughtless, but a treasured love of Love Himself. Time is an illusion, albeit one we are bound to.

at least to me↩︎
paraphrase of Is 40: 3a↩︎
paraphrase of Mk 1: 3a↩︎
St. Jerome translating to the Vulgate, which I think does have punctuation, or any of the people translating to English↩︎
also, apparently Malachai was the penultimate prophet, since he was the last until John the Baptist. I should really have known that, since it seems like an important fact↩︎
probably and, if we’re being real↩︎
wow there’s a lot of power in getting to choose the name of your movement↩︎
capitalized because it’s still a way, however imperfect, of referring to the Divine↩︎
I think? Honestly, why miracles happen is a mystery to me. If not for the fact that I think they might be a Mystery, I would probably be more bothered by that fact↩︎
relativity is the reason for resembling, to say nothing of the whole field of cognitive science which tells us that our experience of passing seconds is not objective↩︎
and the book the movie is based on, but I don’t have as close a relationship or dear a memory with the book↩︎
maybe just checked out one and reserved one, we’ll see.↩︎

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I'm just copying my father

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Reflections on Today’s Gospel

Draft 1