Apologia Pro Vita Sua

“You gave me these emotions, but didn’t tell me how to use them....What of my soul? Do I have one?...Who are these people of which I am comprised? Good people...bad people? Did you know that I could play this (flute)? Does this knowledge reside in these hands...in this mind...in this heart? Who am I?”

Usually when we hear the name “Frankenstein”, we think of a B movie and creature. Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel spoke of far deeper things, intimated in the original subtitle: “or, The Modern Prometheus.”

The 1994 cinema adaptation was of a more decidedly Shakespearean bent, centered upon an apologia pro vita sua...an explanation/justification of one’s own life, origin, purpose and meaning. The quote above is from the re-vivified and far more normal-looking “monster” confronting his human creator after experiencing in short order the extremes of the human heart, from appreciation of life, music, beauty and love to disillusionment, heartbreak, rage and death.

Others in history have pondered the same question, albeit in different aspects: Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote in introspection: “This, what is it in itself, and by itself, according to its proper constitution?...What is it for in this world, and how long will it abide?” This from a man ostensibly seeking truth, yet at the same time persecuting the very ones who lived by it: Christians.

His fellow countryman Pontius Pilate, Roman prefect of Judea, was confronted by it in a very different way. “Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice. Pilate saith unto him, (sic:Quid est veritas?) What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews and saith unto them, I find in Him no fault at all.”

While we like to tell ourselves that we are all basically good at heart, unfortunately, we are not. Whatever our individual faculties, we are all truthfully and inherently capable of all extremes, good and bad.

The Apostle Paul summed it up well: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Romans 7:18 He would go on to elucidate his realization that he, and we all, naturally incline to self and sin as opposed to the contrition, humility and Godly love for all others, even at the expense of oneself, that Christ Jesus embodied.

Likewise, Lincoln’s inauguration appeal to the “better angels of our visure” tangentially reflects the sole, true source of any goodness at all to be found in us...in our Lord, Jesus Christ, who sacrificed Himself for us. Whatever our own predilections, especially in a time of such division as we now find ourselves as a society, we would do well to live by His Word: “If my people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” II Chronicles 7:14.