When you give up the idealism, you also give up the despair of failing, and maybe the measure of Grace. When you reduce the Gospel to “no sex, no drinks, no swearing and being nice to people”, then morality is mostly something you don’t do. It's relatively easy to keep in line, or to step back in line if you mess up. It's feasible. You can be a sunnyboy (or a sunnygirl) most of the time.
But when you give it its full measure, you’ll fail. By necessity you’ll fail, before you even try. At the moment when you are most resolute, after ten days of soul-searching, you are already failing. There will never be a quick fix; you will never quickly step back in line. Because you never were in line, not even now, and you never will be. Refusing the cop-out of blasé cynicism you throw yourself at it anyway. You can barely mutter your promises but you promise anyway. And your grieving itself is an absolute cry of hope in the infinite mercy of God.
I think that this "absolute cry of hope" was present throughout Israel's journey. At times it was clearer, at times it was submerged by beliefs and practices which locked it away from people. I also think that Jesus spent his time reaffirming it with a vengeance. But maybe that's just my interpretation.
The prayer in Aramaic is often sung to this tune (thanks Wikipedia!)
No comments:
Post a Comment