The Proper End
Dear Kate,
Here you see a screenshot of today's headline in my local news.
What do you think? How do you feel?
What do you think the news writers want you to think? How do they want you to feel? They took the trouble to report the stories; they are probably not looking for indifference.
And after your thinking and feeling, what are you going to do?
If you are doing nothing, then why knowing at all? If you are going to do something, are you sure you have known enough to think right and feel true? Even if you are an activist for a living, how do you stay actively alive, knowing full well none of the three stories above is yours to own, let alone to bring to a proper end.
And, there, a fundamental human trouble: we don't really know what the proper end to life is.
People talk about the pandemic and how they can't wait for it to end. "Back to normal" seems to be the proper end we want. So is normalcy the ultimate human aspiration? Do you work hard everyday so that life can stay "normal," predictable, uneventful for the rest of it?
Don't you want to know what you are truly made of and made for, and live in the fuller glory of your humanity? If what you seek is more of life, then more of life is what you will be given—especially during periods of prolonged challenge. What you seek is not the end of your adversity, but the destiny of you seeking to the end.
"No end in sight" is the fate of those with no sight of a proper end. If I am sure of my destiny, I am not afraid of the fate embodied in my personal circumstances and historical situations. To live in, live through, and live out my very life in every situation is an end that speaks about new beginnings and fresh possibilities. Destiny is not fate. A destiny is a spiritual drama that is still unfolding.
Christine Hayes, a renowned professor of Religious Studies in Classical Judaica at Yale University, spoke about an "idea," a vision of human flourishing, keeping the proper end in sight in each and every of our here and now, hope springs eternal. What do you think this "idea" is?
"This idea—which seems simple at first and not so very revolutionary—affected every aspect of Israelite culture and in ways that will become clear ensured the survival of the ancient Israelites as an ethnic-religious entity. In various complicated ways, the view of an utterly transcendent god with absolute control over history made it possible for some Israelites to interpret even the most tragic and catastrophic events, such as the destruction of their capital and the exile of the nation not as a defeat of Israel’s god or even that god’s rejection of them, but as a necessary part of the deity’s larger purpose or plan for Israel."
If this is the right idea to understand life and our humanity, how would you read the news of your day?
Yours, Alex
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