Friday 1 November 2013

If I had not broken my vows, Michelle Lucilla Lee would not exist

I wrote a blog recently in which I stated that the best thing in my life (my daughter Michelle) would not be here if I had been faithful to my vows.
Now I know that keeping your vows (be it in marriage or priesthood) is an ideal worth striving for, but we know the reality is many don't. The results of broken vows is often babies are born who would not have otherwise existed. Were those 'mistakes' or 'accidents' meant to be? 

In my case I implied that out of what seems bad, good can come. In that I am implying that nothing really bad happens without some good coming from it. This to me is evident of God’s ultimate triumph over evil’s apparent reign.

There is a saying I read in the letter Paul wrote to the Romans during the week, "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them..." (Rom 8:28)

I know that out of bad things, good can happen.. but doesn't that mean that God transforms the bad into good?

We have in our church people who teach dogmatic theology. Sometimes they also teach ethics.
Ethics and morality are difficult areas to dogmatise... I don't know if we can say there are any ever an moral absolutes..

I meet so many people who confessed to using IVF.  They tell me they wanted a child so badly they resorted to something the church condemns...

Now I know the reasons for condemning IVF & I totally agree with those reasons.. I discouraged as best as I could, many people who were thinking about doing the IVF programme.

But, I baptised some beautiful babies and know some very grateful Catholic parents who don't see the sinfulness in what they did.. were foetuses disposed of? I don't know,, I worry for those non-persons who are collateral damage of IVF. But does that negate the goodness of the end result that the parents now love?
Did God not breathe a soul into this newly conceived child of His?

Does God want something to happen that is against His will? Can't He stop it? These are all questions I still wrestle with..

I heard an orthodox priest once tell a congregation of mourners that this boy died on his bicycle because God saw a future where he could have lost his eternal soul and he stopped that from happening by causing the driver of the truck and that boy's lives to intersect that day.. what a stretch?

I don't know, I just like to think that God allows humans to have free will to sin and then permits them to  find out the wrongness of their actions and be reconciled much like a parent allows their children to make mistakes and forgives them because they love them unconditionally, not just because they are good...

I Know God will allow humans to choose actions that are immoral or seemingly sinful if they are going to discover the mercy of God more fully.

I know in the eyes of many my actions are sinful.. I read of a priest disparaging me in front of a Parish Council meeting, brandishing a newspaper cutting which applauds my efforts. Little did he know that I was assistant priest in that parish many years back and some sitting in front of him are still grateful to me for helping their kids connect with Jesus or buried their spouse or baptised their children, and they still believe I am a good priest despite having chosen to be married and have a baby,

He has made himself to look like a jealous or envious man with no Christianity in him. Instead of achieving his aim of belittling my memory he has made people recall the good I did as a priest. And it has made them regret that I could not continue to do good just because I fell in love.. 

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