Reflection on the Word for the Third Sunday of Advent in 2022 (December 11, 2022)
AIM HEAVEN (Matthew 11:11
"Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. " ………………………………………….………….
In this civilizational era, not long ago, they began to talk about the cyborgization or partial cyborgization of humanity. It may mean the mechanical or digital enhancement of the human body and the brain, whether they are looking for serving military purposes or medical applications or social engineering. In all aspects the consequences of the cyborgization of humanity, just like the consequences of the recently emerging bio-engineering, are unpredictable, unforeseeable, unplannable.
It may sound excitingly nice, forward-pointing toward an unimaginably better future, that putting a chip in the human brain may have almost biblical level instant-ish, benevolent effect in people, just as it is written in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 35, that " Tell those who are of a fearful heart, Be strong, don't be afraid: behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the mute shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. "
It happened quite lately during a Tesla presentation, that the CEO was talking about the so-called Neurolink technology, and he was quite confident that the implanted chip with the help of the technology may help people, who never had vision gain vision. He also expressed his confidence that the same technology can also help people who have damaged spinal chord or muscle disease, walk again. He underscored, that it may sound miraculous, but it is possible.
It was definitely miraculous two millennia ago, as it is written in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 15, that " There came to Jesus great multitudes, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others, and they put them down at his feet. He healed them, so that the multitude wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the injured whole, lame walking, and the blind seeing -- and they glorified the God of Israel."
Today, medical science is able to act seemingly with the same results, though through scientific methods. Great achievements indeed, but no miracles.
It should be clear to everyone, that despite all the civilizational convulsions we have globally, including the natural cataclysms, artificially created economic cramps, lab enhanced viruses, demonic wars, we are on the verge of a technological big leap, they call it the fourth industrial revolution.
What people dreamed of the future back in 1985, it is ready today to flood our reality, like video telephone, global internet, world wide GPS, robots and full scale robotics, flying cars, the resurrection of the electric cars, nuclear fusion power, artificial intelligence, full scale bio-engineering, new propulsion systems for spaceships, interplanetarian travel, colonization of the Mars, interstellar travel and meeting other civilizations in the galaxy. The limits are the starry sky literally, as the new frontier, pending that we will be able to avoid somehow the madness of a devastating global war.
However, the major questions can not be squeezed into technological brochures, because the major questions have been still with us since the stone age elapsed. And these are the purpose and the meaning we should serve and find.
Just imagine a ship on the ocean sailing aimlessly, changing course everyday, never reaching port, or recall the biblical people wandering 40 years in the desert and never entering the promised land, including Moses. Traveling to Toronto in the opposite direction would practically mean that we will never arrive to the city. Some claim that Christopher Columbus had the genius idea that sailing in the opposite direction will let him knock on the gates of India.
Not mentioning that he never made it, he did not actually sail in the opposite direction, just took an other route like a boomerang using the curved space to return to the same spot on a sphere. However, whatever we do, we need not only aiming a whatever destination, but the right one only. Having the right goal, still we need directions how to reach our destination.
Whatever our goals on Earth might be, they can be only temporary ones, as they all became dust in the wind at the end, thus, we have to aim Heaven as Jesus advised his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, that "Therefore, I tell you, don't be anxious for your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your (own) body, what you will put on. Isn't life more than food, and the body more than clothing? "
We have to aim Heaven, and the directions were readily given by the liberating God Almighty, who revealed the true directions, as we call them the Ten Commandments, to a whole nation on the Mount Sinai, and through them to the world. Jesus said that “ among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
And it is completely true.
Although John was a God-sent holy prophet, a front-line spiritual leader of the people, whose sainthood was evident not only for the Pharisees and Scribes, but even for the murderer Herod Agrippa himself, still even his status on Earth was close to nothing comparing the right to enter Heaven in the World to Come.
Jesus acknowledged that within that generation none was greater among people on Earth than John the Baptist. In the same time John declared that “But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. ”
That is a powerful statement indeed, if we understand well, that although none was greater at that time on Earth than John the Baptist, the prophet of God, but Jesus was greater than John because Jesus came from Heaven.
This is exactly explained in the Gospel of John when Jesus told to Nikodemus that “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. ” It was also repeated by John, saying that “He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. ”
Thus, we have to aim Heaven, but the surprise of the reality might be that Heaven is not a far, far away country or a galaxy somewhere out there in the unknown, but Heaven surrounds us, it pervades everything, it dwells in our hearts, occasionally it is also granted that Heaven is right here to shape our relationships in advance, as God is everywhere, so Heaven is everywhere.
If God dwells among us, then Heaven is among us, as it was written by Leo Tolstoy that “Where there is faith, there is love; where there is love, there is peace; where there is peace, there is God; And where there is God; there is no need.”
May the Holy Spirit give us the enlightenment, that our earthly sojourn is just a short transitional time in the waiting room of the World to Come, and to the worthy ones immortality and eternal happiness are offered after this life for the always greater glory the Lord,
AMEN.
