"...we do not place a complete void at the centre of our system of values.
Not at all, nor should you ever. But recall, too, that logic & order are not the only sources of values. Not that values are devoid of order, but they have this tendency to come at us afresh, anew -- like those great questions at the beginning of St. Augustine's Confessions, none of which admit to easy or only logical answers, but whose questioning continues to resonate us higher or deeper or both & more. These are questions which much continue to be lived, and which each new Saint has a tendency to live in a way that helps us hear them afresh. True?
"This order radiated outwards from its centre on the steps of the great basilica, to all the members of that enormous throng of pilgrims."
What radiated outwards from the center is not, in its fullest expression, only order, though that was undeniably there, but also people. And maybe God? And while that always includes order and tradition, doesn't that also always include more, more than we can ever know completely, a more that leads us ever onward, never knowing precisely where we go.
This is not relativism, but pluralism, which is very different and of which the Catholic Church has been, traditionally, a great practitioner, in this an all centuries. Don't reduce Her, please, to anything. Like the beautiful woman that She is, the handmaiden of God, She will find a way to transcend you.
Not at all, nor should you ever. But recall, too, that logic & order are not the only sources of values. Not that values are devoid of order, but they have this tendency to come at us afresh, anew -- like those great questions at the beginning of St. Augustine's Confessions, none of which admit to easy or only logical answers, but whose questioning continues to resonate us higher or deeper or both & more. These are questions which much continue to be lived, and which each new Saint has a tendency to live in a way that helps us hear them afresh. True?
"This order radiated outwards from its centre on the steps of the great basilica, to all the members of that enormous throng of pilgrims."
What radiated outwards from the center is not, in its fullest expression, only order, though that was undeniably there, but also people. And maybe God? And while that always includes order and tradition, doesn't that also always include more, more than we can ever know completely, a more that leads us ever onward, never knowing precisely where we go.
This is not relativism, but pluralism, which is very different and of which the Catholic Church has been, traditionally, a great practitioner, in this an all centuries. Don't reduce Her, please, to anything. Like the beautiful woman that She is, the handmaiden of God, She will find a way to transcend you.
May you find something here of interest.
Affectionately,
avus
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