2 January 2020
The limits of the
Roman Empire were set as a boundary containing expansion: rivers, timber-fenced
fortifications, or Hadrian’s Wall. The word originally meant a path, or course,
even the course of heavenly bodies; then a frontier, differentiation, ultimately
military reinforcement: Roman roads, forts, palisades. Limits contained civilisation
within, deflected invaders without.
Limits: we don’t
flow too freely into neighbouring territory; we refuse entrance to harmful
entities. Limitations, though, impact upon ourselves. We may meet barriers, or
we may be unprepared: either can limit us. Limitations keep us within or
without.
While individual
limits are important (vaccination to keep out diseases; self-control to
restrain violence) comprehending limitations has universal significance.
We are reaching
the limits of the Human Empire as we continue to destroy the earth. The means
of life dissolve and with it, civilisation we have refused to limit. A
limitless universe belongs only to God: the world which has inherited us bears
limits in every feature. We cannot know what God is, says Aquinas, but only
what God is not. The limits of God are unknown, but the limits of creation are
clearly present. We have before us a path: the Way of limiting our carelessness,
ignorance, and greed.
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