{"id":5900,"date":"2020-02-16T19:55:22","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T09:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=5900"},"modified":"2020-02-16T19:55:22","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T09:55:22","slug":"from-theology-with-love-eponymous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/from-theology-with-love-eponymous\/","title":{"rendered":"From Theology, with love: Eponymous"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

From Theology, with love: Eponymous<\/strong><\/p>\n

by\u00a0Tom\u00a0<\/strong>Seodyu<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

My thanks to A,<\/em><\/p>\n

with ornery irony,<\/em><\/p>\n

you above others are responsible<\/em><\/p>\n

for my most mature spiritual ideas<\/em><\/p>\n

and incendiary hopes for this life.<\/em><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve asked me why I even bother with this (and you).<\/p>\n

And again, I have repeated the only real answer I can give \u2013<\/p>\n

it\u2019s because you have a beautiful soul, and are a misunderstood sort.<\/p>\n

I understand why you hate this answer. Even more so because you don\u2019t believe I am\u00a0being sincere:<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m just another person he has decided to be nice to today.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019s only listening to me because he\u2019s na\u00efve for the church and rituals.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

That you\u2019ve mistaken me for a liar makes it hard for me not to feel hurt. But I know why\u00a0you would think that way \u2013 that I\u2019m some \u201cSunday school agent\u201d here to pretend that he cares\u00a0long enough to return you to \u201cthe quack priests who cannot give [you] a straight answer\u201d, who\u00a0are totally worthless and despicable to you. You\u2019ve even asked before, \u201cif you really understand\u00a0how incompetent our church is, why don\u2019t you speak up about it?\u201d Because I learned long ago\u00a0that this earthly body of Christ does not need any more \u2018fixing\u2019 by way of noise, and\u00a0recommendations, and complaints (especially Facebook rants). Rather, it needs Christ; examples\u00a0of His love, and a serious personal start \u2013 and perhaps, if I myself cannot succeed in setting this\u00a0example, and inspire change through that love, then I am another mouthy critic. Though I am too\u00a0ironic, and sarcastic to be that example\u2026<\/p>\n

I know that you are a sweet person (since you care so much about those who are nice to\u00a0you and the suffering of innocents,) which begs the first question you asked. What is all this for?\u00a0Because of all the commandments you had to stomach being raised here; of all the beliefs that\u00a0we possess, the one that you feel most betrayed by; is the commandment to love our neighbour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s real then why is it, when we try to love our neighbour, we act more out of pressure\u00a0than genuine love?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s our poor understanding of Gospels and the story of the Good Samaritan:<\/p>\n

A man left beaten and half-dead, ignored by the priest and the Levite but rescued by the\u00a0Samaritan; bandaged with oil and wine, and taken into an inn in care and mercy. We were told\u00a0growing up that the Samaritan was the enemy, but because he loved his \u2018neighbour\u2019 he overcame\u00a0this and we are called to become like him and treat everyone like our neighbours with our love.\u00a0But even atheists can \u2018become the Good Samaritan\u2019, loving their neighbor; like we were taught.<\/p>\n

But no church father has ever understood the parable like this…<\/p>\n

For them, we do not play the role of the Samaritan, but rather the dying man on the road.<\/p>\n

Chrysostom wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cHere then was man (that is Adam) lying destitute of the aid of salvation, pierced with\u00a0the wounds of his sins, whom neither Aaron the high priest passing by could advantage\u00a0by his sacrifice [\u2026] Nor again could his brother Moses [the Levite] assist him by the\u00a0Law [\u2026]\u00a0Naked and afraid we lie. Until the Good Samaritan \u2013 who is Christ \u2013 rescues us.\u00a0He poured in wine, that is, the blood of his passion, and oil, that is, the anointing of the\u00a0chrism, that pardon might be granted by His blood, sanctification be conferred by the\u00a0chrism. The wounded parts are bound up by the heavenly physician, and containing a\u00a0salve within themselves, are by the working of the remedy restored to their former\u00a0soundness [\u2026]\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since it was Him who first showed us great love through His Incarnation, all humanity is\u00a0called to love to the end, without exception.<\/p>\n

Augustine wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe shows mercy to us because of His goodness, while we show mercy to one another\u00a0because of God\u2019s goodness. He has compassion on us so that we may enjoy Him\u00a0completely, while we have compassion on another that we may completely enjoy Him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If we tried to love everyone from our own power, without remembering \u2013 and deferring\u00a0first and foremost to the lover of mankind \u2013 how could we not become practitioners of guilt and\u00a0slide inevitably into hypocrisy and sin in exhaustion? Likewise, if the atheist has no one who\u00a0loves them and can return to to be refreshed, how can they prevent despair and not abandon their\u00a0righteous instincts?<\/p>\n

Ambrose said:<\/p>\n

\u201cSince no one is closer than He who tended to our wounds, let us love Him as our Lord,\u00a0and let us love Him as our neighbour. Nothing is so close as the head to the members.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You may despair about your upbringing and your surroundings, but always remember\u00a0Him, for He is blameless in His love for you. You may not accept this parable, or even believe\u00a0that this love is a real contending force on this miserable earth. But I see evidence of a girl, who\u00a0(though, all her life is one long disaster) races eagerly to feel embraced. Her head leaning into\u00a0the other, cradling into the warm tenderness available for her. Held in the envelopment, she \u00a0experiences in those moments the idea that she has found a home that reciprocates her \u2013 and she\u00a0thinks, for a single moment, for one absurd second, that it may really be possible that God had\u00a0sowed this friend into her life.<\/p>\n

This leads me to your second question\u2026<\/p>\n

Even if, in the end, you still cannot find meaning, or purpose, or drive in your life\u00a0remember that you and I who are so young have very limited right to nostalgia. You need only to\u00a0learn what Life is.<\/p>\n

Smile sweetly to strangers on your walks.<\/p>\n

Learn humility from nature.<\/p>\n

Listen to music that makes you want to sing and look ridiculous!<\/p>\n

Laugh and be full of good humor.<\/p>\n

And young woman,<\/p>\n

do not forget to pray.<\/p>\n

And with that,<\/p>\n

I want you to know that I meant it when I said I loved you.<\/p>\n

Christ be with you always.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Theology, with love: Eponymous by\u00a0Tom\u00a0Seodyu My thanks to A, with ornery irony, you above others are responsible for my most mature spiritual ideas and incendiary hopes for this life. You\u2019ve asked me why I even bother with this (and you). And again, I have repeated the only real answer I can give \u2013 it\u2019s … Continue reading “From Theology, with love: Eponymous”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[25,138,6,60],"class_list":["post-5900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-faith","tag-genuine","tag-love","tag-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5902,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5900\/revisions\/5902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}