Matters of Faith

Every now and then I like to pull down my copy of The Habit of Being which is a collection of letters by Flannery O’Connor.  Tonight I read a letter that will certainly become a part of my favorite O’Connor quotes.  I’m certain that some of you may disagree with it, but I’m posting it anyway.  Feel free to respond if you so desire.

“The Church’s stand on birth control is the most absolutely spirtual of all her stands and with all of us being materialists at heart, there is little wonder that it causes unease.  I wish various fathers would quit trying to defend it by saying that the world can support 40 billion.  I will rejoice in the day when they say: This is right, whether we all rot on top of each other or not, dear children, as we certainly may.  Either practice restraint or be prepared for crowding…” (338)

But this will never take the place of my absolute favorite of her letters.  It is one that I make a point to read every time I open the book.

“I was once, five or six years ago, taken by some friends to have dinner with Mary McCarthy and her husband, Mr. Broadwater…She departed the Church at age 15 and is a Big Intellectual…toward morning the conversation turned to the Eucharit, which I, being the Catholic, was obviously supposed to defend.  Mrs. Broadwater said when she was a child and received the Host, she thought of it as the Holy Ghost, He being the “most portable” of the Trinity; now she thought of it as a symbol and implied that it was a pretty good one.  I then said, in a very shaky voice, “Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.”  That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.” (125).