The Empty Promise

Why do we ever talk about God? Why do we want to listen about Him so eagerly and in amazement? Because it is impossible to stay silent about God, it is impossible to abstract from the elementary human relations with what remains hidden, what is obscured by darkness and oblivion. Why do we call that which is hidden and forgotten God? I do not know. You can try some other way.

Two thousand years have passed since God's death on the Cross, and the promises He made have remained unfulfilled. Considered from this perspective, whether eventually they will be fulfilled today, the day after tomorrow, in a week's time or in the next two thousand years’ time is clearly irrelevant. For two millennia, people have waited for those promises to be fulfilled, and they died disappointed.

We seem to know why Job waited for God—he wished for solace and deliverance from the earthly oppression. But why are we waiting for God? Why are we not satisfied with secular consolation, this tremendous amount of goods that we are supplied with? Because we are convinced, as was Job, that no matter what affluence we enjoy, the suffering that we experience exceeds our sins. If we wait for God, then, it is primarily because we expect him to be righteous, to settle the score. God's promises concern the flesh; they concern this earth, which is why man expects their immediate fulfillment. For the body is related to the present moment, not to the future. The future of the body lies in its old age and death; it is impossible not to know it. The body neither wants to wait, nor it can wait—it needs God, with His consolation, hic et nunc, without delay, right now.