'I have overcome the world'

Article from:
The National Post Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Page: A16
Section: Editorial
Source: National Post

Sic transit gloria mundi -- thus passes away the glory of the world, the old Latin phrase puts it. In 2008, the glory of money took the biggest hit. The economic ground shifted beneath our feet, and so much that was solid, so much that was powerful, so much that was thought stable, has passed away.

The mightiest of them all, General Motors, has devoted its most intense recent energies not to production, but to begging. The year began with five famous investment banks on Wall Street.

In 2007, they distributed year-end bonuses to their combined 186,000 employees of some $38-billion -- more than the GDP of Bulgaria, to put it in perspective. In 2008, Bear Sterns and Merrill Lynch were bought out to save them from going bust; Lehman Brothers went belly up; Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley converted themselves into regular banks. Transit: 5; gloria mundi: 0.

We learned some ancient lessons anew in 2008. There are no entirely safe investments, and if something seems too good to be true -- like owning a house with bad credit, little income and no assets -- it probably is. We learned again, too, that the innocent suffer for the sins of the wicked, as many charities the world over are now discovering, thanks to Bernard Madoff.

In Christian language, we might say we learned that original sin has not gone away. In a time of prosperity, we are inclined to forget that; thinking
that money -- privately earned or spent by governments -- can solve just about any problem. In times of crisis, we remember that isn't true.

The fundamental Christian telling of history is that we are always in crisis to a greater or lesser degree. Man is estranged from God and consequently estranged from his neighbour; therefore he lurches through history trying to avoid one calamity or another. The Christian believer knows we need Christmas.

We need Christmas because, contrary to a certain messianic politics that took hold of so many this past year, the simple answer is that we can't save ourselves. The things we make and manufacture, whether automobiles or mortgage-backed securities, are not the stuff of salvation.

"Yes, we can" is good politics but bad theology. "No, we can't" won't inspire a campaign rally, but the realization that the glory of this world is constantly passing away is the first step in the search for another, more enduring glory.

At the conclusion of his magnificent sermon, The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis reminded us that the possibility of glory lies as close as the next human soul: "There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours ... Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses."

The earliest Christian preachers learned that lesson at Bethlehem, that God had become man, and He had come to be with us so that we might be eternally with Him. The immortal God who comes as a baby at Bethlehem clothes His glory in the flesh of this world, so that the flesh of this world may be taken up into a glory that does not pass away.

"Take courage; I have overcome the world." So Jesus would eventually preach to crowds who knew that the world needed overcoming. Perhaps they thought then, as many do now, that what needed overcoming was this or that political authority, or this or that economic problem.

Yet what most needs overcoming is that everything in this world is coming and going, passing by and passing away before our eyes. Those of us in the newspaper business know that better than most; yesterday's news so often is just that -- yesterday's.

This year we have been reminded that the glory of newspapers, too, can pass away, as so many of our colleagues have faced cutbacks, layoffs and even bankruptcy.

The Christian faith is that the Child in Bethlehem came to save us from this passing world, entering into it that we might, with Him, overcome it. This year we may be more disposed to considering that possibility than most.

To our readers then, who do us the daily honour of passing some of their time with us, we wish a Merry
Christmas and a new year abundantly blessed by those things that do not pass away.

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