his reflection by Paul Tillich is one of my favorites, particularly at the New Year
PRESENT POSSIBILITIES. "The goal of humankind is not progress
toward a final stage of perfection; it is the creation of what is possible for
us in each particular state of history; and it is the struggle against the
forces of evil, old ones and new ones, which arise in each period in a
different way.
KINGDOM COMING.
"There will be victories as well as defeats in these
struggles. There will be progress and
regressions. But every victory, every
particular progress from injustice to more justice, from suffering to more
happiness, from hostility to more peace, from separation to more unity anywhere
among us, is a manifestation of the eternal in time and space. It is, in the language of the writers of the
Old and New Testaments, the coming of the Kingdom of God. For the Kingdom of God does not come in one
dramatic event sometime in the future.
It is coming here and now in every act of love, in every manifestation
of truth, in every moment of joy, in every experience of the holy.
PRESENT STRUGGLE.
"The hope of the Kingdom of God is not the expectation of a perfect
stage at the end of history, in which only a few, in comparison with
innumerable generations, would participate, and the unimaginable amount of
misery of all past generations would not be compensated. And it might even be that those who would
live in it, as 'blessed animals,' would long for the struggles, the victories
and the defeats of the past. No! The hope of humankind lies in the here and
now, whenever the eternal appeals in time and history. This hope is justified; for there is always a
presence and a beginning of what is seriously hoped for."
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