Fullness

When the fullness of time had come . . . 

 - From Galatians 4

There's a sense, today, that the world is at an epic, historic, crossroad.

Have you noticed?

Everybody's talking about "the right side of history." But the problem with that is, you don't know what you're talking about by making such a claim. There are scientific discoveries yet to come. And the social reforms that people think are logical extensions of a forward-moving, progressive straight line, are just pendulum swings of the same moral spirals: back and forth, back and forth.

Society changes. It gets tired of one thing, and tries out another one. Generations seek to differentiate themselves from what came before, and to effect change that will last "a thousand years."

But we all wind up in the grave. And nations crumble, oblivious to our machinations.

Since the time of the Apostles, the Church has had a fascination with the Year 2000. While it recedes into the past, the impatience with the events that should have attended its arrival, is felt in the way the Church evangelizes, reforms, serves, gets political. The world, and nature, does not disappoint. Almost as if on cue, skeptics as well as believers, keep acting in ways that seem to fulfill the ancient prophecies.

The Church has always believed itself "on the right side of history," no matter what. Perhaps longing to be able to make the same claim, secular forces of our time appropriated the idea, and it's all they talk about. Everyone wants to be on the right side of that curve. Everybody wants to project what is to come, and be proven right, and thus, wise.

God looks at it this way: "The fullness of time." Like a great novelist, God skillfully puts everything in place. He puts it all in order. He arranges events so that they can only come to one conclusion.

Fullness can be a good feeling. It makes you feel satisfied and fed. You're good, for another few hours, at which point you'll need to be filled again. God emphasizes fasting so much, as a way to draw near to Him, that we wonder the role to be played by "fullness."

Fullness can also describe a condition of discomfort and dissatisfaction. You may be close to bursting. You have eaten too much. You have heartburn and indigestion. You have overslept. You've had so much fun that you're about to collapse. You're well into the ninth month of pregnancy. You're a bubble that cannot sustain another whiff of air.

With the slightest disturbance, the whole thing pops.

We are aware of fullness. It makes us anticipate what will happen immediately following the bursting.

Maybe that's what we all are aware of. Things cannot continue as they are now, for much longer. One side, or the other, will have to prevail. Either democracy and individual rights reign supreme or the hard fist of autocratic rule delivers a fatal blow. Either Science without morality emerges; or faith and hope establish restraining parameters around the designs of human vanity.

Either selfish man exerts control . . . or God intervenes and lifts humanity to the next level.

It doesn't feel like things are going to settle back into the status quo.