Matters of Faith

So often I feel as though I am carelessly stumbling through parenthood allowing one teachable moment after another to slip by.  The most recent example I can offer is a conversation between my son, Jack, and I that happened a week ago.  I was cleaning up my bedroom one rainy afternoon when Jack ran in and declared with all the excitement of a child on Christmas morning, “The end of the world is coming soon, Mom!”

“Is it, really?”  I asked.   “Who’ve you been talking to?  Any celestial beings?” 

“Huh?”

“Oh, nothing.  So, why are you so excited about the end of the world?”  The possibilities raced through my mind.  Was he excited about peace on earth?  The end of all suffering and pain?  Or maybe it was seeing Christ in all His glory.  I could hardly contain my pride over the fact that my son, at such a tender age, had already begun to yearn for the Kingdom of God.  But just as I began to pat myself on the back for a job well done he shouted,

“Eating Leviathan!”

“Wait, what?” 

“Eating Leviathan!  When Christ comes back He’s going to kill Leviathan and everyone who’s been good gets to eat his flesh.”  Jack closed his eyes and began licking his lips, apparently imagining the bountiful feast (and I’m thinking that I must become more familiar with his Sunday School curriculum).

Instead of taking this opportunity to talk about the Second Coming of Christ, the necessity of following Christ up until the very end despite persecution and suffering, or even the difference between our life here on Earth and the Kingdom of God I disregarded this teachable moment and asked, “What makes you think you’re gonna want to eat Leviathan?  You don’t even like to eat vegetables.” 

“Because I bet he’s nice and crunchy.”  He licked his lips one more time for good measure and then scurried off to slay a dragon with his best light saber.  Oh, if it were not for the grace of God we’d surely be doomed.

For the record, Jack later told me that he learned about Leviathan from a book on mythical beasts that he has and not from his Sunday School teachers.  However, I’m still thinking that I should become a little more familiar with his Sunday School curriculum!

As a follow-up to Thursday’s post, “Where have all the true artists gone?”  I thought it would be good to provide a few links to what I think is art worth appreciation.  You know, give credit where credit is due!  I have only just begun to research modern religious art, and therefore can offer just a few suggestions.  Feel free to add to this list if you are able!  I’ll try to add more as time goes by.

Jacob Lawrence (and also check out this painting of Lawrence’s)

John August Swanson

Ioan Pope

I was planning on posting a nice follow-up to yesterday’s “Where have all the true artists gone?”, but I’ve been feeling awful today.  My head has hurt, my body ached and I have felt as though I was swimming through molasses since 8 o’clock this morning.  I was certain that I was coming down with something, perhaps a cold, the flu or maybe something worse.  So after lunch, I tucked all the kids into bed for a nap and headed to bed myself.  I slept for a good hour or so, but awoke with all the same debilitating symptoms.  Thirsty, I pealed myself from the bed, and headed downstairs for a glass of water.  That’s when I saw it, sitting there next to the coffee pot mocking my miserable existence…a large, orange bag of decaffeinated coffee.  Ugh!  Some would say this is why one should never take up drinking caffeine.  I say, this is why one should never give it up!  At least I know that I can make tomorrow a much brighter day! 

If you’ve never read C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce it’s high time you bought yourself a copy, hunkered down and began reading it!  I’ve read it at least 5 times, and every time I do something new stands out to me and calls me back to repentance, compassion or forgiveness.  One of my favorite encounters in the book is between two former artists.  One has become a Solid Person (you will understand this more once you read the book!) and has come to lead the other (who is still a Ghost) on his voyage into Heaven.  The Ghost is desperate to find some painting supplies so that he can capture the beauty of what he sees despite the Solid Person’s explanation as to why the artist’s supplies are no good in Heaven:

“When you painted on earth—at least in your earlier days—it was because you caught glimpses of Heaven in the earthly landscape.  The success of your painting was that it enabled others to see the glimpses too.  But here you are having the thing itself.  It is from here that the messages came.” (83)

If this is the purpose of art, then I must ask, “Where have all the true artists gone?”  There was a time when the Church led the way in the Arts.  People were so hungry for a taste of Heaven that they relished every morsel that was handed to them by the likes of Pisano, Giotto, Ghiberti, Donatello and Masaccio (just to name a few).  I daresay even the non-religious artists of the time had a better understanding of the purpose of art, but this is no longer the case.

The problem is that people are still hungry for a taste of Heaven and yet we are fed by the hands of such artists as Andre Serrano, Chris Ofili, Peter Langenbach, and Renee Cox (you can look up her “Yo Mamma’s Last Supper” on your own…I’m not posting it here!) whose “art” is offensive, grotesque, unimaginative and quite frankly juvenile (by the way, much of their work has been paid for by your tax dollars).  I am reminded of Lady Cordelia in Brideshead Revisited when she asks Charles Ryder, “Modern Art is all bosh, isn’t it?”  I’d have to respond just he, “great bosh”.

I am having a minor crisis today.  I am desperately in search of a new book to read, but cannot find anything worth the time it takes to read the synopsis on the book’s back cover.  If I don’t find anything soon I will be forced to reread the C.S. Lewis novels I have sitting on my shelf (not a bad thing…I’ve just read them a dozen times!).  So if you have a good suggestion, please send it my way!  And, yes, this necessarily excludes anything from the Oprah Book Club list!

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.