3D Glasses

Wearing 3D glasses in the movie Avatar reminded me that the world we see "in real life" is also (happily) multi-dimensional.  For the Christian, the super-natural is one of the dimensions. What we see before us we see "in the light of" faith, hope and charity.

This principle is important for our experience of the world, which is not ideal, to say the least. As von Balthasar puts it, Engagement With God (p. 85-86), an ideal world would be a resurrected world, which it is not.  In reality the world is resurrected only in spe, in the dimension of hope.  

This has an important implication for Christian action.  ". . . [T]o think that the Christian, by his efforts, is able so radically to change the structures [of the world] is mere chiliastic fantasy or the hope of an unrealistic enthusiast."  In other words, our 3D glasses of "faith, hope and charity" do not re-create the world into a utopian pipe-dream.  Rather, they help us see the world as it "is," that is, as it is, as it should be, as it could be, and as it eventually will be, in God's time and plan.

"This again does not mean that the Christian must simply resign himself to the world as it is now and ever shall be.  The Christian's task is so far as he is able to fill the structures of the world with the boundless spirit of love and reconciliation, despite the fact that he will always encounter opposition to his efforts toward this end."

Are you wearing your "3D" glasses?