Restoration and Proximity: More Than Just Humanity
by Bishop Robert Mar Ephrem Lopez de
The other day I was texting with a friend about funding—no surprise there—and the conversation shifted.
“As a side note,” I wrote, “I think G-d has a special cloth we’re cut out of, one that’s woven with mitzvah—good deeds, kindness, compassion—to better the world.”
She responded, “Tikkun Olam… we’re healing the world, one little piece at a time…”
I paused, soaked in her words, and replied, “That’s the only way I can think about what we do. It doesn’t always make sense, but somehow it works.”
Her final text came back: “Great point. I really appreciate that! And am honored to be part of your ‘we.’”
I ended simply: “I’m just honored.”
I am blessed to have a circle of friends who walk different paths, but walk in the same direction. Sometimes we must step outside our familiar “Christian” circles to grasp a greater sense of restoration. A Buddhist friend of mine once wrote a song called Praises for the World—you can find it on YouTube. Recently, Pope Leo XIV, in a video message to the Network of Universities for the Care of Our Common Home, encouraged university leaders “to be builders of bridges of integration between the Americas and with the Iberian Peninsula, working for ecological, social, and environmental justice.”
You’ve heard the words restoration and proximity used by Mar Enoch and Mar Abrahim. You may still be pondering what they mean. In the Gospel of Thomas, Saying 77, Jesus declares:
“I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.”
The Apostle Paul echoes this in Acts 17:28 (NKJV):
“In Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”
So what’s the point?
Too often, Christians focus solely on the restoration of humanity and our nearness to “the end of things,” while neglecting what John saw in Revelation 21:
“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.”
We see “a new heaven” with one eye open, but forget “a new earth” with the other. New here is not “fresh off the assembly line,” but restored—as in “go to settings, restore to manufacturer settings.”
If mitzvah, praises for the world, and being builders of bridges for ecological, social, and environmental justice have not yet been split open in you, then we have missed the meaning of restoration and proximity we as Christians so desperately seek.