Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Good Thing That is Given

Because I have been studiously avoiding what the secular media and our disgruntled Catholic brethren have to say about the Holy Father, I have only heard echoes of some of the unhappiness that seems to be floating around out there, but I think I've picked up on the main themes. One sad thing that I read on Amy Welborn's blog  (Love that banner photo.) is that there are apparently a lot of people comparing Francis to Benedict in a way that makes Benedict look bad, and then, I know there are plenty of people who are complaining that Francis does not live up to Benedict's standards. This must be incredibly disturbing to both of these men.

While I was thinking about this earlier today, I was reminded of a conversation between Tinidril, the Green Lady of C. S. Lewis's Perelandra, and Professor Ransom. Tinidril, for anyone who has not read this book, is the Eve of Perelandra (Venus) and she still possesses original innocence. 
"What you have made me see," answered the Lady, "is as plain as the sky, but I never saw it before. Yet it has happened every day. One goes into the forest to pick food and already the thought of one fruit rather than another has grown up in one's mind. Then, it may be, one finds a different fruit and not the fruit one thought of. One joy was expected and another is given. But this I had never noticed before--that the very moment of the finding there is in the mind a kind of thrusting back, or setting aside. The picture of the fruit you have not found is still, for a moment, before you. And if you wished--if it were possible to wish--you could keep it there. You could send your soul after the good you had expected, instead of turning it to the good you had got. You could refuse the real good; you could make the real fruit taste insipid by thinking of the other."
Further along, she talks about how joyous it is to her to have discovered that God has not compelled her to chose the good things that He has sent, but has allowed her to chose to accept those things, to, "plunge into them with my own legs and arms, as when we go swimming. . . . It is a delight with terror in it! 

So this is the choice. We can, still cherishing Benedict with all our hearts, accept with gratitude this new good that is given, or we can send our souls after the good which we have learned to expect, and invest the good we have been given with insipidity by clinging to the other. This is a delight with terror indeed.

Part of the real sadness of this situation to me is that we seem, as usual, to be determinedly sundering that which should be bound together. All the gifts of Benedict and Francis are gifts that we need. They aren't at war with one another. It's we who are at war within ourselves. We don't seem to be able to hold the paradoxical elements of the Faith in balance and so when we forget that we are created in the image and likeness of God, the Holy Spirit sends us John Paul II to remind us of our human dignity; and when we get so chummy with Jesus that we forget that He is due reverence and right worship, He sends us Benedict XVI; and when we forget that the poor are the real treasures of the Church, He sends us Francis. 

Of course, it's hard to change. Believe me, I know this. I like things to be the way I expect them to be. When my friends get their hair cut, I can't even look them in the face for a week. But the Lord is always calling us on to something new, something more difficult, something more beautiful, something we aren't ready for--further up and further in. And further along in Lewis's story, Ransom says to the Lady, "And have you no fear that it will ever be hard to turn your heart from the thing you wanted to the the thing [He] sends?" 
"I see," said the Lady presently. "The wave you plunge into may be very swift and great. You may need all your force to swim in it. You mean, He might send me a good like that?"
"Yes--or like a wave so swift and great that all your force was too little."
"It often happens that way in swimming," said the Lady. "Is not that part of the delight?"
AMDG

12 comments:

  1. Last night when I finished writing this, I was looking around for a picture of a fruit tree that I like and this just happened to be the picture I picked. I didn't realize until I logged in this morning how appropriate that particular picture is to what I've written.

    AMDG

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  2. I wanted to reply to this yesterday but was too busy. I don't disagree with anything you say here, but there is a category of the somewhat concerned that doesn't really fit the pattern: people who are not so much resistant to change as worried that Francis might not be an equal but different good, but rather a less good. The fault there is of too-hasty judgment and anxiety. That, if it happened, could still be an occasion for spiritual growth, but of a different kind. I'm a bit susceptible to this, though I'm trying not to let the hasty negative predictions get in the way of seeing what's actually happening. So far I see mostly good.

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  3. Well, here's the thing. There have been a few little things that strike me the wrong way, but why am I a good judge of what is less good? Why is what I want any kind of yardstick for what the Church needs? Maybe I have a great big plank in my eye and I can't understand what God is doing. I've found that to be true so many times in my life that I can hardly doubt that it could be the case on any given day. Why should anyone think that they are more in sync with the Holy Spirit than the Pope? Why do we have the hubris to judge the pope? And if some day we have to disagree with something he is doing, then we should do it with fear and trembling, not with this swaggering contempt that I see coming from some directions. I mean, if we had a pope that was just a political creature who didn't pray, it would be one thing, but obviously this is not the case. This is what I've always said about John Paul and Benedict to people who are to my left (using the obnoxious terms that we must), and what I will continue to say about Francis.

    What you're saying about people wondering if Francis is less good by-passes the question of the source of the good. If it's God who offers the good, how can it not be what we need? How can there be any question of whether we should be grateful for it?

    AMDG

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  4. I think I'm where Maclin is, at least if I'm reading him correctly.

    Maybe because Benedict's efforts to overcome that chumminess with Jesus you mentioned and put us on the path to "reverence and right worship" weren't finished and so may be prey to reactionary moves.

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  5. So, does anything I said in that reply to Maclin ring a bell with you at all? I'd love to know what you think about that.

    AMDG

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  6. About what you wrote, Janet, this bit -- "Why should anyone think that they are more in sync with the Holy Spirit than the Pope?" -- I certainly agree with.

    But I think my concern is less with Francis's own stand on Benedict's reforms, than it is with others' attempts to undo them, or at least not pursue them, while Francis sets about following his own promptings from the Holy Spirit, namely, that "the poor are the real treasures of the Church."

    Hope that's not too wooly-headed a statement.

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  7. That comment about the real treasures, by the way, is a reference to St. Lawrence.

    AMDG

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  8. I don't really have time to say much about this, but the main point I wanted to make is that the analogies in the Lewis quotes don't cover all the possible reasons why, in a fallen world, one fruit could in fact be better than another. The Holy Spirit guides the Church, and I have complete confidence that this guidance wins out in the end. That doesn't mean the cardinals' judgment is always in sync with the Holy Spirit, though. Certainly whatever happens is ultimately God's will, but within that broad framework it's always possible that a given pope was not really the best choice, or if he is that he won't make errors of judgment, etc.

    I don't in fact have major reservations about Francis as pope. Just a slight uneasiness, for subtle reasons, which I hope will prove unfounded. But it's not because he's not Benedict--that's the point I wanted to make.

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  9. Marianne, If it's any consolation to you at all, think about the apostles after Jesus left. They must have felt like there was so much more they could have learned from Him--so much more He could have done, and now who did they have to replace Him--Peter. Peter is probably not the guy they would have chosen. He's my favorite, but I'm looking back over 2000 years of history.

    AMDG

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  10. Janet, you never fail to amaze me with your insights. That really does help me a lot. Thanks.

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  11. Glad I could help. Have a good week.

    AMDG

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