December 14, 2004
Edge
The cosmologists tell us that if we look through the great Hubble telescope coasting weightlessly somewhere out there in orbit, not only may we see all the way to the edge of space, but to the edge of time, as well.
Space and time, we learn, are actually created in such a way that one simply may not exist apart from the other.
This new season of Advent returns each year — quietly, gently, and with few if any shopping malls dedicated to its cause. But it always recalls for me something in our human becoming, our maturing, something that is very similar to these notions about time and space.
Advent rings changes on two great biblical themes of expectation: Mary’s baby and John Baptiser’s anxiety. It points to the mysterious union of matter and spirit caught up in the saving event of Christmas, the event which brings these themes into focus.
What is created in the image of God is, as well, redeemed in the image of God, assuring us that finally, in a way very similar to what we’ve learned about God’s universe, never again need we separate the one from the other.