COLUMBUS DAY

Through Untrue

By FR. ROLANDO V. DE LA ROSA, O.P.

EVERY second Monday of October, Americans celebrate the landing of Christopher Columbus in the New World. Parades and other grand festivities mark this special occasion.

As in the previous years, however, a cloud of quiet contempt hovers above the Columbus Day celebration. There are those who see this day as a cover-up for the almost total annihilation of the indigenous population of North and South America. They see Columbus as a villain in history whose arrival in the New World in 1492 paved the way for the despoliation of the continent and its original inhabitants.

Such critiques, notwithstanding, we have to admit that Columbus had at least one achievement  his detractors cannot ignore and which we must celebrate.

When people thought that the earth was flat, they recognized each other as fellow inhabitants of a very small world, afraid to go near the horizon for fear they might fall off. They saw the horizon as the limit or the edge of the earth. The great achievement of Columbus and the other explorers consists not so much in discovering the New World, but in proving to us that the horizon is not the limit of the earth, it is the limit of our vision. The horizon does not tell us how far the sea and land extends; it only tells us how far our eyes can see.

I say this is a monumental feat because our notion of the earth determines our idea of ourselves and of one another. Had Columbus been equipped culturally to see the New World as really “new” and not an inferior copy of the Old World, he could have utilized this insight to expand his understanding of humanity. He could have shown more compassion and have been less threatened by the new people and things that confronted him. The tragic fault of Columbus is that his geographic horizon expanded, but the horizon of his mind or heart remained constricted.

In 1969, Neil Armstrong was said to have achieved what Columbus had accomplished several centuries earlier. The moon did not appear like a “New World” but it became a new vantage point wherein to see the earth for what it is, and our place in God’s creation.

Archibald Macleish wrote: “To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, sailing on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold – human beings who know now they are truly brothers and sisters.”

From the moon, the earth is but a little speck in the wide universe, and we, helpless and powerless as individuals and strangers. Our strength lies in solidarity with each other as brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, the voyage of Columbus outside Europe’s horizon happened 500 years ago, and the landing on the moon happened more than 40 years ago and still, it is more difficult today to feel that we belong to this earth as neighbors, and as brothers and sisters. Perhaps it is because, like Columbus, the roots of our eyes are in the heart. While the eyes are quick to see, the heart is slow to learn.