Tuesday 12 February 2008

I'm not one who enjoys uncertainty, but Merton speaks of its necessity for growth and resisting evil.



A belief in the finality and irreversibility of evil implies a refusal to accept the precariousness and the risk that attend all finite good in this life. Indeed, the good that people do is always in the realm of the uncertain and of the fluid, because the needs and sufferings of people, the sins and failures of people, are constant, and love triumphs, at least in this life, not by eliminatiing evil one for all but by resisting and overcoming it anew every day. The good is not assured once for all by one heroic act. It must be recaptured over and over again. St. Peter looked for a limit to forgiveness. Seven times, and then the sin was irreversible! But Christ told him that forgiveness must be repeated over and over again, without end.



"The good that people do is always in the realm of the uncertain and of the fluid"...wow. So it was good work today...well, it is not over. "Without end" is a long time and yet it is also a time that is present and ready for us to be a part of what it will be...right now. It seems to be quite important to keep being able to reevaluate what has been done and what needs to be done. People change, situations change, what each of thinks about the people and the situations change and therefore, nothing can be carved in stone. Even the "tablets of stone" call us into a life in which uncertainty must be considered so that we can best apply the life of the Reign of God to the life that is taking place all around us. Bean-counters will figure out what 70 times 7 will be. It will become a life-leading and life-controlling vision. Rather than being blown wide open by the power of forgiveness, we are cut short and limited and actually in prison to the controlling factors we place on our world. To be a part of such a "without end" life is a risk that will not always place us on the side of those who have become the powerful and the influencial. For in that world, "without end" is merely "nice" but always comical.



Connection: Enough is enough. We have to be willing to let go and attempt to try one more than 70 times 7.



Merciful God, when we are rigid and in control, come and blow us over with your Spirit of new life. Too often we cannot see the world from any other perspective than the one we think we control And yet, you are able to open each of our lives to the mercy and grace of your Reign. Amen.