Different meaning of the word world

Talk about “escaping from the world” or after a new one about «dialogue with the world»? It seems that the Church in the last time has significantly changed its attitude to the world and its values, especially after the Second Vatican Council! These are questions or objections that we often hear. They are not the rest new and cannot be said to be superficial, not mature phrases. Man’s relationship to the world and to God is a fundamental religious problem. We seem to be standing from the beginning before a dangerous choice between the two options. All looks promising. Either we are looking for God in the world, then we face the dangers of pantheism, monism, materialism, or declare that God is fundamentally different from the world. But then we can’t avoid it the objection of materialists that religion distracts from the world. After all, Christian Estheticians say this clearly: “Love to God and love for the world are irreconcilable. » In the Gospel Vol. John, this idea comes often back and emphatically. if
you were of the world, the world would love what is his, but because
you are not of the world, that I have chosen you out of the world, the world of you hates (John 15:19). And yet we read the same Gospel: For God so loved the world, that he gave his son of his birth, lest any man that believed in him perish, but to have eternal life (John 3:16). Christ is the Savior of the world and sends his disciples all over the world (Mt 16:15) to be the light of the world (Mt 5: 1)It is also interesting that we, when we speak about the «world», we mean rather its size, space, the «living world». In Aramaic, in the word of Christ, the expression Alma, The world also means a certain period of time, some time, about as when we say “today’s world”, in the “Roman world”
etc. From this it can be seen that the word “world” can have several meanings. The four most important are the following:
1. the visible and invisible world, that is, all that God he created;
2. visible nature (what illuminates the sun, light; «World» originally means light);
3. human society (“living in the world”, “coming into contact with the world”);
4. corrupt society, bad environment, temptations
(«To warn the world»), that is, the world in a moral sense. The visible world «Only Christianity liberated the material world from prehistoric times a curse, »rightly writes a modern theologian. They weren’t all systems are radically dualistic to see in matter all evil. Nevertheless, neither philosophy nor religion could sufficiently resolve the relationship between God and the world. Either God will deal with the world, but then he will be from world dependent and will not be an almighty and happy God. Or he does not deal with the world, he is completely out of place, as Aristotle thought. But then the value of the world is small and it does not remain, only to flee from it to God.
In his beautiful homilies on Hexameter (i.e.work of creation in six days according to the Bible) shows St. Basil, how this gap between God and the world was bridged by the word of Scripture In the beginning God created … (Gen 1: 1) heaven, earth, plants, animals … all this is not against God nor outside of God, but it is his work. And God saw it good (Gen 1:12). The whole visible world is presented here
in the image of a beautiful garden, prepared for the one who has it
to inhabit, t. j. man the image of God (Gen 1:27). In this sense, of course, there is no point in speaking about «escape from the world». Spiritual books say the opposite about the proper «use» of the world, about the «use of creatures». Example we read right in the first meditation of the Exercises of St. Ignatius:”Everything on earth is created for man to help him achieve the goal for which he was created.” now the basic rule on “enjoying the world” is then expressed:
as much as we can, and we must use as much as we can for good.
If the world is “good”, then it can only be a means for good. Everything else is not use, but abuse. Western authors like to show how everything can be used for a good deed: field, house, money, health, etc. Eastern writers, who are more prone to contemplation, speak with greater enthusiasm about the beauty of the world, its harmony, colors. All this is then to serve us to remind us of the size and beauty of the Creator. Nature it then becomes the “glass soul”, the book in which we read about God. Modern authors add new considerations. They say on the responsibility of today’s man for nature, for the shape of the earth, to remain a clean and dignified abode to all people. “The visible world is beautiful,” writes St. Gregor Nazianz, «consists of heaven and earth …, each amount is tasteful but the most harmonious and the harmony of the individual parts deserves praise. Everything is in the right proportions. Is an’s a perfect universe, order, beauty. » providence God created the world. However, the Catechism adds: “It preserves and governs it.” Theologians say that governing and preserving the world is a continuation of creation. But it is the human way of speaking, God is not in time. Therefore, it is not at all conceivable that he could create the world first and then leave and leave it to its fate. On the contrary, it is still in it present by his providence. However, we must not imagine that too humanly either. Primitive man is afraid of evil gods, spirits. Trying to therefore reconcile them to victims or avoid them. Science and culture usually rid people of this superstitious horror before unknown mysterious creatures. However, it arouses fear new. It shows man his helplessness against the relentless laws of nature. This necessity, which governs the world, laid the foundation for physics, technology, all science. We don’t have to call on the river gods to break down our bridge, it is enough to calculate what surge of water it can withstand. And the doctor assure us that we can live in peace. These laws us however, they will be convinced that at the same age we will die that it will not be possible do nothing because it is a natural necessity. Day by day we get to know better and better laws of nature. It is advantageous, we can avoid any necessity as well as water, when we know where it is flowing. Daily However, we find that there are more necessities than we think. Are the laws of heredity, the influence of climate, diet, environment, we compile statistics on mortality, development, etc. What does the individual mean in these numbers?

Zobraziť článok