Читать книгу Soli Deo Gloria - M.T. Augustine - Страница 18

Perhaps my favorite film of all time is “Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini”; in English, “The Garden of the Finzi-Contini”. I fell in love with Italy all over again, apart from my childhood associations, when I first viewed this film; I remember distinctly it was being shown in a little art film theatre in Harvard Square, and for me even though the ending is unspeakably sad; I fell in love with the film, perhaps the first time I felt so regarding any film.

One does not know how many years one has left; so perhaps these books will be completed and perhaps not; but if the essential message is in all the books then it will be OK whenever I am called in; and the essential core message is: Soli Deo Gloria. I think perhaps, Lucifer, is an image for the Ego in humanity; he wants to say something like it is me, the ego, which is great and not God; but next to the Magnificence and AllPower of the Almighty; man, in this case Lucifer is quite inadequate; perhaps even pathetic. Perhaps Lucifer was the first tragic figure in history which itself is rather inadequate and yes possibly can be seen as somewhat pathetic. This is certainly no reason for depression or negativity; in fact the opposite; God is with us always; this is fantastic news and he loves humanity and would like to give it everything it thinks it wants; “ask and it shall be given unto you.”

Once on a visit to Rome in 2008 or perhaps it was 2010, as I strolled down the Corso VE toward the Borghese Gardens, I ended up in the middle of a demonstration protesting against perhaps the banks and the present politicians; they seemed to be the target; at one point one of the demonstrators looked at me intensely, trying to see I suppose how I fit into the scheme of things as he saw them. I think he decided - just a tourist, but for a minute it could have gone anyway, depending on what was happening in that brain. I understood in that emotion filled moment how political thinking and emotions can take over the human being and perhaps justify in that mind, any action, no matter how horrific. Can this explain to some extent what happened to the Finzi-Continis under the fascist regime? The mind can be dominated completely by a political ideology even though political ideologies have little to do with ultimate Reality.

In my mind in a nanosecond is the picture of Micol Finzi-Contini, all in black and looking elegant, at the top of a grand staircase; at the end of the staircase below her are the Nazi Fascists who have come to take her to the camps; they call her “Nicol Finzi-Contini” and she answers defiantly “Micol”. The ending of this film is embedded in my mind for all time; how could this have happened? We have to begin studying this era; what are the causes? What happens to humanity during such periods of insanity? How is the Egoic-mind involved? What are the solutions? For without doubt humanity can, with some effort, ascend to the next evolutionary level; which involves accessing higher consciousness.