Matters of Faith

While driving through Atlanta a few days ago I passed a pub whose sign read, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.-Ben Franklin”.  I was immediatey reminded of a quote from St. Thomas Aquinas I came across not too long ago.  “Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath, and a glass of wine.” he says.   And this, I have found, is very good advice!

Yesterday I had to take one of our children to be tested for a sensory processing disorder.  While sitting in the waiting room and becoming increasingly more nervous and impatient, I looked up from of mountain of paperwork to see my vulnerable little boy sitting quietly and bravely, fighting back his tears. Perhaps he wondered what was wrong with him.  I know he feared what the doctors were about to do.  Needless to say, the tears began welling up in my own eyes.  But I knew that if he saw me cry he’d only worry more; so I needed to be strong for him. “Get yourself together!”  I scolded myself.  “Think about monster trucks!  Think about your grandmother!  Think about your grandmother driving a monster!  JUST. DON’T. CRY!”

Countless times throughout the 2 ½ hour appointment I wanted to scoop him up into my arms, tell him everything was going to be just fine and run with fury right out the door. But I knew that it was in his best interest to let him go through the testing, no matter how scary it was.  And though I wanted to take away all of his pain and fear, my interference would not help him become all that he can be.  My job, at this point in time, is to comfort and reassure him and to make sure all the necessary elements to his success are in line. 

I keep thinking that this is similar to how our Father, who loves us as a mother, so often feels for us (though much more profoundly and purely) as we struggle through life.  He could take away all the pain and suffering we experience, but we could not then become the saints we were meant to be.  It is not that the suffering in and of itself is good or holy, but that there are some truths that cannot be revealed, some sins that cannot be purged, and a part of Christ that cannot be known except through suffering.  In fact, our suffering only finds meaning in light of the suffering and temptation of Christ.  This is why a theology that refuses to regularly contemplate the suffering of Christ, the very Song of God slowly and painfully dying upon the cross, is ultimately inconsequential. 

In the midst of my own struggles, when I am wondering where God is and when He is going to ease my pain I am often brought back to this scripture:

“But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel:  Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine.  When you pass through the water, I will be with you; in the rivers you shall not drown.  When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned; the flames shall not consume you.  For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior…you are precious in my eyes and glorious and because I love you…” Isaiah 43:1-4.

May you this day receive comfort from the Father who loves you as a mother.

Check out The Path of Christianity Lite by Kevin Staley-Joyce on the First Things Blog.  I have not yet read the Eberstadt article (to which it refers) in its entirety, but I think that it is particularly interesting in light of the For Debate posting and subsequent comments that appeared on this blog a few days ago.

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/01/26/the-path-of-christianity-lite/

This is the Meditation of the Day found in the Magnificat for Tuesday, January 26^th.  I hope it is as helpful and encouraging to you as it is to me!

“Be calm, infinitely calm, both in soul and in body.  Do not attempt too much, but what you do, do well and gently.  Quality first, but good quality.  Follow grace in souls; take its step.  It is adagio; often adagisimo, but very sure.  Forget yourself completely—time, studies, health, reputation…Give yourself utterly, without counting the cost, without reserve, without thought of yourself.  God alone!

We know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good.  To those with good will: that is to say, those who, submitting and making over their reason and will to the Holy Spirit and allowing themselves to be guided by him, invariably arrive at that perfection willed for them by God.  That does not mean that we can sit with our arms folded and leave it all to him.  On the contrary, we must make use of all that divine Providence sends us: reverses, falls even; bearing always in mind the good that the Holy Spirit wants to draw from these things.  Given that disposition, the Holy Spirit will never be absent.  He also makes use of reverses to correct our faults and set us on our way again.  Use everything, then, with this end in view; in all weathers, keep your compass pointing to God; make him your aim.”  Dom Augustin Guillerand, O.Cart.

I once dated a man who believed that a person was not “saved” unless he or she could point to an exact moment of conversion-a moment in which they acknowledged their absolute brokenness, left their life of hedonism and debauchery and definitively dedicated their life to the Lord Jesus Christ.  I spent the better part of a year attempting to pinpoint the inauguration of my own faith before throwing in the towel with, I must admit, a considerable amount of frustration and disappointment that I had never been granted the proverbial burning bush experience.  My life, rather, has been a series of conversions, some so small they would seem inconsequential to most people.  But they have all been at the hand of God and must, therefore, be considered miraculous.  Let us not be in the habit of disregarding the work of God simply because it does not conform to our expectations.

Isn’t Facebook an interesting thing?  I am never disappointed when I sit down to read everyone’s latest status update and learn who’s travelling, who’s fed up with their day, who’s kids are driving them to the brink of insanity, who’s eating a bowl of cereal…  You never know what you’ll read, and it is always entertaining.  Yesterday I noticed that a friend of mine, who is an undergraduate New Testament professor, asked if “anyone knows a good Queer reading of Mark”.  

There is a Biblical interpretation for just about every type of life experience (female, feminist, Latin American, Black, Islamic—to name a few), and it begs the question (I think): What is the ruler by which we measure these interpretations as accurate representations of the character of God?  This is not to suggest that certain experiences are invalid or less worthy than others, only that experiences in and of themselves cannot be authoritative.  It will probably come as no surprise that I have a few opinions on the topic, but I’m mainly interested in yours.  So, please, comment and let us hear what you have to say!

I spend a considerable amount of time in bookstores and am always impressed by what seems to be the relentless expansion of the “self-help” section, evidence of the fact that our society is heavy laden with brokenness and desperate for healing.  With a brief walk down the aisle it is clear that though drowning in the pain of abuse, addiction, depression and fear our world still senses that there is something more to be had in this life and has not given up the hope of finding it.  And while the tools and techniques some books propose to assist in our pursuit of healing are more valuable than others, we have either experienced or suspect that they are all on some level quite incomplete.  They may temporarily treat the symptoms or even prove successful in eliminating some aspect of our suffering, but they do not lead to the ultimate freedom and wholeness that we seek. 

Years ago I purchased a book entitled Does God Believe in You?  Though I have never made it past the cover, I cannot bear to part with it.  This is because the simple title captures my lifelong struggle with God.  I have never had much difficulty believing in God.  There was a time when I thought I doubted the existence of a Supreme Being, but it turns out what I really questioned was God’s opinion of me.  In fact, it seems most often the case that when people claim to wrestle with the existence of God their true question is “What kind of God is out there?  And what does He think of me?”

I once heard a young minister argue that Peter’s ability to continue walking upon the water to meet Christ who waited to receive him was not a result of his lack of faith in Christ at all, but rather it was the result of Peter’s lack of faith in himself.  Peter didn’t have enough faith in who he was and what he could become through the power of Christ’s love.  Arguably, this too is a lack of faith in Christ or at least in Christ’s ability to enable Peter to perform and achieve the miraculous.  But the fact remains that we have all lost our ability to see in ourselves more than what we currently are and to envision the possibility of becoming the people we were initially created to be.  It seems absurd to even entertain the thought that we, too, could walk on water or heal the sick, but Christ says that it is so and desires even more for each of us.  We were meant for freedom, for love and for laughter.

It is only in the presence of the One who has loved us from the beginning of time that we discover the grace to truly love ourselves.  As George MacDonald wrote, “There is no forgetting of ourselves but in the finding of our deeper, true self—God’s idea of us when he devised us—the Christ in us.  Nothing but that self can displace the false, greedy, whining self, of which most of us are so fond and proud.  And that self no man can find for himself: seeing of himself he does not even know what to search for. ‘But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” (Sir Gibbie, 161).

My sister gave me a first edition copy of Dorothy Sayers’ Creed or Chaos this year for Christmas.  It was certainly one of the most thoughtful gifts I received since Sayers is one of my all-time favorite writers.  As far as I am concerned, she had the perfect mixture of wit, wisdom, eloquence and intellect. 

I first discovered Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries (and loved every one of them…except, perhaps, The Five Red Herrings) and have only recently moved on to her theological essays.  I have read the essay Are Women Human? (in case you are wondering, the answer is yes!) several times and recommend it as often as I can.  There is a good argument in the essay as to why the Church must unapologetically continue to call God our Father instead of replacing that title with something more politically correct, like “Creator” or even “Mother”.

As for Creed or Chaos, I began reading the book and found myself tempted to underline every other sentence.  Since I can’t bring myself to mark up a first edition copy of any book, I had to find another copy of the book to keep at my side and mark up while reading the original.  Though the book was written in the 1940s, it continues to be an appropriate critique of the state of the church and argument for the relevance of Christian doctrine.  I will leave you with just one quote:

“Theologically, this country is at present in a state of utter chaos, established in the name of religious toleration, and rapidly degenerating into the flight from reason and the death of hope.  We are not happy in this condition, and there are signs of a very great eagerness, especially among the younger people, to find a creed to which they can give wholehearted adherence…The thing that is in danger is the whole structure of society, and it is necessary to persuade thinking men and women of the vital and intimate connection between the structure of society and the theological doctrines of Christianity.”

I just finished reading Frank O’Connor’s First Confessions for the second time and laughed just as much tonight as I did when I first read it a few years ago.  Even if you are not a Catholic and have no intention of going to confession, I urge you to read this story.  You will enjoy it!  I found it in Frank O’Connor: Collected Stories, but you can also read it here: http://www.ireland-information.com/firstconfession.htm

Last night my husband and I went to dinner with a very dear friend who is in town working on his Doctor of Ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary.  During the course of our meal, he mentioned having recently read a book in which the author argued that our responsibility to the poor and destitute only extends to a local level (I can’t remember the title or author of this book.  Perhaps if he is reading, he could share this information with us all).   I suppose then we do not have to respond to the needs of those living in Africa, Indonesia or any other country overseas because they fall outside of this small radius of responsibility.  This makes me wonder, who then is responsible for answering the needs of the people in Haiti? Other Haitians?  The people of the Dominican Republic?  Well, they should be out of trouble in no time!  This will at least relieve any latent guilt of the 55% of voters in a recent CNN online poll who said they had no intention of giving to the recovery efforts in Haiti.

I think we’d all be better off taking the advice of St. Padre Pio who said, “Make Christian use of your money and savings, then so much misery will disappear; so many aching bodies and afflicted beings will find help and comfort.”