Essays in Idleness

“O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark; … the vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant.”

I remember the first time, trying to explain, to an astronomer who actually knew less about Christianity than I, that Catholicism is the supernal form of it; that the sacred is written in the stars. And he would just have to be patient, with those starry fires — for they could not be explained briefly, using this word in its modern sense, so that it means rather, “explained away.” It is, in several senses, more mysterious than that, and would take more than one biological lifetime. That is why Christianity is compelled to confirm an extra-biological eternal life. Too, that is why, or rather another “why” — it observes so many paradoxes, all of which come to a head on “Good Friday.”

Consider, for instance, birth and death, and then, ask the question, what is their opposite? Do not confuse immortality with infinity, as is frequently (and quite plausibly) done. For these are not opposites, either, let alone synonyms. Infinity is rather a mathematical conception, of something that doesn’t exist, because it cannot exist. Think this through.

Then, if you are ordinary (or tham-ma-daa, like my astronomer friend, who was Thai, incidentally), you must think it through again.

And far from providing an opposite, erasing the effects of birth and death will confirm the mundane. Like infinity, it will cease to exist. For eternally, if you live, you must die, in quaintly biological terms. It might be painful, but with luck, you will not be crucified.

We are, and in addition to having been, we are fated to will be. (Ironically.)

Of course this cannot be grasped, in the biological flicker of earthly existence. It requires more leisure than we can ever have here, and more horror. For, what is the flame we must pass through, on that starry night?

“The dripping blood our only drink, the bloody flesh our only food: In spite of which we like to think, that we are sound, substantial flesh and blood — again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.”

And you were in the market for ecstasy?