And this is buy way of riffing on your saying "it is always an opportunity" About the Xmas and Easter gang. And, yes, that's a HUGE 10-4. I don't care how or why they got to the hospital. ( I mean I DO care, but that's Dawg the sinner ...) They're here and I'm going to try to give them the medicine I have.
I still don't have the theological categories to discourse reasonably about "infused" v. "imputed" righteousness, and as I tried to indicate, I think our minds shatter on the problem of free will. (certainly mine does.)
Some of MY testimony would be this: Once Jesus began to thaw my heart, I wanted to serve Him and to administer (to the extent that's appropriate lingo) his graces to others, starting with the Gospel (and finishing with the Gospel and all along with the Gospel). And part of this was being a chaplain, and a counselor in times of crisis and pain.
So I had a mission. And the mission is what matters.
And, as I have said to folks a zillion times, If/Since IHS loves you, there is a certain obligation in a certain way to love yourself. You can't go around pretending you have higher standards than God.
And for some of us, that means, say, going to a pshrink, or going to the gym, or getting some more education, or even taking a vacation. I've known people who think that taking time out for prayer and reading the Bible is self-indulgent. (And maybe there are some for whom it is, but not many, I'd bet.)
And if you're all tied up in knots about doing something for yourself when you try to love yourself as IHS loves you, then do it to make yourself fit for the mission, as your spouse's and children's evangelist, as a clearer and brighter light for those with whom you work, etc.
And a lot of shrinks will tell you that a major part of at least the beginning of the cure happens when the patient walks into the office.
Anyway, the point is that for me, the motivator in Xtian morality is the Love of God, and the individual's contemplation of that. God, for reasons best known to Himself, thinks I'm precious. Okay, then I'd better act like I'm something He prizes. GOd wants to do stuf through me. Okay, then even though MY motivations for this or that "work of mercy" are corrupt, I'd better do it as though He were doing it, (since He in fact is) and punt the imagination of my heart, evil since my youth, to Him to deal with.
And the upshot of this is, as we crypto Aristotelian Thomists would say, is that, little by little, and along this or that narrow front -- with glaring problems persisting elsewhere we are developing virtues! We are developing the habit of listening alertly and patiently to the tediously garrulous and fussy little old lady who conceals under her dither a steely insistence on having her own way, and of, as we listen, commending her and ourselves and the whole interaction to God for HIM to work with and in.
In our lingo, a big "spiritual" concept is "recollection", which amounts to remembering ALL the time that God is here and His Love rules. Now whether this is imputed or infused, I don't care, though I suppose I ought to study up on it. But where the rubber meets the road, to me the issue is to practice living in the REAL Truth, instead of the bogus stuff that clamors incessantly in our minds. And part of that means that the desire and the ability to do so comes from God, not form ourselves. And that is not perceptible (usually), but is recalled, "recollected", but His working in us.
This riff has ramifications for the free-will/grace problem and for our thinking about purgatory. But I'm going to have to think some more about how to say that.
I didn't know you had a radio show. That's cool! :) What was the format?
... I think our minds shatter on the problem of free will. (certainly mine does.)
Yes, I think there is a lot of trouble with the language. I know I have said in different contexts that Yes we do have free will, and in others No. That makes it extra tough.
Some of MY testimony would be this: Once Jesus began to thaw my heart, I wanted to serve Him and to administer (to the extent that's appropriate lingo) his graces to others, starting with the Gospel (and finishing with the Gospel and all along with the Gospel).
I think that words like "administering" and "dispensing" are also tough ones. :) I've heard explanations that I could kinda sorta go most of the way there with, and others that made me think of a million miles away.
And if you're all tied up in knots about doing something for yourself when you try to love yourself as IHS loves you, then do it to make yourself fit for the mission, as your spouse's and children's evangelist, as a clearer and brighter light for those with whom you work, etc.
Amen to that! :)