There was a very good comment on the previous post that I felt deserved its own treatment rather than the necessarily abbreviated comment/reply format. It doesn’t specifically address the point of the article, but rather points to a common objection to all such stories of faith interrupted and revived.
For those who didn’t read it, here it is:
…mulling over your post from today. To me it seems, as people age, regardless of the path the middle of their lives took, many do reflect on lessons learned and experiences from their early life, thus why so many, as you stated return to the faith of their youth, that they may have wandered from or questioned as young adults. I can understand that orbicular path some follow, but doesn’t that also hold true for those who were taught less positive lessons in youth? For some wouldn’t it be just as natural to revert to negatives as it is to someone else’s positives? Learned lessons in life are learned lessons in life. Fortunate are the ones who received early nurturing and positive lessons that left them feeling safe and secure Someone who didn’t, even after many decades of trying to convince themselves otherwise, may find in the end, they weren’t successful after all.
There is a good deal of truth in this comment but there is one thing I, and others like me, had going for us. The most powerful influence was not our parents, or our education, or our experiences, but the supernatural grace of Baptism. In the sacrament of Baptism, God confers on us His adoption, making us sons and daughters, and therefore heirs with Christ. This powerful grace works in our life at all times, regardless of the path we take, always calling us and leading us back to our Father’s house.
It is true that some who are baptized leave the Father never to return. It is an awful tragedy, but one that God must risk because He has given us a free will. To force us into a relationship would break the bond of love which means that God would have to renounce Himself. That is an impossibility. Therefore, it is ultimately up to us to stay in loving relationship with Him, or to reject our patrimony altogether.
The commenter asks, “For some wouldn’t it be just as natural to revert to negatives as it is to someone else’s positives? Learned lessons in life are learned lessons in life.”
Yes, I suppose that’s true as far as it goes. But I believe that there isn’t a single, solitary soul on this planet, now, or in the past, or that will ever live, who does so outside the providence of their Creator. The God who sees a little sparrow fall, will not avert his gaze, or fail to notice the sufferings and strivings of the least of his creatures, let alone a single human soul, baptized or not.
To the commenter I say, God is bigger than our failures, our hurts, our suffering, and our pusillanimous view of ourselves. There is nothing and no one He cannot and will not redeem.
