BEIRON'S WAY: THE WAIT WATCHER

Composed, Monday, 13 February 2006 Modern, western civilisation as we know it today, with all its flaws or weaknesses, apogee of freedoms or summit of liberalism, is the development of at least 2000 years of prolonged thought and enquiry. We know this, because as the Hellenist school of philosophy faded as the Roman Empire waxed and waned, it was ultimately the springtime of Christian thought which as it grew through conciliar debate and defense, and holding out against the ancient philosophies, formed the foundation of Western civil law and society. Enlightened historians today are willing to attribute to the Catholic Church much of the basis for this development in western thought. In the same way, the biased, popular view that the Inquisition was vast and cruel, or that Galileo was unfairly tried, should be examined with the true facts. The mythologies of conspiracy theories that the church sought to keep a great deal of matters secret to protect its teachings, or adulterate records...

I meditate on these now: "The secret of my identity lies in the mercy and love of God." - Thomas Merton and "The mind of God is forgiveness." - John Paul II The mystery of who I am, and how I become, is part of the dynamic chemistry that relies on the action of Divine mercy and love. What I am, as spirit and flesh, is the resultant manifestation of God's on-going mercy to let me exercise my free choice, even where I am less than perfect and prodigal with opportunity. And, of God's generousity, which allows me to know and be, alive, in the fragile life. But what makes God do this, and why. Because he is ever, always, ready to forgive. But I must approach the throne of Grace. Forgiveness requires repentence. "Turn away from your sin," so the Divine Physician of our souls say. And the Psalmist: "And if you should hear his voice, harden not your hearts...!"

In the last two thousand years since the early Roman Empire brought civil law and Hellenistic philosophy into world civilisation, there have been several "enlightenments". Before this era, we have some idea of the great impact Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had, and through Alexander the Great, how much of these ideas pervaded the ancient world. With the Roman empire, we have some idea of the rule of law, and inspite of the deitification of the Roman emperors and the impact of this on developing thought, we have some reason to thank them for propagating fundamental beliefs in the rights of citizens, fidelity to the state, etc. For a while in the fifth century when Latin began to replace Greek as the language of commerce and thought, we saw the first semblence of the growth of new ideas and philosophies. During the monastic period with Bernard of Clairvaux, Christian doctrines saw some development, which since the time of the first councils convoked by Constantine, we began to ...