Good Morning, Bob
More like going through the dark night of the senses without the initial warm fuzzies that should be following them. Of course, I could be wrong and be abandoned.
In the Diary of St. Faustina, Jesus complains that people treat him as a dead object when they take communion. I wish he would stop treating me as a dead person! I’m supposed to be alive in him!
This is an expression of the despair, correct? If so, I am hearing correctly. I am not immune to despair, so I can relate.
Let’s take a look at the imperfections. Each imperfection is a bug, which caused devastating consequences.
Naivete: Someone says something, they accept it uncritically. So a snake tells them to do something using ridiculous reasoning and they’re like “OK! Sure! We’ll go for that!” We all know what happened next.
Well, I suppose you are right, that can be seen as an imperfection. Omniscience would be wonderful, right? Indeed, A&E hungered for any awareness to be gained by eating of the tree. In that respect, naivete cannot be part of the “original sin” content. Here is a related question, though: does naivete take away from the
beauty of people?
Stupidity: It causes people to do stupid things like listen to a snake. We all know what happened next.
This is “naivete” with a touch of resentment on it.
Again, yes, we are not born omniscient. I can definitely see this as an imperfection, but does it take away from beauty?
Pride: It causes people to say “I don’t have to listen to God!” Oh look, they don’t listen to God and listen to a snake. We all know what happened next.
Well, let’s investigate that. Did A&E really say that they didn’t have to listen to God at all? Or did they say, “This fruit looks so good, God must be kidding us.”? In addition, how were they to know that God was not talking to them through the snake?
However, if we say that they actually said what you quoted, which is certainly possible, what aspect of “pride” was the root cause? Was it desire for autonomy? Desire for dominance? IMO it behooves us to look into these things before saying that there is a bug in the the programming.
Fear: One interpretation is the snake was 50 feet tall and really scary looking. OK, Fear causes people to do things that make no sense simply because they’re filled with fear. So they get intimidated by the snake and then do as he says. We all know what happened next.
If we take fear out of the context of our own species, though, does it not serve all of God’s creatures? It seems to work just fine for rabbits. Is ours much different?
That sounds like a “maybe”. That is, you may experience God in people that you love and who love you. Did I hear that correctly?
Naturally yes. This assumes no bug in the software such as narcissism, sociopathic tendencies, mental illness, autism, etc.
Hmmm. Lots of labels. I once took a class in Abnormal Psych just to see if there were any disorders I could not relate to. The prof. would describe some disorder, and the class would fall silent, all certain that they had the disorder. I would raise my hand and ask “Aren’t we all a little like that?”. She would hesitate, and say, “yes, we are”. Labels can be dehumanizing sometimes, distracting us from beauty.
We all have the same set of general appetites and capacties, IMO. All of us are capable of growth and healing, right?
Perfection is impossible to obtain unless God provides the proper resources.
We don’t earn heaven. We only “don’t lose it” by being perfect.
This depends on one’s image of God. I agree, heaven is a gift, and like all gifts, it is given without strings attached, right? Otherwise, the strings themselves are a way of “earning”. And then, why would a God who loves without limit, without condition, infinitely merciful, deny such a gift to anyone? It comes back to human choice; we have already been chosen.
God gives us a glass of water. We must make it to the finish line with water in the glass or else we go down elevator. Oops, we spill the water. Look, a confessional where one can get more water. Oh look, Eucharist, where we can get more water. Oh look, other sacraments to get more water.
However, grace is fragile, it is easily lost.
A priest once told us his opinion: “If we do choose to go to hell, we do so screaming and kicking against God the whole way.” Do you see that this presents a more involved God than the “down elevator”? Doesn’t grace come from God’s infinite mercy? Or, let me put it this way: Is your own image of God such that He loves us as least as much as the person who loves you most?
I appreciate your nonjudgmental responses, and I do hope you can read the same in mine. Please don’t take my questions as non-acceptance of your POV. I respect your standpoint; it is not unCatholic, nor is it unwarranted.
Thanks!
