"Everything may change in our demoralized world except the heart, man's love, and striving to know the divine."  So said Jewish artist Marc Chagall, born in Russia in 1887, died in France in 1885 (and whose tomb I was privileged to see a number of years ago when I was traveling in France).  Perhaps most famous for his work with a variety of color and medium, Chagall here gives us perhaps greater insight still, an insight born in his view of art and the human experience of it.
     Yes, he correctly notes, the world can indeed be demoralizing.  It's not always easy to be optimistic about humanity and its future on the planet.  Yet as Chagall also correctly points out, even if the world crumbles, its enculturations collapsed and fallen into the debris of history and abandoned rationality, love and heart will remain.  Even if all else seems lost, the longing of the human being for wholeness and connection, her passionate desire for care and communication will not leave us.
     Why?  Because, as Chagall points out, people will not stop striving to know the divine. Driven by this love and desire, a love and desire necessarily embedded in the fabric of a purposefully birthed creation, human beings will continue to seek a greater love still. They will not cease from trying to understand why they are here and why they are the way they are.  And if they are wise, they will not stop doing so apart from the compass of their innate wish to know the divine.
     If there is love, there is wonder; if there is heart, there is mystery; if there is passion to know, there is God.  How else can we affirm and fathom the presence of moral desire?