“Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future,” so sayeth the promotional blurb for the movie There Be Dragons (the quote is revealed to be an Oscar Wilde witticism), which is a fictionalized retelling of the saga of a life story of Opus Dei’s founder St. Josemaria Escriva. How true, I thought, echoing Peter Kreeft’s “What are saints but simply sinners saved?” (Making Choices, 1990).
If we recall various personalities who down the ages are spiritual who’s who, it’s a veritable classroom roll call. Augustine was a sex maniac. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross seemed to have been depressed neurotics. Francis of Assisi considered himself the most sinful man that ever lived that’s why he was able to relate well to people’s most terrible sins (The Flowers of St. Francis). He was not merely trying to be falsely humble; he was just being honest with himself. Thérèse of Liseaux battled with many little and big ego problems in the neat confines of the Carmelite nunnery. Mother Teresa was revealed after her death (in her letter to a spiritual director) that she had been tormented by a lifelong spiritual dryness. It might be instructive to ask the devil's advocates through the ages at the Vatican to reveal to us what depths of darkness they have seen among the canonized.
Many prominent Biblical characters were no different. Abraham, Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel despaired when God’s promise of prolificacy did not seem to be a reality. Abraham and Sarah were incredulous when Sarah finally got pregnant at postmenopausal age.
A forwarded email puts the other major characters this way: Noah was a drunk. Jacob was a liar. Isaac was a daydreamer. Gideon was afraid. Samson was a womanizer. Isaiah preached naked.
In very similar news I gathered elsewhere, Jonah was a disobedient prophet, always "running away from God." When the Ninevites he spoke against actually repented, he was stumped, disbelieving, exposing his half-expectation the sinning people would be punished quick. Elijah had a similar episode of feeling irredeemably down, to the point of being suicidal.
King David had the man whose wife he violated killed. King Solomon was no different: after being granted wisdom, he resorted to idolatry of the worst kind.
Job was presumptuous enough to “box with God” with audacious, even sassy, questions. (Oh, but that was understandable, certainly.)
The prophets – Elijah, Micaiah, Elisha, Isaiah, Hosea, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Ezekiel – all without exception felt disappointed with God at one time or another, all questioning whether God was unfair, silent, and hidden. I’m pretty confident even Daniel in the den did, together with Joseph “the Dreamer” in the well and underground prison, Moses and John the Baptist in the desert had similar “moments like these” (“In Moments Like These,” Joseph the Dreamer).
Simeon was disbelieving at a prophesying angel, that’s why he became mute. A similar episode happened to a disbelieving Joseph when Mary “conceived by the Holy Spirit.”
Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. The Samaritan woman was divorced more than once. Martha worried about everything.
The apostles were especially entertaining in their all-too-human bumblings. First Church father Peter was wishy-washy/waffling, impudent/impertinent, hypocritical. The sons of Zebedee and/or their mother, were unabashedly power-hungry. The rest reacted like they did because they too were, and didn't know it. Judas was recruited as apostle despite Jesus' knowing he’s a thief and a traitor. Paul, before he became Paul, was first Saul, a persecutor of Christians, probably having a direct or indirect hand in murder by stoning too. Even long after he saw the light on his way to Damascus, Paul struggled with a mysterious "thorn in the flesh." And let's not forget how he used to be a Pharisee and thus pharisaical. Thomas was almost an agnostic doubter, given to setting conditions prior to belief, pending empirical evidence from the laboratory. Matthew was a notorious publican a.k.a. tax collector. (Do I hear the name Zaccheus too?) Even Barnabbas' record was not spotless, as it was red-inked with a bout of insincerity. All without exception "fell asleep while Jesus was agonizing in prayer" in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And if other human weaknesses that were not out of choice were to be the basis, then we have much proof as well: To quote from the forwarded email again: "Abraham was too old. Leah was ugly. Joseph was abused. Moses had a stuttering problem. Jeremiah and Timothy were too young. Naomi was a widow. Job went bankrupt. Zaccheus was too small. Timothy had an ulcer. Lazarus was dead!" In addition, Elizabeth was said to be barren or sterile until she gave birth (to John the Baptist/Evangelist) in old age.
God’s chosen people, the Jews, are extravagantly unbelieving up to now (but thanks to their disobedience, God channeled His energy to us Gentiles so His chosen people might get jealous and think again).
Gee, with people like these, you and I have a bright future! No less than God Himself identified with the fallen-ness of mankind, when Jesus chose to be born poor and coming from a long line of deeply flawed families, with some disturbingly dysfunctional.
Wait, did I just encourage everyone to go ahead sin? Of course not. Sin always has an “unavoidable consequence,” to quote someone. To lay it on a little thickly, the struggle, the effort to become a better person (with the aid of grace), and the (hidden) posture of the heart -- these are what counts.
Many, if not all, saints and people declared as holy have had an entire onion of corruption to peel away before arriving at their 'true self,' the self God wants all of us to have. Because of this, they have an intense awareness that they are nothing without God, yet thanks to God’s redeeming grace in conjunction with their free will, God was able to “write straight with crooked lines” (from the Spanish proverb, "Dios escribe derecho en renglones torcidos"). That is the common thing that holds all the holies and worthies together: saying yes to the grace, the 'free gift,' of God's salvation despite the shameful lack of merit from their own efforts.
***
Ok, blame this article and this book:
"Scandals: Nothing New Under the Sun"
Philip Yancey (2008?). Disappointment with God.
If we recall various personalities who down the ages are spiritual who’s who, it’s a veritable classroom roll call. Augustine was a sex maniac. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross seemed to have been depressed neurotics. Francis of Assisi considered himself the most sinful man that ever lived that’s why he was able to relate well to people’s most terrible sins (The Flowers of St. Francis). He was not merely trying to be falsely humble; he was just being honest with himself. Thérèse of Liseaux battled with many little and big ego problems in the neat confines of the Carmelite nunnery. Mother Teresa was revealed after her death (in her letter to a spiritual director) that she had been tormented by a lifelong spiritual dryness. It might be instructive to ask the devil's advocates through the ages at the Vatican to reveal to us what depths of darkness they have seen among the canonized.
Many prominent Biblical characters were no different. Abraham, Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel despaired when God’s promise of prolificacy did not seem to be a reality. Abraham and Sarah were incredulous when Sarah finally got pregnant at postmenopausal age.
A forwarded email puts the other major characters this way: Noah was a drunk. Jacob was a liar. Isaac was a daydreamer. Gideon was afraid. Samson was a womanizer. Isaiah preached naked.
In very similar news I gathered elsewhere, Jonah was a disobedient prophet, always "running away from God." When the Ninevites he spoke against actually repented, he was stumped, disbelieving, exposing his half-expectation the sinning people would be punished quick. Elijah had a similar episode of feeling irredeemably down, to the point of being suicidal.
King David had the man whose wife he violated killed. King Solomon was no different: after being granted wisdom, he resorted to idolatry of the worst kind.
Job was presumptuous enough to “box with God” with audacious, even sassy, questions. (Oh, but that was understandable, certainly.)
The prophets – Elijah, Micaiah, Elisha, Isaiah, Hosea, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Ezekiel – all without exception felt disappointed with God at one time or another, all questioning whether God was unfair, silent, and hidden. I’m pretty confident even Daniel in the den did, together with Joseph “the Dreamer” in the well and underground prison, Moses and John the Baptist in the desert had similar “moments like these” (“In Moments Like These,” Joseph the Dreamer).
Simeon was disbelieving at a prophesying angel, that’s why he became mute. A similar episode happened to a disbelieving Joseph when Mary “conceived by the Holy Spirit.”
Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. The Samaritan woman was divorced more than once. Martha worried about everything.
The apostles were especially entertaining in their all-too-human bumblings. First Church father Peter was wishy-washy/waffling, impudent/impertinent, hypocritical. The sons of Zebedee and/or their mother, were unabashedly power-hungry. The rest reacted like they did because they too were, and didn't know it. Judas was recruited as apostle despite Jesus' knowing he’s a thief and a traitor. Paul, before he became Paul, was first Saul, a persecutor of Christians, probably having a direct or indirect hand in murder by stoning too. Even long after he saw the light on his way to Damascus, Paul struggled with a mysterious "thorn in the flesh." And let's not forget how he used to be a Pharisee and thus pharisaical. Thomas was almost an agnostic doubter, given to setting conditions prior to belief, pending empirical evidence from the laboratory. Matthew was a notorious publican a.k.a. tax collector. (Do I hear the name Zaccheus too?) Even Barnabbas' record was not spotless, as it was red-inked with a bout of insincerity. All without exception "fell asleep while Jesus was agonizing in prayer" in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And if other human weaknesses that were not out of choice were to be the basis, then we have much proof as well: To quote from the forwarded email again: "Abraham was too old. Leah was ugly. Joseph was abused. Moses had a stuttering problem. Jeremiah and Timothy were too young. Naomi was a widow. Job went bankrupt. Zaccheus was too small. Timothy had an ulcer. Lazarus was dead!" In addition, Elizabeth was said to be barren or sterile until she gave birth (to John the Baptist/Evangelist) in old age.
God’s chosen people, the Jews, are extravagantly unbelieving up to now (but thanks to their disobedience, God channeled His energy to us Gentiles so His chosen people might get jealous and think again).
Gee, with people like these, you and I have a bright future! No less than God Himself identified with the fallen-ness of mankind, when Jesus chose to be born poor and coming from a long line of deeply flawed families, with some disturbingly dysfunctional.
Wait, did I just encourage everyone to go ahead sin? Of course not. Sin always has an “unavoidable consequence,” to quote someone. To lay it on a little thickly, the struggle, the effort to become a better person (with the aid of grace), and the (hidden) posture of the heart -- these are what counts.
Many, if not all, saints and people declared as holy have had an entire onion of corruption to peel away before arriving at their 'true self,' the self God wants all of us to have. Because of this, they have an intense awareness that they are nothing without God, yet thanks to God’s redeeming grace in conjunction with their free will, God was able to “write straight with crooked lines” (from the Spanish proverb, "Dios escribe derecho en renglones torcidos"). That is the common thing that holds all the holies and worthies together: saying yes to the grace, the 'free gift,' of God's salvation despite the shameful lack of merit from their own efforts.
***
Ok, blame this article and this book:
"Scandals: Nothing New Under the Sun"
Philip Yancey (2008?). Disappointment with God.
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