“THE OLD WORLD IS DYING.”
“The old world is dying,” Antonio Gramsci wrote, “and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.”
He wrote these words after World War I, which ended in 1918, now more than 100 years ago. Then too William Butler Yeats said something similar:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand
Question to myself.
I agree that the old world has died: what sort of new world is expected? Do I have the answer? Stay tuned.
In a sense prophets have no time-line. I suspect that, in his wisdom, (with him a day is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years as one single day) God wanted humanity to advance even more technologically and religiously. I suspect that God wanted us to bring the entire world to the edge of total annihilation, which Climate Change is perfectly equipped to do. Throw in AI = Artificial Intelligence, nuclear rearmament, and lack of ‘religious vision’, and the possibility of human destructiveness is complete.
Prophets speak for all ages. Take Isaiah, who envisioned a scenario (Chapter 24) perfectly applicable to 2025:
See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth
and devastate it;
he will ruin its face
and scatter its inhabitants—
2it will be the same
for priest as for people,
for the master as for his servant,
for the mistress as for her servant,
for seller as for buyer,
for borrower as for lender,
for debtor as for creditor.
3The earth will be completely laid waste
and totally plundered.
The Lord has spoken this word.
4The earth dries up and withers,
the world languishes and withers,
the heavens languish with the earth.
5The earth is defiled by its people;
they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.
debtor as for creditor.
languish with the earth.
and broken the everlasting covenant.
6Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,
and very few are left.
Remember that God’s Creation represents God.
That brings me to “Teleios”
In the ‘sermon on the mount’ Jesus said, “Be perfect as I am perfect”, recorded in Matthew 5: 48. However, I believe that the translation of the Greek word, ‘teleios= perfect’, is open to question. Here is the reason why this is the case: granted the Greek word “teleios”, generally means perfect, complete, or mature, but it can also imply reaching a goal or end, implying wholeness and fulfillment. I am convinced that Jesus had the latter interpretation in mind. Because, as he repeatedly said that in his life he embodied the Kingdom, the New Creation.
“Teleios” has its root in the Greek word ‘telos’ which means END or FAR. We find it back in our language in such words as ‘telephone’, ‘telegram’, ‘television’, all indicating communication from far away.
Jesus’ mission was to prepare us for the New Creation, which he, in totality represented: The Kingdom to come. When Jesus advises us to be ‘teleios’ then he does not ask us to be ‘perfect’ but to ‘live’ in the spirit of the New Creation, where, indeed, ‘perfection’ is the goal.
Yes: “The old world is dying.”
“The old world is dying,” Antonio Gramsci wrote, “and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.”
Well, two monsters met this week: one who sacrifices thousands of young Russian men for pure vainglory, and one who openly defies God in canceling all measures to combat Climate Change, a man who wants to shape the world in his own image, which the Bible calls “The Sin Against the Holy Spirit”, portraying the Antichrist, a sure sign of death, which both men embody. Also, expect ‘natural monsters’ such as storms, heat, volcanoes, hurricanes.
I would love to think people on Earth will join forces to decrease conflict. I would love to think we can give peace a chance. Alas, several thousand years on a planet characterized by conflict allow for little hope in a positive direction. Can we give peace a chance? History suggests otherwise.
The only peace now possible will be brought about by The Prince of Peace, the Great Healer, who alone has the power to do so. “The old world is dying,” Antonio Gramsci wrote, “and the new world struggles to be born.”
Now is the time for that NEW World to come.