Hermit Fathers and Immaculate Women (1932) Mikhail Nesterov
border between the U.S. and Canada can, because of numerous circumstances, afford to be more open, while the one between the U.S. and Mexico sadly cannot. Being open-minded is a necessary thing but at some point, one must make commitments, cement loyalties, and form opinions. It is, as G.K. Chesterton once put it, “Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” Neither an open or closed mind is inherently a virtue or vice. Rather, they are both necessary stages in making decisions. We must continually exercise both in life. Either extreme is a ditch we ought to avoid. Even when we have settled on a course of action or formed a solid opinion, we must maintain an open mind, just as when we are learning, seeking answers, or wrestling with a problem, we must not be gullible or undiscerning. In truth, borders can give us life and they can also destroy us. This truth permeates all of reality, from the smallest sub-atomic particle to the most complex and abstract of human social systems. The border is the point of contact between chaos and order. It is the place where that ancient cosmic battle is played out.
Too much chaos and we get death. Too much order and we get death. This battle between chaos and order is visible in the creation story in the book of Genesis. “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:1). The story begins with the waters of chaos. It begins without form, without any distinction or boundaries. The rest of Genesis 1 is a series of separations and distinctions by which God sets boundaries between things to create beauty and life. “Then God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.’ Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so” (Genesis 1:6-7). And again, in verse 14, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night.” While borders gave shape to God’s creation, a border also barred Adam and Eve from Eden after their transgression. A border also kept the souls of the departed trapped in hell until Christ shattered that border in His Harrowing of Hades. The entire story of salvation is one of erecting the right borders and tearing down the wrong ones. In His Incarnation, Christ tears down the border between divine and human. In His ministry, He tears down social boundaries between the sick and the well, between the rich and the poor, between the Jew and the foreigner. St. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, summarizes it this way: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The task of setting borders right, begun by Christ, was handed over to us, His people, to complete. St. Maximus the Confessor, one of our great Church Fathers, teaches that man was created last precisely to carry out God’s work of uniting divisions and shattering borders between things. Maximus writes (and I will paraphrase), “mediating between extremes and unifying through himself things that by nature are separated from each other by a great distance, the human person might gather all things together and lifting them up to God bring about the union of all things in God, in whom there is no division.” This, then, is the task set before us: to set the borders of our lives and our world right. And it is no easy task. The work of creating a more just world or a more righteous life is very much a problem of righting our borders. However, it is not as easy as simply imposing new rules or erecting higher walls. Nor is it merely 5
jacob's well
