Seeking the Impossible

When I was growing up and even beyond those growing up days, I have heard folks say something like, "There is some good in the worst of us."  I like to think that those who speak such words are right.  Maybe such is really how it is with all of us.  We are a mixture of moments which merit a pat on the back and others which should provide a kick in the rear end.  Far from perfect and not totally bad is, perhaps, an accurate description of most of us .

 

In the reading I am doing on Celtic spirituality I am learning that this tradition is built on the belief that there is good in each of us because we are created in the image of God.  (Genesis 1:27)  This is certainly no surprising thought as Genesis teaches this in its earliest words.  Yet, it is also true that the Word says, "Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me."  (Psalm 51:5)  And in Paul's letter to the Romans, he writes, "There is no one who is righteous, not even one."  (Romans 3:9)  The Scripture can at times be rather messy.  It often leaves us with what does not seem to fit together; yet, somehow these messy paradoxes still proclaim divine truth.

 

I suppose if we could figure it out, we would have no need to read the Word.  I suppose what is divinely inspired is going to befuddle this finite mind with which I was created.  Long centuries ago this conflicting truth created an unbearable tension for the Celtic spiritual community and the established Roman Catholic Church which resulted in the stream of Celtic spirituality being forced underground.  We seek to avoid the tension.  It makes us uncomfortable. We like things to be orderly, logical, and pleasing to our own theological perspective.  Maybe we are sometimes seeking the impossible.