(Cont. from Part 1) Eugen Drewermann, one of my favorite Christian theologians, talks about these stories in his Das Matthäus Evangelium: Bilder Der Erfüllung (vol. 1; 1992). He emphasizes the religious message: "Every truly religious experience rests on the revelation of a great vision," and every individual believer finds a way to see "a star of hope" in their lives. "We can see the truth of our lives only with the eyes of our souls, and so the message of the Magi from the rising of the sun [i.e., from the east] is first of all an appeal to our courage to put faith in the truth of our dreams and our history," he writes.
He compares the story of the Star to the holy night of al-Qadr in the Muslim tradition, in which the archangel Gabriel "came down from the seventh heaven and revealed the suras of the Qu'ran to Mohammed."
[T]hat night of power and glory that "brings peace and health ..., until the breaking of the dawn." It is necessary to recognize something as true and to believe in something that lights our way in the darkness and shows us the way; if we follow it, we'll find the "child" for ourselves, which in us comes into the world "as a virgin" (pure) at the place when the "star" comes to rest.
Drewermann goes on to talk about how the scholars in Herod's court were seeking to find something "without the vision of a 'star'" but their efforts remained nothing more than "dead, written papers." In the story of the Star of Bethlehem:
Human vision and divine promise meet here and each gives power to the other, so that one cann really believe for a moment long, that the world could find at this place the way to its unity, and could awaken to a "night of destiny" that "brings peace and health ..., until the breaking of the dawn."
1 comment:
You're certainly the "star" reporter, Bruce!! Hope ya had a happy happy and a merrie merrie!! Best to you and yours!!
That Happy Chica,
Marcia Ellen
Post a Comment