Living In The Cosmos: Courage, Comprehension, and Creation

The Theodicy Problem--the question of why bad things happen to us by a supposedly good "God"--has been a thorny issue since the dawn of human consciousness. One of the earliest stories contending over this issue is to be found in the Book of Job. Reading Job carefully, we discover that our great challenge is to let go of defunct god-images. Holding on to truisms that no longer apply in the face of a perceived Reality amounts to our *deficiency*, not only in our comprehension but in our courage when it comes to our facing this Creation in which we stand.

If I may I'll excerpt a little from the Book of Job...

Following his complaint to God:

"After this Job broke silence and cursed the day of his birth:

Perish the day when I was born."

[Job 3: 1-2]

Then Eliphaz, Bilbad, and Zophar proceed to give their glib answers to Job--and Job, in despair, countered bleakly. There seemingly were no answers to place, to make better his "reality." Job cried out:

"If I could only go back to the old days,

to the time when God was watching over me,

when his lamp shone above my head,

and by its light I walked through the darkness!

If I could be as in the days of my prime..."

[Job 29: 1-4]

Job wanted to return to a cheery security blanket he called "God." But after disaster and despair entered his life, shocked--he was forced to realize that his *old* god-image simply was not real, much less sufficient. His not so nice pals Eliphaz, Bilbad, and Zophar represent the old arguments, trying to seduce him back to their conceptual models of "God" that no longer applied in Job's life.

Then Elihu enters the scene. Though young, he was somewhat more wise than the other of Job's "friends." Elihu exclaims:

"The truth is, God does no wrong,

the Almighty does not pervert justice.

Who committed the earth to his keeping?

Who but he established the whole world?

[Job 34: 12-13]

But then Elihu falters, falling back on the old arguments and concepts long held by men before him and after him-- revolving around sin and punishment, wickedness and justice, and oppression and protection. But...

"Job gives vent to windy nonsense

and makes parade of empty words."

[Job 35: 16]

Finally, God enters the scene--answering Job out of the tempest:

"Who is this whose ignorant words

cloud my design in darkness?

Brace yourself and stand up like a man..."

God proceeds:

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations?

Tell me, if you know and understand.

Who stretched his measuring-line over it?

On what do its support pillars rest?

[Job 38: 4-6]

God begins to put Job "in his place":

"In all your life have you ever called up the dawn

or shown the morning its place?"

[Job 38:12]

Then God asks Job:

"Have you ever comprehended the vast expanse of the world?

Come, tell me all this, if you know,

Which is the way to the home of light

and where does the darkness dwell?"

[Job 38: 18-19]

God goes on and on using all matter of analogies, repeating the same message. And once again, he orders Job to brace himself like a man. Bravery in the midst of all this seems to be the order of the day.

Trying to get the point across even more succinctly, God employs the symbol of the crocodile. God pulls no punches, saying clearly what a crocodile implies--a devouring beast, representing Nature's power and tyranny. Yet God declares the crocodile the king of beasts, asking Job:

"Can you fill his skin with harpoons

or his head with fish-hooks?

If ever you lift your hand against him,

think of the struggle that awaits you,

and let be."

[Job 41: 7-8]

"Letting be" seems to be pivotal in the face of Nature. As we oft see it, Nature is red in tooth and claw. On the other hand there is beauty and wonder, inspiration and serenity in Nature.

How could man hope to compete with his puny buildings when faced with the awesome majesty of Nature's forest cathedrals and towering mesa skyscrapers?

And what of the colors and skipping fancies of clouds, of blazoned skies during sunrises and sunsets? What of the marvelous heartbeating power of the ocean's surf? And what of the flickering globe of the Universe that surrounds us by its enticing, twinkling stars?

Yet there seems an expectation of us, almost a "call." As sentient beings, in Job, it is put to us by God--to repeat:

"Have you ever comprehended the vast expanse of the world?

Come, tell me all this, if you know,

Which is the way to the home of light

and where does the darkness dwell?"

[Job 38: 18-19]

It is in this question that there may dwell the kernel of hope and purpose. We have an "answer" to live!

How to address such?

This Light is pure Mind, Consciousness. This Light is Presence in Creation--in this matrix of ours! This Light shines in the Dark. Ours is a polarity world. The Dark presumes not only a lack of Mind, of Consciousness, but all the things that ensue from such--all the evils we can possibly conceive.

At this juncture, let me present St. John's Prologue: "When all things began, the Word already was. The Word dwelt with God, and what God was, the Word was. The Word, then, was with God at the beginning, and through him all things came to be; no single thing was created without him. All that came to be was alive with his life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines on in the dark, and the darkness has never mastered it." [Prologue to the Gospel of John, verses 1 through 5.]

John's Prologue is about the Logos and Incarnation. These were not new ideas in John's time. Indeed he borrowed these concepts from the great intuitions and speculations of earlier Egyptian and Greek and Hellenistic philosophies. What John was reflecting was the *continuum* of an idea that has been consistent down through the ages, unto our own times.

It's about incarnating the Light in this world. It's about becoming smarter, more intelligent. It's about becoming more spiritual and moral. It's about contemplation and then action! It's about building the Kingdom here and now.

I think the *deficiency* posed by our theodicy issues is our inability to bring more Light into this darkness. We simply aren't there yet. Try to think beyond just our own individuality, beyond even human levels. Think, rather, of our planet as one gigantic system that has been birthing and birthing more and more diversity of life, of brains, and conscious awareness. As far as we know we represent the *consciousness of the entire planet,* even though most of our species have not yet attained this level of comprehension.

There is a Presence in our world that calls us to greater levels of Light. This calling dwells in our psyche, pushing us to birth and manifest this great Light. This calling is reflected in our great religious traditions. In a sense our marvelous psychological insights and ancient religious teachings can almost be likened to be Information Systems, receiving stations collecting data--yet still remotely--from this great Presence of so many names.

But it takes Mind, it takes Consciousness to turn the information into Intelligence. We are still novices, fledglings. Until we manifest the Light more perfectly we will continue enduring and perpetuating the evils of Darkness.

And some will counter: yes, perhaps we can stop the evils spawned by human behavior--but what about natural and cosmic "evils." I counter by asking if such are evil, but rather are simply events which we have not learned to avoid or deter.

To sum up, if there's a deficiency, a theodicy issue to be addressed--more than likely, it's our own lack of Light. We points of Consciousness on this planet and in our Cosmos have a great responsibility to build an adult, mature Community living in God's Great Presence. For the Stoics, this cosmopolis was the "City of Zeus." For Christians, the "City of God." We have barely begin to lay the foundations--hence our deficiency!

But as God asks in Job--do we "know,

Which is the way to the home of light

and where does the darkness dwell?"

Yes we can come to know--but only by evolving greater courage and comprehension