Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 348 

Concerning the salvation of your souls the prophets who  prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and investigated it, investigating the time and circumstances that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated....

Existentialism, which seems to be the dominant philosophy of our time, tends to ignore history as it sees no plan in the present moment. Instead of asking how did we get here and where do we go from here, the existentialist says, "It is what it is." and then makes the best of it. 

And so we dismiss remarks like these of Saint Peter, and similar passage in Hebrews 11, that say the ancients foresaw our present situation. We scoff at the idea they might have had a "television view" of Jesus's birth by a virgin, his death in Jerusalem, and his resurrection. How could they see the grace that was to be ours (when we cannot see it now)? 

Several years ago, a friend in Northern Minnesota showed me the first lock on the Mississippi River, not far below its source, Lake Itaska. The great river is 2,340 miles long and its management begins at a stream only a few yards wide. I was astonished at the time at the foresight of the Army Corp of Engineers, working with many federal, state, and local government agencies, to create such an enormously expensive and complicated system. I wish I knew more of that history for it must reveal the courage, inspiration, and vision of a nation with a future. Willa Cather's novel My Antonia reveals the same spirit from a different angle as settlers fought hunger, despair, and chiselers to create a future for us, their children. 

Perhaps, when Americans had a hopeful vision for the future, Peter's words sounded more credible. It was not hard to imagine the prophets who saw the grace that was to be ours. But Existentialism was born in the twentieth century, after the grisly death of a 19th century expectation. Mechanized killing of millions of soldiers and civilians, and the shelling of their cities consumed every expectation that inventions and engineers might create a stable, safe, prosperous world for everyone.  Endless scientific progress might end in Armageddon. Today, as bedazzled children play with new technologies and their bewildered elders worry, our future appears more dystopian than Utopian. 

In today's reading, Saint Peter continues: 

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you

with regard to the things that have now been announced to you

by those who preached the Good News to you...

Obviously, the Apostle did not suppose history had come to an end. Rather, he exhorted God's beloved to take their place in Salvation History and announce to a thousand generations to come the Good News of Jesus. If we cannot see a bright future we can build its spiritual infrastructures with space for gratitude, confidence, and courage.