Incredible Lightness of Non-being

I will be eternally grateful to my teacher, mentor, and friend, Gil Bailie for introducing to me the notion of ontology: the study of being.

Everyone today - and I do not exaggerate - everyone scopes out everyone else today to see if he or she can grab, snatch, or steal a bit of "ontological density" (DeLubac) from someone else. It can be brutal, if stealthy. Often, it is something so simple as seeing if I am wealthier, more attractive, more on the inside of the "inner circle" (Lewis), more educated, consuming more, more erudite, more charming, spending more money, more generally admired, more (fill in the blank, the list is nearly endless) than YOU.

For a few, fleeting moments, one experiences a sense - sometimes even a rush - of (false) substantiatility. Ahhhh .... But this does not, cannot last. For inevitably I will come to, or am brought into, the presence of someone who is wealthier, more attractive, more on the inside of the "inner circle" (Lewis), more educated, consuming more, more erudite, more charming, spending more money, more generally admired, more (fill in the blank, the list is nearly endless) than ME.

Dashed! That person without even knowing (perhaps) has suddenly snatched ontological substantiality from me. I quiver on the brink of nothingness, a howl of anguish. For, as Walker Percy said so cleverly and masterfully in Lost in the Cosmos,

...it is possible to learn more in ten minutes about the Crab Nebula in Taurus, which is 6,000 light-years away, than you presently know about yourself, even though you've been stuck with yourself all your life

The biblical basis for authentic ontological substantiation resides (for one) in the words of the Psalmist (139):

[1] O LORD, thou hast searched me and known me!
[2] Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up;
thou discernest my thoughts from afar.
[3] Thou searchest out my path and my lying down,
and art acquainted with all my ways.
[4] Even before a word is on my tongue,
lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
[5] Thou dost beset me behind and before,
and layest thy hand upon me.
[6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high, I cannot attain it.
[7] Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
[8] If I ascend to heaven, thou art there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there!
[9] If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
[10] even there thy hand shall lead me,
and thy right hand shall hold me.
[11] If I say, "Let only darkness cover me,
and the light about me be night,"
[12] even the darkness is not dark to thee,
the night is bright as the day;
for darkness is as light with thee ...
[18b] When I awake, I am still with thee.

True ontology cannot be found in this "hall of mirrors" called human culture; a midway with carnies blaring "new" tonics and elixirs, balms and salves for the soul. True ontology is found in keeping the loving, self-giving, steadfast God in the Second Person of the Trinity - Jesus Christ, crucified and risen - at the center of one's being. God gives us being; we are its steward in this mortal life.

To paraphrase the old saw, "A fool and his ontology are soon parted." Wisdom comes in knowing the source of my being; remaining in a state of grace (remember this!); receiving our God - body, blood, soul, and divinity - in the Holy Eucharist; and loving our neighbor as ourself. For more important info, refer, gentle reader, to A Little Guide for Your Last Days.