When confronted with this question(paraphrased) by the Apostles.. Jesus took a little child and said, UNLESS you become one of THESE you will have no part in "heaven".. Rational thinking adults do not qualify for heaven.. It takes faith.. the faith of a child.. The currency of the economy of God is faith.. not reason..
No matter how much you think you know, God is not impressed.. Your faith and what you have faith in(or not) is all important.. The less you know the more faith is required.. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is still a mistake.. for good vs. evil, ugly vs. beautiful, debits vs. credits, right vs. wrong, mean vs. nice, heretic vs. orthodox, rich vs. poor, and much more.. are judgment calls from that tree..
We are left with faith for only God can rightly discern these things absolutely..
We must put up with each other through faith..
The flesh is weak but the spirit is buoyant..
That is an awesome post, full of loving wisdom. I am so thankful that you pinged me! Hugs and kisses!
There is clearly SOME use for judgment calls, at least clearly to me. (but then, I see a lot of stuff that isn't there ...) But I guess what freaks me out about myself when I get hooked and about a lot of FR religious discussion is that the judgment calls about opinions and critical distinctions morph into judgment of persons, which is not my department, praise God.
(I think I will start the practice of praying before I write on these threads and praying again before I hit 'post'.)
(yeah, that'll work!)
Since Dante is one of my favorites, since he takes up and lives what I think is Plato's idea that erotic love (not in the sexy sense, in the sense of longing to possess and be possessed by beauty) can be a prelude to spiritual longing and to charity, I have often proposed this metaphor:
Theology is like reading an anatomy text book. Life in Christ is like making love, and like being married in other respects sometimes. (You want me to take out the garbage? Now? I just sat down! Darn it! Oh well, Okay - mumble grumble.). Clearly SOME basic knowledge of anatomy is essential to making love -- but really, not all that much. And if the relationship is good, chances are that one will learn all the anatomy one really needs to know.
But to confuse studying an anatomy text with making love or to think that one really was quite the lover on account of the amount of time on had spent with Gray's Anatomy would be silly, pathetic, and, uh, unrewarding.
The [S]pirit is buoyant
Lovely! I'll take that to Mass with me today.
You have taken my quote out of context to give me your 5-cents' worth.
Yes, it does take the faith of a child to 'qualify' for heaven, but that's not what FK and I were talking about.
Forest Keeper made a statement that in my theology God loves people but lets them jump off a cliff, and added that if he (FK) treated his children like that, he would go to jail. To which I responded that God does not deal with 'children' but rational adults.
To which you respond with the faith of children requirement for heaven...we were talking about God dealing with us, not what we need to 'qualify' for heaven, hello?!
So very, very true! Beautiful post, dearest hosepipe! Thank you so much!
No matter how much you think you know, God is not impressed.. Your faith and what you have faith in(or not) is all important.. The less you know the more faith is required.. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is still a mistake.. for good vs. evil, ugly vs. beautiful, debits vs. credits, right vs. wrong, mean vs. nice, heretic vs. orthodox, rich vs. poor, and much more.. are judgment calls from that tree..
We are left with faith for only God can rightly discern these things absolutely..
We must put up with each other through faith..
The flesh is weak but the spirit is buoyant..
= = = =
Excellent points.
Thank you so much for your beautiful post!