“…There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.” (Saint Augustine).
I recently came across a piece of writing that explained how elephants are trained.
You see, elephants have a very good memory. When the elephant is a baby, it can be tied to a pole. Being small, even though it constantly tries to break free, the baby elephant is not able to pull down the pole and move away. Over time, the baby elephant stops trying to break down the pole or pull itself away from it. As the elephant becomes older, it begins to believe that it is unable to break free of the pole and having remembered its inability to break free as a baby, it stops trying to break down the pole – even though it is now large enough to do so. You see, though the elephant is large and strong enough to break free, it is unable to do so – because it believes only in the history it remembers rather than the future it could imagine…
And I have been reflecting on that because it reminds me of the limitations of sin.
Christ berated the souls who could not imagine the future…
“Then He began to upbraid the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.’” (Matthew 11:20-24).
Christ had travelled through those cities, performing miracles and preaching, and yet still they would not repent. They simply did not wish to change. They were comfortable with the sins of their past and the potential of their future was simply too hard for them to change.
And I compare this sinful rejection of repentance, with the Blessed Virgin’s fiat… “‘For with God nothing shall be impossible.’ And Mary said, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.’ And the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1:37-38).
And it occurs to me today that when the Saints say that all souls go to God through His Blessed Mother, they are talking of the perfect example of the Blessed Virgin too. You see, where the sinners in the cities refused to repent because they could not imagine a future of repentance, Our Heavenly Mother – not understanding HOW things could be – accepted a future she could not possibly have imagined…
You see, those cities were like Sodom and Gomorra or Saint Peter or Saint Paul or Saint Augustine or you – or me…
And it occurs to me that I am called to be more than an elephant. I am called to a future that is more than being tied to my sins… I am called to a future that I cannot possibly have imagined. I am called to a future tied to God through Grace…
For Saint Augustine wrote, “…there is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.”
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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