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Mark Storer's avatar

...and she is something I am in need of just now. Perfect timing, and gracious thanks!

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Zzzmdf's avatar

I had been thinking about the virtues of faith, hope and charity for a while now. The nuns admonished that we have them, but never quite got around to describing what they meant. It was assumed that each person should understand what they meant for each individual, and much ink has been spilled in order to define these theologically. I am aware that all analogies limp, including this one, but indulge me.

Our life’s journey, speaking on a metaphysical/religious plane, is a journey to the Summum Bonum, or the greatest good, the Almighty to believers, and who knows what to athiests. In any case, restricting to believers only, as atheism is it’s own religion, and I have little enough time to understand my own journey, let alone other ones, the proverbial storm-tossed sea is apt. Jews in the time of Christ had a great fear of the sea, and for good reason. The question is how to get to that Bonum and by using what tools. Floating in a stormy sea unaided will soon overwhelm any person. One needs a vessel. That vessel is faith, the belief that one must float above these troubles and survive. As such, faith looks to the present, and must be constantly tended to. Ben Franklin’s admonition of embarking on a skiff made of paper is a great one, but instead of the Declaration of Independence, ours is something even more fragile, and must be constantly renewed. Hope is the driving force, that looks to the goal, the future, and provides the reason to keep repairing that skiff. As such, the virtues are intertwined and must rely upon one another. The opposite of faith is disbelief or cynicism, and the opposite of hope is despair. EIther is enough to plunge one into the sea and be overwhelmed. Charity, or love, is the driving force without which the entire exercise is futile. It is the grace which is overflowing from that Summum Bonum which is freely given, but must be freely accepted, that is the spark which keeps each of us in that leaky boat and looking to the horizon. When we reach that shore, as in time we all will, faith is no longer needed, as we have arrived and may safely step onto the shore, and hope is fulfilled. Love alone survives, as St. Paul has taught. Bishop Barron stated that in one of his DW+ interviews, and was revelatory enough for me to steal it here.

Thank you, Spencer for these essays. Beautifully written. I wanted to share my perceptions from one who had a religious upbringing just to show that we know little more that you did, and perhaps it was to your advantage ultimately, as you had the hunger to delve far more deeply than I ever will.

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