When I was a child, the public school children received a
day off on Columbus Day, but we Catholic school children trudged in for another
day of school. Since I attended Catholic school years ago, we received a
decidedly Catholic-centric view of history, including American history.
Of course, we learned of the three small ships, and the
subsequent voyages to the Americas .
We also learned that Columbus
saw himself as an emissary for God. Priests accompanied him on at least some of
the voyages, and one priest lived with the native people for some time. We
downplayed the cruel treatment and enslavement of the natives encountered.
What I did not know until much later was the fascination of Columbus with end-time
speculation. He collected a series of biblical images for the end of the ages.
Since he thought the end would be presaged by a conversion of the world to the
faith (this was a generation before the Reformation), Columbus saw himself as a player in the great
divine drama of history. Toward the end of his life, he wrote that he helped
bring to light Isaiah’s new heaven and new earth that was quoted in the book of
Revelation (the Apocalypse, Greek for Revelation, in Catholic circles).
In our time, end time speculation tends to be much more circumscribed. Those who read the bible as a
collection of predictions tend to hold to a doctrine that they will be sported
away from the troubles of life, as in the remake of execrable Left Behind film.
Instead, Columbus
was driven by his vision of the end times into the world, not away from it. Four
times Columbus
journeyed to lands unknown to Europeans, and helped open a new chapter in our
planet’s life.
A vision of the future can and does affect our view of the
present. If one sees a point of view as being on the right side of history,
then energy and willingness to risk become open. When Martin Luther Kings spoke
of the arc of the universe bending toward justice, his view of god’s future
animated that statement.
Not long ago, I wrote in these pages of the exploration of
the moon, and if we could imagine such a project today. Soon, we will be
electing officials across a range of important offices. George bush never did
grasp what he termed “the vision thing.” Part of political life is projecting a
view of the future. Right now, we hear of small steps, half-measures. Some on
the radical right have a vision, but a backward-looking one, of a world that
never existed but in the imagination, of a simpler time.
I would love to see a day dedicated to an explorer of
scientific or technical frontiers. I would love for us to honor those who made
the internet, or MRIs, or Crestor. In our lifetime, we have explored elements
of the atom unknown to anyone before.
While we have glimpsed the beginning of the universe with
the Hubble telescope, I would also love for us to continue to pursue the
journey within the human mind and personality. From where does virtue arise?
Why does evil come to us so easily? Why do we resort to violence so easily? Will
we be able to predict markers of the transformation of consciousness and
awareness? In the midst of exploring the world around us, how much progress
have we made in exploring the world within? At its best, therapy is a
Columbus-like set of voyages to the unknown reaches of our own psyche. The
religious quest is seeing oneself in line with the beyond of our experience and
seeking to glimpse the way forward.
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