Thought-provoking and insightful lecture presented today by the chaplain of the University of College Dublin on the poetry of St John Paul II in light of his philosophical conception of man which, along with much else, emphasizes the role of wonder in our relation to being as essential in awakening us to our unique role in the cosmos as the beings to whom the intelligibility and mystery and beauty of being is made manifest as created by God. I. The Stream Ruah The Spirit of God hovered above the waters. 1. Wonderment The undulating wood slopes down to the rhythm of mountain streams. To me this rhythm is revealing You, the Primordial Word. How remarkable is Your silence in everything, in all that on every side unveils the created world around us ... all that, like the undulating wood, runs down every slope ... all that is carried away by the streams silvery cascade, rhythmically falling from the mountain, carried by its own current—carried where? What are you saying to me, mountain stream? Where, in which place, do we meet? Do you meet me who is also passing— just like you. But is it like you? (Allow me to pause here; allow me to stop at a threshold, the threshold of simple wonder). The running stream cannot marvel, and silently the woods slope down, following the rhythm of the stream— but man can marvel! The threshold which the world crosses in him is the threshold of wonderment. (Once, this very wonder was called Adam). He was alone in his wonder, among creatures incapable of wonder— for them it is enough to exist and go their way. Man went his way with them, filled with wonder! But being amazed, he always emerged from the tide that carried him, as if saying to everything around him: Stop—in me is your harbour, in me is the place of meeting with the Primordial Word. Stop, this passing has meaning ... has meaning ... has meaning.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 21:33:45 +0000
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