The liturgy of Lent and Easter is an astonishing piece of educational technology, an achievement to rival the pyramids, but with a better point than the pyramids. The story is about how a new idea and a new hope are introduced into a world stuck fast in old ideas and customary despair -- a world like our own. Lots goes wrong. People understand, then fall back into their old ways. The authorities behave ruthlessly. The inner circle keeps getting the emphasis wrong. The crowds alternate between dangerous enthusiasm and dangerous hostility. All sorts of temptations pop up, to simplify the message, to reach compromises that would reinstate business as usual. And a few people persevere through to the end in a way that makes it possible for this movement to endure.
Every year, hundreds of millions of people walk through this story, slowly, thinking about every stage. Everyone is encouraged to have new hopes and new ideas. And everyone gets a very careful lesson in the problems of introducing those hopes and ideas into community life. This is in a way the opposite of traditional education, the opposite of conservatism. This is mass education for radical action, for continuous revitalization of human life.
Sometimes, one wonders whether the endurance of the human race is a good thing. The longer our cultures endure, the more destructive power they accumulate. But they also gradually make huge and reliable artifacts for the transformation of consciousness.
Happy Easter.
Posted by shea0017 at March 22, 2005 10:42 AM