Digesting something rich takes time, but for the moment I am taken by one thought that my eyes fell upon in the first listed post above; a quote from Fr. Carron:
Christianity is easy: always the child needs to find his mother beside him and life is easy. For us Christ is not so real as mother/child. Why? Because Christ is not real? This is the problem we need to face in the School of Community. This is the first problem. This one. That we are not sure of his presence. Many times Christ is an extra thing. Not so real as the mother is for the child. Many times we live as orphans instead of as sons.
My children, especially my 2 year old daughter, help me understand this deeply. Or at least they help me to be able to think about it deeply.
Some time ago I said to a priest in confession that while I knew Christ was "generally with me" I felt that perhaps He wasn't all that interested in what transpired in my life. The wise elderly priest counseled me, practically rising out of his chair with his words, that Jesus' response to me was "Woman, where is your mind!?!" His gift of bluntness helped me so much, really knocked me out of an unthinking spiritual stupor.
I am truly understanding more and more (and at this moment I see again how it is weaving together in a way that is not of my making) how Jesus is with me; with what kind of heart. Talk of making God happy, for me, has been relegated to a category of how to guilt children into doing what you want them to do (Share your toys with your brother; it will make God happy). If I dare remove the concept from that category... a happy God... I want to shudder and bow low even thinking of uttering it out loud... But if we truly are Christ in this world, if truly we are transformed by His grace and made His sons by adoption, is it not reasonable for the Divine to look upon us with "happiness"? To me, this is more profound than to look on us with love. Perhaps love is a worn out theologese term to me.
If God Himself takes delight in His people, and we are His people, surely our mission is so easy. Christian, be who you are! What child's heart is not drawn to what is delightful? Is this not why we must be like children to enter the kingdom of God?
2 comments:
Oh Marie! I wish you had come with me! You will also really appreciate the notes I just posted over at Come to See (I have so many more, too, but I especially felt urgent about posting the ones about education because they make the question so simple -- again, that question of mother/child!
My only quibble with your post is that while I may delight my children, it's not all the time, and what amazes me and even causes me to feel great reverence in front of my children is that they adhere to me no matter what emotions they feel about me -- and I adhere to them, too. I guess I have to go with love over delight because only love keeps smiling when there is no smile in return.
I'm not sure I ever delight my children. But I do know that I delight in them, and if I dig into my soul I believe I still delight in them even if they make me angry by what they do. Maybe the only reason they can make me angry is because they delight me so much. I suppose that is love, really, when you delight in the one who makes you angry.
When I speak of children drawn to what is delightful, I'm thinking of how our witness is effective in the world. If God delights in us (and I do think we need to understand some realistic degree of actually reflecting Him when we speak of that), then surely there is something objectively delightful about us. If we be who we are, that objective delightful attribute will be evident to the seeking soul. The seeking soul is a heart like a child's, or a heart that is willing to become like a child's. So when we are who we are before God, "many will see, many will fear, and many will put their trust in the Lord."
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