Karl Rahner, a German Jesuit theologian who was one of the architects of Vatican II, had an image of God as the horizon. It is really there. You are attracted toward it. But you can never reach it. That image helps us understand God’s word from the Prophet Isaiah: I am about to create new heavens and a new earth. 2500 years later we are still stuck with the same old world of violence and injustice, it seems. In the prophet’s vision, the new heaven and earth are not something we can attain and then rest on our laurels. Rather, they are a horizon toward which we are going that orients us and provides direction but is just beyond our grasp always beckoning us onward.
