Careful not tell the Spirit that it can’t use the present.
I love tradition. I particularly love it when it comes to liturgy because for all the pluses of modernity the Christian antiquity appears way more transcendent than the Christian present, with its its tendency of pulling on emotional heartstrings without a solid spiritual substance. As such it is very easy for me to look at the past with an eye toward romanticizing it, questioning every decision of the current era and thinking that the Spirit has somehow abandoned the here and now. The truth is nothing could be farther from the truth. The Holy Spirit and the Holy Wisdom that comes with it has always made itself present in the modern world.
I’ve seen several websites, blogs and people who seem almost afraid to look at the post-COVID future as if any solution that the world comes up with will somehow infringe on Gods sacred image. To this, I have two thoughts. First, just stop. If the slave trade and the Crusades didn’t kill the Spirits forward momentum then any solution that we come up with won’t either. Two, it is alien to the Western Christian tradition to believe that solutions like contact tracing and A.I. are somehow anti-Christian or unfaithful to antiquity. The Western Church, in general, championed education and science to a degree that would make contemporary non-believers blush. Aquinas and Bonaventure both used the modern thought of their times to rise up to the challenges of their age and the Church grew because of it. While it’s true that they never faced a plague that they knew as much about as we do COVID it is safe to assume they would have turned to face the challenge. In fact, I would assume that to turn away from potential solutions out of a misguided sense of faith or creation is possible as sin. To do so is to shy away from the reason that God has given us
The Community of the Faithful is obligated to give a voice to the past by the following of tradition and how that tradition passes along the articles of faith as well as the sacraments of Christ Church. You will find if you look to that tradition that the Church has often been at the forefront of caring for the sick and infirmed and had it know how the spread of pathogens worked she almost definitely would have moved to protect her people. Those that fear the tools that our God-given reason has given modernity shy away from their Christian responsibility and live in fear when the words of Sacred Scripture ring out that we should, “Be not afraid”.
Listen, it’s true that humanity can be guilty of overreach. The destruction of the environment and rampant consumption more than adequately point that out. However, the solution to this problem is not to abandon our reason but rather to push forward with the intuition that God has given us so that we may use our gifts for the good of mankind. Imagine a world where we can track disease earlier contain and get rid of it before it creates a global health crisis. Imagine using machine learning so that we can adequately water the crops without wasting both our water resources and therefore damaging the environment. All of this can be done through the proper and responsible use of our gifts. Have mistakes been made? Yes and that’s part of learning and moving forward. Our knowledge is a gift that has been given by the divine. What can’t be done is to turn back the clock and pretend like we don’t have an obligation to help as many people as possible that path is more than just being afraid, that is being cowardly in our church at this point cannot afford it.
Last but not least, the Church must absolutely look to the past and we must link arms with and seek counsel from the past and look for places where the past worked. But also equally as important is to look for places where tradition holds a noble silence and understand that wisdom resides there. In fact, we should view this creative silence as an opportunity to allow the Spirit to feel in the gap. If the use of modern technology allows us to overcome illness and more quickly get back to the business of evangelizing the Good News it should be welcomed as the path of a new synthesis of yesterday with tomorrow.
