Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

The other day, while leading a mystagogy session of neophytes, one young mother came in a little late with her new born baby. Of course the baby took over the class for some time and oriented the thinking toward babies but we did get back on topic.  However, after we finished the session the focus quickly turned back to things “baby.”  We began taking turns holding the baby and talking about babies.  In the midst of this, the young woman told us about an exchange that she had with some friends from her old church.

As this was her fourth baby, all of her friends were sure that she should do something to ensure that she did not have another. She replied that her diabetes was the only reason that she was thinking that this should be her last child; but then again, God may have other plans. One lady replied: “God has nothing to say about it! He created Adam and Eve and after that He has no place in procreation.”

This was an interesting, if not surprising, response from an Evangelical Christian. It is also quite ironic that this desire to keep God isolated from one’s life is so wide spread among some Christians. After all, Christianity is all about communion with God in the Truth–His Son, Jesus Christ.  This means necessarily that God must be invited in to all aspects of every person’s life.  I remember a friend, a former Catholic who had taken up his wife’s Methodist faith, once informed me that he did not want to know God’s will for him because he was afraid of what God might want him to do.

While this certainly reveals a confused understanding of God, His solicitude and love for each person, and His Providence it also reflects the perennial problem that all human beings have suffered since the Fall. That is learning to trust God. For most believers, once one is given a correct understanding of God and His Providence it becomes a “no brainer” to choose to trust God. The difficulty lies in carrying this out.

At times it is quite easy to trust; when one comes to terms with the reality that there is no other choice. At other times, it becomes a real struggle. It is a real temptation to want to go one’s own way. I find that in my experiences.  Sometimes, I can be tempted to rationalize or even to coopt God into my own plans.  It is only with real effort that I am brought to realize this and to prayerfully discern whether a course of action is simply my will or also His. At root is fear; fear of self-denial, fear of having to die to myself.  When I fail and succumb to this fallen temptation, I subliminally accept as my own those words of the young mother’s friend, that I consciously reject: with respect to this matter at least, “God has nothing to say about it.”