We may have gotten it all wrong!
Lately, I have been hearing the word “apocalypse” bandied about in regard to this world-wide pandemic we are living through.
So often, this word conjures up visions of the rapture, fear, a vengeful God, and violent and exclusive religion. It is an overwhelming judgment on Western Christianity that it is drawn to such beliefs. But despite its misuse, the biblical meaning of apocalypse holds a somewhat different image.
If we look at the origins of the word, we find that kaluptein is the Greek word for “to cover” and apo means “un,” so apokaluptein means to uncover or unveil. While we primarily use the word “apocalypse” to mean to destroy or threaten, in its original context, apocalypse simply meant to reveal something new. The key is that in order to reveal something new, we have to get the old out of the way.
As a subscriber to Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation (From the Center for Action and contemplation) I found myself drawn to the poetic words from Neale Donald Walsch (Facebook post July 22, 2014) that put this quite nicely.
“Yearning for a new way will not produce it. Only ending the old way can do that. You cannot hold onto the old all the while declaring that you want something new. The old will defy the new; the old will deny the new; the old will decry the new. There is only one way to bring in the new. You must make room for it.”
Viewed in this way, I am convinced that this pandemic is an Apocalypse of sorts. But what does the Bible say about apocalypse?
In Matthew 24:8, hidden there in the middle of the wars and earthquakes it says, “All this is only the beginning of the birth pangs.” Apocalypse is for the sake of birth not death. Yet most of us have heard this reading as a threat. Apparently, it’s not. Anything that upsets our normalcy is a threat to the ego but in the Big Picture, it really isn’t.
In Luke 21, Jesus says right in the middle of the catastrophic description: “Your endurance will win you your souls.” Falling apart is for the sake of renewal, not punishment. Such a telling line to keep in our sights.
In Mark 13, Jesus says “Stay awake” four times in the last paragraph (Mark 13:32–37).
In other words, “Learn the lesson that this has to teach you.” It points to everything that we take for granted and says, “Don’t take anything for granted.” An apocalyptic event reframes reality in a radical way by flipping our imagination.
Father Richard Rohr, OFM** states that “we would have done history a great favor if we would have understood apocalyptic literature. It’s not meant to strike fear in us as much as a radical rearrangement. It’s not the end of the world. It’s the end of worlds—our worlds that we have created. In the book of Revelation (also called the Apocalypse, or Revelation to John), John is trying to describe what it feels like when everything falls apart. It’s not a threat. It’s an invitation to depth. It’s what it takes to wake people up to the real, to the lasting, to what matters. It presents the serious reader with a great ‘What if?’”
As I have been doing of late, I find myself turning to our own Voices United for comfort and found the following hymn to be one of great hope. May it be of comfort to you too as we face the uncertainties of these apocalyptic days.
VU 278 In The Quiet Curve of Evening
In the quiet curve of evening,
in the sinking of the days,
in the silky void of darkness, you are there.
In the lapses of my breathing,
in the space between my ways,
in the crater carved by sadness, you are there.
You are there, you are there, you are there.
In the rests between the phrases,
in the cracks between the stars,
in the gaps between the meaning, you are there.
In the melting down of endings,
in the cooling of the sun,
in the solstice of the winter, you are there.
You are there, you are there, you are there.
In the mystery of my hungers,
in the silence of my rooms,
in the cloud of my unknowing, you are there.
In the empty cave of grieving,
in the desert of my dreams,
in the tunnel of my sorrow, you are there.
You are there, you are there, you are there.
Be well, stay alert and stay safe
Pastor Beryl, DLM
**Father Richard Rohr is a Franciscan friar and ecumenical teacher who bears witness to the deep wisdom of Christian mysticism and traditions of action and contemplation. He is the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) and academic Dean of the Living School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he has lived since 1986.