Blog:Salvation is for the "childlike"? Matthew 11:25: Difference between revisions
Blog:Salvation is for the "childlike"? Matthew 11:25 (view source)
Revision as of 23:12, 31 July 2024
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Before now, every time my dog would show me his simple, pure love, love that is unreasoned and unconditional, I would stumble over my intellect’s obstructions to pure faith. Why can't I be like that to my Father? But I'm not his father; he is not my child. He is a dog and doesn't have the reason to know it. | Before now, every time my dog would show me his simple, pure love, love that is unreasoned and unconditional, I would stumble over my intellect’s obstructions to pure faith. Why can't I be like that to my Father? But I'm not his father; he is not my child. He is a dog and doesn't have the reason to know it. | ||
"Childlike” our priest explained, is to have a — the Father. Childlike is to respect, recognize, obey, love, and need the Father. A "childlike" faith is humble, honest, and yearning for the Father. | |||
Of course! | |||
When Satan tempted Adam and Eve to "be like God", | When Satan tempted Adam and Eve to "be like God," it was not just the Tree of Knowledge they stole from, they rearranged the family tree: they would no longer be God's children. Satan, himself not of the image of God, and thus not a child of the Father, jealously, spitefully tried to disconnect us from our Father. But God won't have it. While handing out the due punishment (the "curse"), he bestowed upon Adam and Eve the glory of father- and motherhood (the "blessing"). And then he set us off on our long course back home. | ||
Salvation, then, is the return to childhood with the Father. God doesn't owe us that inheritance, but he wants us to ask for it back. As our Deacon taught the other day, St. Thomas called it "congruent merit" that we merit but do not deserve salvation, for which we become worthy only through and by Christ. In Matthew 11, Jesus isn't telling us to be simpletons, he's telling us, rather plainly, now that I can see it (scales falling from the eyes), that we must accept and act like we have a (the) Father. | |||
== Confirmation bias == | == Confirmation bias == | ||