Against Golden Ages: A Reflection on Abba John the Dwarf 14

There’s an old saying that says ‘We stand on the shoulders of giants.’ While I applaud the proverb’s humility, something about it has always rubbed me the wrong way. What’s amazing about the great feats of the past — whether it’s standing up to Nazis, demanding Civil Rights, or the acts of creative genius in the arts and sciences — isn’t that the people who did them were giants, but that they weren’t. They weren’t more gifted or better positioned or stronger than us. They were weak, struggling, fearful men and women just like us, and yet they achieved great things anyway. Rather than being an example of humility, I think this saying can actually inspire apathy in the present, a kind of ‘Golden Age’ thinking that assumes the best is behind us, and we couldn’t possibly measure up. And this is particularly troublesome since we are being called in so many ways to do greater things than our forebears, to build off their successes certainly but also to come to terms with and correct their failures and blind spots.

All this is on my mind today because of the Saying from the Desert Fathers I’d like to contemplate. It’s another ambiguous Saying, that is offered without comment so we’re left to decide for ourselves what it means. It’s also told third-hand, since the unnamed narrator is telling us what Abba John said another unnamed monk once said. But it’s an interesting Saying to think about:

Abba John said, ‘Here is what one of the elders in ecstasy said: “Three monks were standing at the edge of the sea, and a voice came to them from the other side saying, ‘Take wings of fire and come here to me.’ The first two did so and reached the other shore, but the third remained, crying and weeping exceedingly. But later wings were given to him also, not of fire, but weak and without strength, so that with great difficulty he reached the other shore, sometimes under water, sometimes above it. So it is with the present generation; if they are given wings they are not of fire, but wings that are weak and without power.”’ (Abba John the Dwarf 14)

Here we have just the kind of ‘Golden Age’ thinking I was talking about. In the old days, things were so much better, easier, people were so much greater and more gifted. It smacks of nostalgia, which is never a helpful sentiment. But at the same time, it makes an important point: Even if things were better ‘back then’ (which they most certainly weren’t — they were probably better in some ways and worse in many others), we still have a responsibility to do whatever we can to make things better today.

We may not be giving wings of fire, but we are still able to fly.

And to my mind, flying on strong wings is a lot less impressive and inspiring than flying haltingly on weak ones.

The important thing, though, is just to fly.