Icarus and Christian Existence
In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus. Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus' father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea's dampness would not clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father's instructions not to fly too close to the sun; when the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell into the sea where he drowned. Interestingly, the part about complacency is usually left out and the myth told solely about the dangers of hubris. I take this as a parable about Christian and ecclesial existence. Though the gospel calls us to fly neither to high or too low, but still to fly, most of the time most of the church has taught us to fly too low or to stay on the ground which is where the too low flyers end up anyway. Avoiding hubris,