Here's an open question to start off the new year.
Aaron's Christmas Eve post, particularly his description of how the natural world rejoiced at Christ's birth, how the very molecules danced in delight, brought to mind something I have been pondering for a while now. I'm sure one of you literary types out there knows more about this than I do and will be kind enough to enlighten me.
One prominent trait of apocalyptic literature seems to be that key moments in man's history are accompanied by and reflected by similar events in nature. Why is such imagery so powerful?
Here's an example from Lk. 21:24-27, when Jesus speaks about a great persecution; he predicts that
They will fall by the edge of the sword,
and be made captive in all nations,
And Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles
until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Then, immediately after speaking about the fate of men, he spaks about the signs in nature:
And there will be signs in the sun
and moon and stars,
and distress of nations on the earth in despair
at the roaring of the sea and waves,
Men fainting from fear and foreboding of what
is coming upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
And then they'll see the Son of Man
coming on a cloud with power and great glory.
Another good example comes from the Exsultet sung at the Easter vigil, when the earth is told to rejoice in the splendor of the eternal king. This moment is perhaps not eschatological in the strict sense, since Easter marks not the end of the world but a re-birth in Christ, but the situation is similar, since a great change in man's history has come about. The imagery, then, is also similar:
Gaudeat et tellus, tantis irradiata fulgoribus:
et æterni Regis splendore illustrata,
totius orbis se sentiat amisisse caliginem.
This imagery of nature somehow cooperating, or at least reflecting, the events of man's history is not an exclusively Christian phenomenon either. Here is an example from Virgil's first Georgic (ll. 466-471, translated by David Ferry):
When Caesar's light was quenched, the shining face
Of the sun, in pity for Rome, was covered with darkness,
And that impious generation was in fear
That there would thenceforth be eternal night.
And not only the sun but the earth and the sea gave signs,
And dogs and birds gave signs, of ill to come.
This kind of imagery has great emotional resonance, but I'm not sure exactly why. Any ideas?
3 comments:
I suspect there's a kind of confirmation from things happening in the natural world. If men merely say something is important, or even if they act in such a way as to indicate it is important, how do we know that it is actually so? If the entire cosmos behaves accordingly, it confirms the importance.
On a smaller scale, this is the notion behind omens or auspices: they are things outside the control of man which confirm something about his actions or plans.
Fascinating. This may be a bit of a stretch, but it seems like man has perennially perceived that nature is, if not hostile, at least indifferent to his plight. Man has always struggled against the elements to cultivate the land, but more profoundly, nature seems to mock him in the pivotal moments of life: growing up, it always seemed to be cold and wet on my birthday. The age of scientific discovery has reinforced, or confirmed, the idea that stellar, planetary, lunar, solar, atmospheric, geologic and molecular cycles neither sympathize nor celebrate these insignificant human events.
Maybe the idea that the cosmos DOES care about us, or at least responds to a few, important human events serves to emphasize the greatness of a particular happening by playing off of the fear we have of "being on our own against the universe."
Obviously, Steve, your question was framed as literary, but I would hasten to add that in a much more broad sense, these phenomena are not merely imagery. I like Aaron's choice of the word "confirmation" and I would add "participation".
Aaron, good job spotting the connection to omens. I should have thought of that.
Phil, participation is indeed a good word here, and I probably should have used it in my post. Yes, it shows that the universe is not indifferent but subject to the same eternal providence we are.
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