6 – 21 – 17 It's Okay to Be Wrong

Link to Daily Readings

There’s a cheeky expression I often use in my personal life, especially with Emilia, that I feel also has some theological connection to it. Often, when we disagree about something unimportant like whether marmalade or jam is the better spread I’ll say to her, “It’s okay to be wrong dear.” I’m not sure where I picked it up, but it sounds like something you might hear in a classroom as a teacher encourages their students to raise their hands to answer a question.

But I think we should take this as a mantra in our spiritual lives as well. It’s okay to not have a perfect understanding of how one being could be three persons. It’s okay to not have the Gospel of Luke memorized and it’s okay to be unaware of Catholic social doctrine. A quick disclaimer however, the reason for the unknowing in all these cases is ignorance or lack of what would be an impressive effort. We are responsible for educating ourselves to the best of our ability, but that does not mean we are necessarily to blame for things we don’t know. We are to blame, however, for those teachings or obligations we reject in an effort to claim our life back from God. I think the difference is pretty plain, it’s a question of being ignorant or obstinate.

Therefore, we should proceed forward with what we know at any given time. We should spend much time in prayer and contemplation before we make important decisions but we should not wait around to have a perfect understanding of Christ before we act. I predict that won’t happen for the great majority of us until the skin of our body is quite cold. I think a good exemplification of this would be my grandfather, AJ.

He worked constantly for what he thought would most benefit his community and his family. Trying to bring industry to the area in an effort to lift some out of poverty, and enhance the prosperity of the town he called home. I’ve heard he was sometimes so busy in committees that he didn’t spend much time at home, which is regrettable. But I think his apparent workaholism is easily explainable by something he said to me several weeks before he died. Grandpa died slowly from cancer, and thereby had a lot of time to think about what was to come. One day, out of the blue, as I was standing in the living room (I may have been the only one besides him in the room at the time but I don’t recall) he looked up at me from his motorized recliner and said, “I just hope I’ve done enough to get into Heaven.”

I do think AJ is in Heaven. I think he honestly pursued what he thought was right throughout his life, he was in the least a decent man in all respects. But this statement is not what we believe as Catholics. I think it may sound very familiar to many people, as it is a somewhat popular belief among older people in the Church, this notion that it is our own acts that save us. I will say I much prefer this somewhat guilty and heavy belief to the trend spreading today in non-denominational and other churches, the concept that since God is all-forgiving we shouldn’t worry too much about being morally upright, but we should make sure to ask for forgiveness and believe in Him. I think this is sort of doublethink, to submit to a being as God but then not follow its commands. At least the belief grandpa expressed is not self-contradictory, the idea that God has some bar or standard to pass for salvation.

But I think he is in Heaven! I think it is okay with God that we be wrong! As long as this misguidance is a result of ignorance I don’t see how another person, let alone God who is infinitely merciful, could blame us for it. I think to a degree he desires us to be wrong at least at some points in our lives, as he wants us to grow in the faith. If we had been born with a perfect understanding of who God is, and how we are to be, then there would be no purpose for us to be on earth. I think we shall be wrong about some things all our lives, and most likely wrong about some very important things for at least some of our lives. As this is the way it is with those who most honestly seek God, I think it is what he intended.

I sometimes forget to thank God for insights like these, that a taunt I like to use on my girlfriend could relate to the life of my grandfather, and all of our salvation. Anything I may do is through the gifts he has given me, the life he has sustained in me today, and the small seed of grace he has planted in my heart. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

8 - 11 - 17 Dogs are Better than People? (5 minutes)

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” We are not asked to deny our cravings. Neither are we asked to deny our vices. We are not asked to gain further resolve in the pursuit of holiness in order to deny any of our own weaknesses. We are asked to deny the totality of our current selves in preference for the new self Christ will fashion within us. I’ve written before about how Christ’s call is not just a new moral standard. If it were it would be an impossible one. It seems to me that the Christian vision of discipleship is actually quite different than that of the Jewish, though this is only in my perception and I am quite ignorant of Judaism as it extends beyond the Old Testament. It is less about behaving a certain way than it is about having a certain state of being. All our righteous actions garner some of their value in that they have a tendency to move us closer to the type of being God desires us to be. I’m not saying t
Read more

6 - 23 - 17 Jesus is Smarter than Drake

6 – 23 – 17 Link to Daily Readings This passage contains Jesus proclaiming that He is the only path to the Father, that He is the only method of salvation for all human souls. There probably couldn’t be a more important thing in the universe. In this passage He also says, “I am meek and humble of heart.” Which seems like quite the contradiction when we consider these two ideas together, but we are thinking of our human experience. Jesus does not need to boast, firstly it would not be in his nature, secondly there is nothing he would desire to lay claim to being that He is not. In this passage He is simply telling his disciples about the nature of His ministry, expressing to them the importance of not only Himself, but his teachings. I think this distinction is what makes these statements feel contradictory to each other when they in fact are not. Most other times we have heard someone boast on that level, of being all-powerful or the very, very best at something it is eit
Read more

9 – 29 – 17 “Love for life did not deter them from death.” (4 minutes)

Rv 12 “They conquered him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death. Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them." “Love for life did not deter them from death.” What, after all, is life without death? Well I suppose in the sense of eternal life it is an entirely different matter, but man born upon the earth is born to die. We all arrive there, assuredly, at the rate of sixty minutes an hour. We will die young or old, but what does old mean except to be near death (in our human experience)? One retort might be that old just means it’s been around a while, but for humans every year to have been is reducing the likelihood of being in future years. It’s a bit of a tragic comedy watching mortal people attempt to immortalize themselves through their own actions. Even those who were most successful, consider Napoleon or Julius Caesar, are known by a smaller proportion of the population with
Read more