March 12, 2022

The beautiful complementarity of East and West is a stunning reminder that the cosmos has an essentially paschal character.  While the West values order, structure, logic and accuracy, the East is characterized by intuition, feeling, openness and adaptability.  Together, they image the glorious dying and rising pattern that has given existence meaning since the beginning of time:  the urgent Western need to understand the exact nature of things in the face of diminishing sunlight paired with the deep Eastern hopefulness that the darkness will in fact give way to a new reality.  It is no wonder, then, that when Christians were initiated into the early Church they faced West as they denounced a life limited to this world then literally turned East to signify the inner “East-er” they desired in their hearts.  Let’s therefore not play the game of pitting East and West against each other, but instead realize the whole symbolism.  Let’s awaken to the dimensions of East and West unfolding in our very souls.  Let’s look to Christ who lived precisely in the middle of East and West in an eternal “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:19).  May we indeed become integrated persons grounded in the concreteness of a love that lasts.  Ave Crux, Spes Unica!