I thought the Oceanic Six was the most open interpretation that some had forced their way on, to move on into acceptance of their position.. when they did, seemingly miraculous things happened. The wolrd worshipped them. They encountered tons of money. Their wishes were fulfilled, a child was born, a father was set to rights (Kwon), a past history was forgiven (Kate), A long lost parent suddenly re-appeared (Cheech Marin for Hurley) crimes were overlooked. Transgressions didn't matter. But as some focused on those who weren't there for whatever reason, they couldn't let go of their past.. and it was Jack and Hurley who had the great pull to go back and fetch those from the Island, they couldn't leave with out them, they couldn't move on without them.
The Monk of Evansham in the 12th century said that you could go to purgatory and there you would battle in exile to find your way back to the world that appears as it would if you were to have garnered the graces of god, and more then that, Evansham argued that there would be a compulsion in you to do right by your man in the afterlife should you have failed to do that in the the life of the body. (note: this is where catholicism really gets steeped in the difference between "Life of the Body" and "Life of the Soul"). I'm looking for a good cite on this, because I'm pretty sure this was Evansham, but I haven't taken history of religion in a long time, and everything I'm googling talks of St. Patrick's Purgatory, which is a different, but somewhat similar concept of how we struggle in purgatory to return to a life as we know it only in the eyes as blessed by god.. which is a totally different, and anymore non-canon way of looking at the stratus of where you go when you die in most Christian denominations.
But in those views, yes, they left the island. They had accomplished in a way, one set of their mission. But they could not accept the truth of their life, they couldn't pass accomplish Peter's Passage because their work was undone. In Dante's Divine Comedy - and again, also covered in the Evansham concept of purgatory, all of those who arrived at Purgatory sang aloud with Psalm 114:
"
1 When Israel came out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah became God's sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;
4 the mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 Why was it, O sea, that you fled,
O Jordan, that you turned back,
6 you mountains, that you skipped like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water."
Now, again, I'm pulling from Dante's inferno as his interpretation of purgatory.
But was it not the God of Jacob, as we saw our character here, who provided passage for those of a foreign tongue (those that came to talk to Richard talked in his original language, and yet, Richard understood all, as did Jacob, so all tongues were understood by him, as with Kim/Kwon) The mountains and the island "Skipped" in fact, they even used the term that it was "skipping" through time at one point, leaping from point to point.. tremble oh earth (earthquake in purgatory) as at the prescence, a rock becomes a pool (did Jack not throw a rock in the hole and it became a pool, a spring of water)
More importantly, in the Evansham interpretation, those within purgatory must find and refine their faith based on the inequities and traits of others, for "those who sin shall find redemption in the strength of others to conquer sin" Basically: everyone sins, but not everyone commits the same sin, and purgatory in that view, refines them to who they should be.
I understand, like I said, the other viewpoint, but the illusions to so many great moments within Inferno were so vivid last night that I spent a big slice after the show re-reading Inferno, something I haven't done since my sophomore year in college, and I just find it so crazy how much of it seems to appear within Lost.
The Monk of Evansham in the 12th century said that you could go to purgatory and there you would battle in exile to find your way back to the world that appears as it would if you were to have garnered the graces of god, and more then that, Evansham argued that there would be a compulsion in you to do right by your man in the afterlife should you have failed to do that in the the life of the body. (note: this is where catholicism really gets steeped in the difference between "Life of the Body" and "Life of the Soul"). I'm looking for a good cite on this, because I'm pretty sure this was Evansham, but I haven't taken history of religion in a long time, and everything I'm googling talks of St. Patrick's Purgatory, which is a different, but somewhat similar concept of how we struggle in purgatory to return to a life as we know it only in the eyes as blessed by god.. which is a totally different, and anymore non-canon way of looking at the stratus of where you go when you die in most Christian denominations.
But in those views, yes, they left the island. They had accomplished in a way, one set of their mission. But they could not accept the truth of their life, they couldn't pass accomplish Peter's Passage because their work was undone. In Dante's Divine Comedy - and again, also covered in the Evansham concept of purgatory, all of those who arrived at Purgatory sang aloud with Psalm 114:
"
1 When Israel came out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah became God's sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;
4 the mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 Why was it, O sea, that you fled,
O Jordan, that you turned back,
6 you mountains, that you skipped like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water."
Now, again, I'm pulling from Dante's inferno as his interpretation of purgatory.
But was it not the God of Jacob, as we saw our character here, who provided passage for those of a foreign tongue (those that came to talk to Richard talked in his original language, and yet, Richard understood all, as did Jacob, so all tongues were understood by him, as with Kim/Kwon) The mountains and the island "Skipped" in fact, they even used the term that it was "skipping" through time at one point, leaping from point to point.. tremble oh earth (earthquake in purgatory) as at the prescence, a rock becomes a pool (did Jack not throw a rock in the hole and it became a pool, a spring of water)
More importantly, in the Evansham interpretation, those within purgatory must find and refine their faith based on the inequities and traits of others, for "those who sin shall find redemption in the strength of others to conquer sin" Basically: everyone sins, but not everyone commits the same sin, and purgatory in that view, refines them to who they should be.
I understand, like I said, the other viewpoint, but the illusions to so many great moments within Inferno were so vivid last night that I spent a big slice after the show re-reading Inferno, something I haven't done since my sophomore year in college, and I just find it so crazy how much of it seems to appear within Lost.