I figured that a good place to begin the new year and this new venture into blogging would be to start by examining what we no longer should do. I came across this passage in the course of my daily readings and was struck by its immediate sense of speech and ability to cut to the core of the issue: Paul is outlining here the way many of us have lived. At some point or another in fact I think all of us have fallen into the trap which Paul expunges in his letter to the Ephesians. He speaks about the Gentiles "darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance, because of their hardness of heart, they have become callous and have handed themselves over to licentiousness for the practice of every kind of impurity to excess." (Eph4:18-19). This darkening of understanding is a very sad state because it is at that point that one becomes so deluded as to not even realize their separation from God; they literally cannot see the everlasting and ever present light of Christ. Regardless of whether they see it or not, He is there calling to us all. The words Paul uses show the truth of what is happening when we become separated from God: our minds darken, we become callous, hard of heart, and many give up on trying to do any good and submit wholly to vices. It is easier to ignore the fact that this is something we know is wrong and continue to do it even going further still and saturating our minds in our particular vice so we become surrounded by it and feel we cannot escape. But we can. It seems hard but there is a lot of help. God Himself came down to help us and forgive us for doing exactly this.
It always appears to me that one popular attack on Christians and most organized religions is that people who believe are "ignorant" or have a narrow minded perspective. Atheists take pride in feeling superior to believers because they know they are smarter than the billions of fools who still believe we are not random cosmic waste somehow created by the disgusting minutia of science and instead by the grace of God. Paul here preaches the truth against these arguments which are completely backwards. It is not those who have heard the Word of God that are ignorant but those who ignore it out of a desire to seem intelligent or smarter than their creator. They grow callous and bitter and pride overrules true reason. One who lives in darkness grows a new sense of vision that is not true to what is actually there. Everything is hazy and as the pupil dilates its ability to discern truth from fiction blurs completely so the opposite of reality is the only way one sees- an atheist calls truth false and proclaims a false truth. The body in darkness does what is only natural to it which is to seek the light. The eye is looking for Christ constantly but the mind orders the eyelid to remain shut (perhaps they are afraid of being blinded by the truth and forced to see themselves outside the dark niche they’ve dug out). This act is little more respectable than a child sticking their fingers in the ear and saying "I'm not listening na na na na na." It is hard to think of something indeed more narrowminded than this kind of absolute refusal to look at the truth that lies outside of themselves.
This can be an extreme case as with an atheist or a minor case such as many of us have. There are times in our lives when we close our eyes and fall into that darkness. But that fall is not the important part. The important part is the forgiveness granted after genuine sorrow over the sin. We are asked to "put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth." (Eph4:22-24) . We are given an irreversable mark at baptism with the Holy Spirit and are called to live in that new identity through the teachings of Jesus and are even allowed to enter into the Body of Christ through the Eucharist. After all that darkness we are told to enter the beauty of God's light and live our new life there. Do not forget the sins of the past, keep them in mind as to not commit them again, but do not dwell ever again in the darkness that they led to. "Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength!" (Neh8:10). Put on the new self and embrace this happy existence as a child of God!
I'm going to try and write the next post on the passage following this which sets up some of the ways to put on this new self (Eph4:25-32)
~Anthony
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