09 December 2007

Pewsitting (not).

Going to church is good.

But these words from St. Francis of Assisi remind me not to get too comfortable in my pew. (Which is not, of course, possible in the strictest literal sense, given the activity level in my pew. But you know what I mean.)

"It is a great shame, to many of us who are known as servants of God, that while the apostles and early saints actually walked with Him through every kind of trial, we think we are deserving of heavenly glory and honor merely because we know their deeds from Scripture and can easily recount all that they said and did (James 1:22)." (from The Admonitions)

When I read these words, I immediately recognized the CSPP edge in the Christian struggle to walk the faith rather than merely to know the faith. As Gauntlets pointed out awhile ago, with the little ones always underfoot, we're always onstage. We're constantly trying to translate theology into something that's meaningful for a variety of age brackets, and we have all day, every day, to model how faith matters in every moment. (Yeah, it also gives us more opportunity to screw up--but then, may grace increase!)

The CSPP life may be particularly--appropriately--humbling for those of us who have studied theology in a formal setting. We may, for instance, find ourselves trying to make meaning of those lofty seminary discussions on models of atonement for a preschooler who is working on a bowel movement. (For some reason, the 3-yr.-old always comes up with a deep theological question when he assumes the throne. Serious discussions for serious business, I guess.)

Almost like God intended this whole marriage/parenthood thing as a path to greater holiness...hmm...

3 comments:

Rebekah said...

I often feel that my bluff's been called. So, you thought The Imitation of Christ was a good read? All about the humility of our Lord and our Lady? Well, guess what? God in his infinite wisdom has seen fit to make you a baby producing MACHINE!!! ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!

The trick, as you point out, is not just turning them out left and right, but growing them up to be decent people. The first requires a certain strength of body over which one has very little, if any, control. But the second requires strength of will, and that's the hard part.

So if raising them well means not putting them in front of the TV--ever--wow, so be it (I think this is the house rule that causes the most amazement in others). Of course there are plenty of other things I'm not so good at.

I probably won't have opportunity to be a martyr, but some days confessor doesn't seem that unrealistic! (These days tend to coincide with the births of my children, now that we're past the culturally requisite 1-2.)

Reb. Mary said...

Bluff-calling--a very apt description!

When people find out that we don't have cable, they're incredulous. They honestly don't think it's possible to live with only 4 semi-focused channels.

The only thing our kids see on tv besides the occasional Bob, Thomas, phonics, etc. DVD from the library is football games or NASCAR races. But even that's getting kind of iffy--wow, until I was a parent, I didn't even realize how BAD some commercials are. Good thing there's a mute button, and of course they're wandering about, not actually watching, but still. Sponges, they are!

Rebekah said...

Sports commercials are AWFUL, and I could do without the mostly naked cheerleaders and other writhing females on the sidelines too. Another genre you'd think would be innocuous are nature shows, but they are so packed with evolution propaganda--bah.