I will tell a story of a mother (this mother represents us, but I am also writing about a literal family and we have probably all had to deal with inviting literal guests to a literal wedding who refuse to be in the same room), and she has two sons. The older brother has basically rejected the you…
I will tell a story of a mother (this mother represents us, but I am also writing about a literal family and we have probably all had to deal with inviting literal guests to a literal wedding who refuse to be in the same room), and she has two sons. The older brother has basically rejected the younger brother, who unlike the prodigal son has done nothing to merit this except to have been born, and to take up a lot of attention that used to be his, and to have a voice the older brother cannot bear to hear, and a countenance that the older brother cannot bear to look upon. The older brother silences him whenever they are together, and one will not enter the room if the other is there without a serious reason. Since their mother is a Christian this conduct alarms her and she has said pointedly to the older brother "if you die and your brother is already in heaven will you say: I'm not going, because he is there?" When he answers that he does want to go to heaven and not to hell, she says "well, you had better start practicing now." I can understand the temptation to give snappish answers. But this is no help to him, because she does not tell him how to practice enduring the presence of this brother who affronts all of his senses, and she does not tell him first to love God and then to beg of Him His own love for this brother. It is a problem that can only be solved by grace and divine patience (willingness to suffer.)
I will tell a story also of a mother (this mother represents us again, but I am also writing about a literal family, less common than one which is feuding so I think fewer people have seen it), and she has a daughter who wants to be a man. This daughter has the gentle heart of a woman, which is evident to anyone from the outside, so I don't think people take her seriously when she says it. It's evident to me that a dissatisfaction with one's body is not something a person chooses to feel (these feelings come into one's head: a sadness at gray hair, or wrinkles, or fat, when one looks at oneself, or a sadness at some physical incapacity such as infertility or the loss of a limb, ... or a sadness at brown vs blond hair, straight vs curly hair, small breasts vs larger ones which are not true deficits. It is just a feeling and an unbidden thought.) But when we have feelings and thoughts we choose what to do about them, beginning with whether we dwell on them. In the same way that the older brother dwells on his dislike of every aspect of the physical presence of the younger brother it is possible to dwell on one's dislike of every aspect of one's own physical presence. We might say to this daughter: "O woman! if you die and your little sister the body is already in heaven will you say: I'm not going, because she is there?"
But what are we to say to these children? "You cannot live in this house (the Church) until you love as God does"? There is nowhere else to go. They have to begin as they are now. But with what baby steps are we to help them to grow into Christ? How are we to help them ultimately to embrace and to love what to them *now* is the cross? The only answer that I have is that the mother (this is us, so you should replace every "her" with "your/you") is to be docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and in great humility to pray "God, when I do the wrong thing (I do not want to, but I know that I will), I demand that you bring a greater good from it than if I had done the right thing (You know You want to)", and to do her best to become a saint, i.e. to allow God to make her into a saint and to thereby transform everyone around her as well. This sounds like a total cop-out and even if you do it it seems deeply frustrating and ineffective 99% of the time (judging by lives of saints and also the actual passion and death of Christ), but it is the only way.
I look forward to coverage of the hermit.
I will tell a story of a mother (this mother represents us, but I am also writing about a literal family and we have probably all had to deal with inviting literal guests to a literal wedding who refuse to be in the same room), and she has two sons. The older brother has basically rejected the younger brother, who unlike the prodigal son has done nothing to merit this except to have been born, and to take up a lot of attention that used to be his, and to have a voice the older brother cannot bear to hear, and a countenance that the older brother cannot bear to look upon. The older brother silences him whenever they are together, and one will not enter the room if the other is there without a serious reason. Since their mother is a Christian this conduct alarms her and she has said pointedly to the older brother "if you die and your brother is already in heaven will you say: I'm not going, because he is there?" When he answers that he does want to go to heaven and not to hell, she says "well, you had better start practicing now." I can understand the temptation to give snappish answers. But this is no help to him, because she does not tell him how to practice enduring the presence of this brother who affronts all of his senses, and she does not tell him first to love God and then to beg of Him His own love for this brother. It is a problem that can only be solved by grace and divine patience (willingness to suffer.)
I will tell a story also of a mother (this mother represents us again, but I am also writing about a literal family, less common than one which is feuding so I think fewer people have seen it), and she has a daughter who wants to be a man. This daughter has the gentle heart of a woman, which is evident to anyone from the outside, so I don't think people take her seriously when she says it. It's evident to me that a dissatisfaction with one's body is not something a person chooses to feel (these feelings come into one's head: a sadness at gray hair, or wrinkles, or fat, when one looks at oneself, or a sadness at some physical incapacity such as infertility or the loss of a limb, ... or a sadness at brown vs blond hair, straight vs curly hair, small breasts vs larger ones which are not true deficits. It is just a feeling and an unbidden thought.) But when we have feelings and thoughts we choose what to do about them, beginning with whether we dwell on them. In the same way that the older brother dwells on his dislike of every aspect of the physical presence of the younger brother it is possible to dwell on one's dislike of every aspect of one's own physical presence. We might say to this daughter: "O woman! if you die and your little sister the body is already in heaven will you say: I'm not going, because she is there?"
But what are we to say to these children? "You cannot live in this house (the Church) until you love as God does"? There is nowhere else to go. They have to begin as they are now. But with what baby steps are we to help them to grow into Christ? How are we to help them ultimately to embrace and to love what to them *now* is the cross? The only answer that I have is that the mother (this is us, so you should replace every "her" with "your/you") is to be docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and in great humility to pray "God, when I do the wrong thing (I do not want to, but I know that I will), I demand that you bring a greater good from it than if I had done the right thing (You know You want to)", and to do her best to become a saint, i.e. to allow God to make her into a saint and to thereby transform everyone around her as well. This sounds like a total cop-out and even if you do it it seems deeply frustrating and ineffective 99% of the time (judging by lives of saints and also the actual passion and death of Christ), but it is the only way.