I am getting ready to teach Romans this year (Jan-June) and I am anticipating the Spirit of God bringing newness to birth in the lives of those who are participating in the class. Romans will surprise and even shock folks in some ways --- especially if they have tended to hear it in short elections at Mass, or if their notion of salvation is too-highly individualized. One of the most striking things that Paul teaches the early Church is precisely that our God-willed destiny is not about going to heaven, and even less about existing as a disembodied soul after death, but instead is about being part of the new heaven and new earth that will come when God is all in all. As noted above, it is the whole of reality that is recreated, a process that began especially with Jesus' resurrection (the climax of the Incarnation of God in Jesus' life) and the victory of God over godlessness, sin, and death.
We have so focused on "getting to heaven" that many of us have disregarded and even participated without care in the destruction of God's good creation --- as though salvation is an "us and God only" affair. Similarly, Christians have treated God's Chosen People as though God has changed his mind and rejected them, rather than recognizing God's election has been extended to us and to all the nations in the world. We tend to treat the Risen Christ as though he is still locked in his tomb (though we may exchange a tabernacle for a rock-hewn cave here) rather than alive and active in the Holy Spirit everywhere and for/with everyone.
As we begin this new year, we might first take note of what we think we know about God, ourselves, and the future we look forward to -- usually without asking mature and searching questions. How many theological words do we use routinely without ever asking what they really mean? How many know, for instance, that heaven is not so much a place, but a euphemism for God's own self and that it can thus refer to God's own life shared with us? Christian Theologians will recognize that a central task of their work is guarding the docta ignorantia future (the "learned unknowing" of the future).
Rahner wrote that the "critical role of theology is to resist closure with regard to the future, to recognize what we do not know". (cf. Theological Investigations, vol XII, "The Question of the Future") Christian humility involves this kind of awareness --- though, too often our teachers may have failed to give us a real sense of this. When coupled with a radical trust in God's promise we can enter our world with greater hope and commitment to work in Christ and the power of the Spirit toward that new heaven and earth God so yearns for. While we cannot do this ourselves alone, science tells us time is short and prudent action is urgent; our faith tells us the choice is a critical one (in every sense of the term critical!!).
All good wishes for a fruitful and truly New Year!!
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