Times of Ignorance
theophilus May 20th, 2009
There’s a passage in today’s first reading from Acts 17 that seems ripe for the times.
St. Paul was addressing the Athenians and commenting on their belief in an “Unknown God.” The Athenians, as enlightened as they were, understood there was an all powerful God, but couldn’t quite get their minds to understand anything about him, thus he remained “unknown.” They were comfortable with Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Athena and even Hades; but they couldn’t grasp the concept of the omnipotent, monotheistic Being who we too often take for granted.
Later on in St. Paul’s sermon, he stated something that seems especially applicable to our age:
“God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that people everywhere repent because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.”
“Times of Ignorance” – are we living in them?
As I witnessed the totality of what occurred at Notre Dame on Sunday and on the Holy Father’s trip to the Holy Land last week; as I hear about the world’s response to Israel’s concern about its very existence and the attacks on a beauty pageant contestant who dared to honestly answer a question posed to her on national TV; I get the sinking feeling that we are smacked dab in the middle of these Times of Ignorance.
We hold ourselves out to be the most enlightened, smartest, advanced, progessive people of all time. Yet, we can be so ignorant. We are ignorant when we’ve replaced the power of God with the power of man. But, we’ve forgotten that God created the world and raised Jesus from the dead. Based on these two facts alone, Man cannot be deluded enough to think that our power can ever be equal to His. But when we relegate God to just another special interest or faith as just another past-time, we do just this – we assume our power is separate from His, instead of realizing that our power is derived from Him; to be used according to His will.
I always got the impression that the Athenians thought they controlled their gods. I got the same feeling about the Romans and their stable of deities. St. Paul succeeded in dispelling their ignorance and spreading the faith in both civilizations. But, I wonder – what would St. Paul say to us were he physically in our midst? What would he say were he writing “The Letter of St. Paul to the Americans”?
I bet he wouldn’t be subtle.
