Have you ever wondered when and how the religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks and Romans transmogrified from theology to mythology? This question occurred to me recently as I was helping a grandson prepare for his Confirmation. The normal pre-sacrament courses are now virtual and the parish has requested volunteer proctors. Making our way through the Old Testament my grandson and I have noted the loyalty of God and his faithful activity in the history of his chosen people. In spite of their stiff-necked behavior and their religious vagabondage God’s hand is always guiding them. How strange it must have been for neighboring polytheistic pagans in those centuries to encounter this obscure religious group whose very lives were so profoundly shaped by their covenant with the One God.
But, even among the educated pagans who were unaware of the monotheism of the Jews, when did their theological obeisance to such gods and goddesses as Jupiter, Juno, Neptune and Minerva dwindle and become merely a philosophical deference to the ideals represented by those deities? When they no longer had the assurance of personal divine guidance and had to rely solely on their own limited grasp of philosophical truths how must they have felt? How did they proceed?
Consider the Roman Emperor Justin who– more than three centuries after the Incarnation and a half century after Rome had been Christianized – attempted to restore polytheism as the state religion.
What was he thinking, this world ruler who would later be known as ‘the Apostate’? Polytheism had declined. Was he still convinced that this constellation of luminaries could direct the flow of the future? Or, was he resisting a deep-seated sense that the One God of monotheism was in fact guiding the course of history? Could he foresee how Christianity, so richly rooted in the soil of Judaism, would nourish the subsequent growth of civilization?
What have all these questions to do with a thirteen-year old’s Confirmation? Probably nothing. Maybe what is prompting these reflections is the troubled state of our civil society, a tense polarization which becomes more acute as the presidential election approaches. Our founding document recognizes the role of our Creator and our national motto declares our trust in God. We are a blessed republic to be sure. However, for many of us what once was theology has become philosophy, a philosophy which itself has now devolved into formless relativism. With no supernatural power to call on how do such non-believers hope for a more civilized future? On what basis do they build their future? Contrariwise, those theists among us, especially those who share in the Judeo-Christian covenant, find solace and inspiration in their trust in the guiding hand of Providence.
As seventh graders across the country prepare to receive the Holy Spirit in Confirmation next spring, perhaps the rest of us in the coming weeks should recognize our need to redouble our prayerful petitions that we too will be similarly inspired and better able to understand the will of God.