YOUNG IN MIND

In Plato’s Timaeus an account is given of a visit made by that great Athenian Statesman, Solon, to a city in the Egyptian Delta. There he met an elderly priest who remarked on how the Hellenes were young in mind. “O Solon, Solon,” he said, “you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you.” When Solon asked the meaning of this the priest replied: “I mean to say that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age.” (Timaeus 22.b) The priest went on to observe that while the Egyptians keep the records of antiquity stored safely in their temples, other peoples, like the Hellenes, have suffered catastrophic destructions such as fires and floods in which such documents were destroyed. When the writings are gone learning is gone as well. Moreover, when this destruction comes through a flood the ones who survive are “herdsmen and shepherds who dwell in the mountains” while those living in cities are “swept out to sea.” Such a deluge leaves “only those who are destitute of letters and of education, and so you have to begin all over again, like children.” (Timaeus 23.b)

On this Octave Day of Christmas I cannot help recalling those Jewish herdsmen and shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. They were the first to see the renewal of humanity. Those unlettered shepherds were the first to adore the Word of God made flesh. They were witnesses of humanity’s new creation in Christ.

I suppose the ancient Greeks were “always young in mind” in that they sought to know the reason in things and to contemplate the eternal which is never old but always new and known only here and now. My hope as this year begins is that we all may remain young in mind as we grow in the newness of life.

Happy New Year.