Letter #128: This Crooked Timber
There are many paths to pleasant nonsense.
Pater Pontifex,
Great summary of where we’re at so far in this funny little haven of ours. Let’s poke our heads out the door and see where the rest of the world is at...
Ruh-roh.
Anyone who knows me can attest I have so much respect for Catholicism, I’m practically treading water in the Tiber. So nothing I’m about to say is motivated by any sort of grudge against Europe’s most ancient church. And the press, who would be dedicated enemies of Christianity if they had any idea what it is or how it works, can never be trusted to report truthfully on the pope. But it would appear Francis recently told an audience in Singapore that “all religions are paths to God.”
It’s certainly a sentiment popular among shallow quislings who would rather be nice than good. Whether the current pontiff is one of those, I couldn’t presume to say. But it strikes me that we’ve arrived in our fun-loving way at exactly the opposite of the most socially acceptable view.
If what you say is true, then not only are most religions not paths to God, but most things in general—most systems of philosophy, most political schemes, most accomplishments and all man’s glory—are on a path directly away from God, withering as flowers in a field back to the dust from which they arose.
This cheery picture of the world is unlikely to win the kind of earnest nods or appreciative murmurs you get from saying things like “I’m OK, you’re OK.” For some reason I find that bringing up the howling darkness of sin’s dominion tends rather to bring down the mood in all but the most select gatherings.
And it’s odd that you and I—who are otherwise such easygoing, lovable, and handsome fellows—should find ourselves crying out in the streets that none can save but the suffering God, bright daystar against the pitiless night. But oops, it happens to be true.
Here’s something else true. Although not every religion is a path to God, every person is. This is actually better news than the wishful niceties of universalism. Being made in his image, each soul alive and yet to be born is a unique conduit to the heart of the Divinity.
The fall has left this conduit twisted, which is one Hebrew word for expressing the nature of sin. All the same, God’s appearance among us is our best shot at an escape route from the dying world.
Thinking of things this way, I start to see why the second great commandment is like unto the first. If the portrait is smeared and tattered, the original is nevertheless beautiful enough that even shards of it glint like emeralds in the mud.
To love your neighbor as yourself is to love in him what is truly lovable in you: the living image of the invisible God. This is to find the treasure hidden in the field and see the Most High in the crooked timber of his splintered likeness, which he has stooped to take upon himself.
Love,
Spencer
 | A guest post by
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My son is in an unenviable position, working in a control room of a local TV newscast, surrounded by (surprise, surprise) flaming liberals who fill his ears with the most vile spewing of vitriol to anyone to the right of Fidel Castro. He finds it very hard, and has been looking for another position. Our town is relatively small, and larger markets are difficult to break into. The continuous din is extremely wearing, and the management is reluctant to do much to quell it, even with an appeal to professionalism.
I mention this because these are the circumstances in which finding the God in one’s neighbor is really, really hard. My son questions whether he is doing any good, and the toll is telling on him. I remind him that each time he does not match insult with insult, and each time he shows even a small kindness, he is finding and helping his neighbor, if only by example.
I am reminded of Henry Van Dyke’s “The Fourth Magi”. A short story well worth looking up, in which a fourth King becomes separated from the others, and wanders the world in search of finding the King of Kings, to bestow his gift. I will not spoil the ending, and recommend you look it up, but his lifelong quest mirrors many of our journeys, like my son’s, who questions what his life’s journey should be, not finding what he thought his great quest was, but by helping one in distress that he could help, fulfills his true life’s journey.
My only quibble with Klavan the Younger’s formulation is that each man does have the spark of the almighty within him, but salvation without the Way, Truth and Light, the journey is bound to fail. We may not recognize Him as such, but any man who cares for another, who feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, knows Him, and as Matthew promises, will be welcomed into the Kingdom. I believe that is what he meant when he stated that “every person is (a path to God)”. Not perhaps for himself, but for those who help him on his journey. The rest of the paragraph makes this clearer on rereading.
As for our “social justice” Pontiff, perhaps he should follow his immediate predecessor and recognize that it is time to retire into a life of contemplation, reflection, prayer and silence.
I cannot highlight a quote and provide comment; it'd be the whole letter. I'm so frozen in place re-reading that my screensaver interrupted 3 times! Privileged to be a part of your "select gathering"