This is a metaphor indicating that when we grow further in understanding, it is because we are able to build further on what we have learned from those who have gone before us. When we stand on the shoulders of others, we can naturally see much farther than they were able to see. If we were standing on the same level as they, this could not have happened. This is what happens with every improvement in technology, for example. Subsequent generations are able to go beyond their previous generations because they can take advantage of everything that their predecessors have discovered. Isn't this so even in discovering spiritual truths?
Martin Luther and others who ushered in the Protestant Reformation were making a huge change in the theological understanding of those days. But did they understand everything fully? Can we take everything Luther taught as the final word? By no means! We are still learning more and more, delving into the treasures hidden in the word of God. Now we know more about the theology of salvation than Luther did. But does that make us greater than Luther? Not at all! We started our learning with the advantage of beginning from where he left off, and going further. If it weren't for him, and we were still in the time of the Reformation, where would we be?
There are two things we can learn from this. We are not to think that we are better than all our predecessors for the advances in spiritual understanding we have made from where they stood. Let us be grateful to them for giving us a running start, as in a relay race. We could not have done this without them. But let us also recognise that those coming after us can go much farther than we have been able to go. Let us learn to rejoice in that, recognising that God's wisdom is getting revealed more.
Let us think of this as a relay race that started from Adam and Eve. From generation to generation, a learning process has been going on, with one generation passing on the baton to the next. The one who is running currently has the advantage of having learned from the mistakes of the past generations and also from the challenging examples from the past. If he has learned his lessons well, he can run better than all the previous generations.
But those who have not bothered to learn from history repeat the same mistakes. We can make this mistake of not learning from previous mistakes either because we foolishly venerate the older generations or because we are not conscious of the fact that we too can make mistakes.
God is our Judge who is righteous and just in giving each one his reward. This reward will not be based on how much we have produced but how faithful we have been with what we were given, as we can see from the parable of the talents. From those who have been given much, He will expect more (Lk.12:48). Let us not compare ourselves with others but learn to be faithful before our Lord with what He has given us (Gen.17:1).