Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Interpreted by Love

Yesterday, during Mass at a conference to celebrate The Tablet's 175th Anniversary, we sang the lovely hymn which resists rephrasing in inclusive language: "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind".

O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with thee
The silence of eternity,
Interpreted by love!

These last two lines struck me as the fundamental meaning of the Christian faith, and the fundamental malaise of postmodernity. The silence of eternity underscores all that is. Do we interpret this as the empty void, or do we interpret it as the abyss of love? This was the question that I explored in my book Theology After Postmodernity, but these two lines say it all. If to be human is to interpret the world, then the essential and inescapable question is surely, how do we interpret the silence of eternity?

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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous4 November 2015 at 14:05

    "These last two lines struck me as the fundamental meaning of the Christian faith"
    Yes indeed, in a nutshell.

    And for me this line from My Song Is Love Unknown, a hymn by Samuel Crossman, written in 1664.

    "Love to the loveless shown
    that they might lovely be".

    ReplyDelete

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