Symmetry and Symbols

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth... (Genesis 1:1)

Platonic reasoning is not the only kind of knowledge and learning we cling to. Literature and art has always resorted to a different kind of message transmission - the carefully echoed symbol. Look at the use of "rosebud" in Citizen Kane, the way Brutus is betrayed just as Caesar is betrayed in Julius Caesar, and, turning back to film, the way the monolith keeps reappearing to tie up all the narrative threads in 2001: A Space Oddysey.

This is what our great religious texts do as well. They echo something we have inside by echoing their own internal themes. Wandering about the wilderness resulted in Abraham becoming the patriarch of Canaan. Wandering about the wilderness turned twelve tribes into the great nation that settled in Canaan. Moses would not live to enter Israel, only Joshua would. David would not live to build the temple, Solomon would. Hannah proclaims, "My heart exults in the Lord," and the virgin Mary exclaims, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord."

By seeming to speak with one voice, the scriptures gain the authority of having personality - of seeming like a cohesive and singular expression of a great mystery. We have only to read to learn more of this mystery, but like the pages of a person, the pages of this book reveal more each time we read...