Fragments - Shadowlands - Looking Through A Glass Darkly

"Love never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."

I Corinthians 13:8-12

The fragmentary things shall vanish away; the complete things shall abide. The former are temporal, the latter are eternal. Even all the spiritual goods will disappear with all the material and intellectual goods. They are all fragmentary, temporal, transitory. Love alone does not disappear; it endures forever. For God himself is love.

Paul singles out knowledge, and points to the difference between our fragmentary, indirect, and darkened knowledge, and the full, direct, and total knowledge to come. He speaks of something which, besides love, is perfect and eternal - namely, the seeing of the truth, face to face; the knowledge is as full as Gods knowledge of us.

Knowledge is like the perception of things in a mirror, that it therefore concerns enigmas and riddles. This is only another way of expressing the fragmentary character of knowledge. For fragments out of the context of the whole are only riddles to us. We may surmise the nature of the whole; we may approach the whole indirectly; but we do not see the whole itself; we do not grasp it directly face to face. A little light and much darkness; a few fragments and never the whole; many problems and never a solution; only reflections in the mirror of our souls, without the source of truth itself: that is the situation of our knowledge.

The misery of man lies in the fragmentary character of his life and knowledge; the greatness of man lies in his ability to know that his being is fragmentary and enigmatic. For man is able to be puzzled and to ask, to go beyond the fragments, seeking the perfect. Yet, in being able to do so, he feels at the same time the tragedy implicit in his being, the tragedy of the riddle and the fragment.

We dwell with the fragments. We realize that the fragments will always remain fragments, even if one attempts to organize them. The unity which they belong lies beyond them; it is grasped through hope, but not face to face.