Читать книгу Being Catholic Today - Laurence McTaggart - Страница 21

This is a childish way of thinking, precisely what Jesus wants us to abandon. It is like the mad queen in Lewis Carroll’s story who exclaims after a game, ‘All have won, and all shall have prizes!’ Suppose our offended lady does all those things, and puts up with the errant behaviour, while seeking always to draw her husband from it. He is still unfaithful, and he is still, despite all protestations, someone who has been unfaithful. But because she is a good lady, on one view, she treats him still as if he were entirely hers, heart and soul. Some people think that this is what God does with us. He looks at our sins and instead of the guilty sinner, sees his Son. He counts us as righteous; this is the ‘good news’ that God loves us always despite our sins. He casts them into a bottomless sea, and forgets them.

So let us imagine heaven on that basis. We all have the full vision of God, we live in some kind of state surrounded by the light and love of the Trinity; all is for us. We are still sinners, of course, but that is all paid for. We are like compulsive gamblers, and God has agreed to pay all our gambling debts, content that we are having fun. Would this be eternal blessedness, paradise? It sounds to me to be more like this world, and what we have made of it. Or maybe just hell on earth. Sheep may safely graze, and wolves may safely prey on them. The lion lies down with the lamb and eats it for lunch. The infant plays over the viper’s hole and is bitten. The Father takes no notice; his children make of each other a living torment, and the God of love says that all is well. I will not labour this point, but simply recall what we are really promised:

The wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion cub feed together with a little boy to lead them. The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together. The lion eats straw like the ox. The infant plays over the cobra’s hole; into the viper’s lair the young child puts his hand. They do no hurt, no harm, on all my holy mountain, for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters swell the sea.

Isaiah 11:6–9

Jesus Christ does not offer a game of ‘let’s pretend’. He offers you the real possibility of being freed from your sins. In which case, there is the real possibility that you will refuse his offer. He will not turn the blind eye, for your sake. His promise is to do what no human alone can do, which is to restore the basic trust that was lost, to make all creation new, so as to have you back with him, whole and entire. In this light, we can understand what Jesus is talking about. The eternal sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, is not a stone cast at the honour of a touchy God. It is your refusal of his offer to give you his love, to teach you how to love him, and your neighbour, let alone your enemies; the offer to fill you with his Holy Spirit.

God will not punish you. But you might; in fact, you do. I’ll try to explain in the next chapter.