Servitude

Fr. Dunbar reminds us that "God does not want us to be his slaves" by using the illustration of the somewhat wayward Trappist monk who lived apart from his community and engaged in the sin of excessive letter writing (only 2 per month were allowed). By breaking the rules of man, and marching to the beat of a different drummer he was disobedient, but he was not cast out completely. He still chose to follow God albeit in a different way. If as Bobby says, God has freed us, have we become like the Christians of St. Augustine "free to do what we please." In this day and age doing what we please may not be pleasing to the Lord (oops there I go being servile). Choices abound... Bobby continues, "everything flows from God," so if we jump in and swim along, will we be taken to the sea where "go the ships" and "that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein." Psalm 104:26. Or can we fall in like so much flotsam more by accident and wind up in the same sea as the dedicated swimmers. I recall the saying that all religions are like streams or rivers. They all head towards the same sea. It would seem that the Spirit of Pentecost has blessed the water for us Christians. So do you jump in by choice, fall in by accident, or choose to stay on the bank and watch the waters flow? Once in the river do you go with the flow, swim upstream, lose it and drown, get out and dry off, or do you try to try to slow the torrent by building dams? (Dam builders beware, the Army Corps of Engineers will tell you that eventually all dams fail) Fr. Dunbar has again provided us with food for thought, and he did it in far less time than it took for me to post this comment.