December 05, 2003

Supernatural 24-7

One of the characteristics of Catholicism is its supernaturalism. Every minute of every day a miracle is occuring on an altar somewhere in the world - the changing of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. But one of my unfortunate tendencies is to sometimes want to "naturalize" religion. This is seen also in the tendency of some biblical scholars to want to explain away some of Jesus' miracles - such as the feeding of the 5,000 - in non-miraculous terms.

It is a constant temptation, in the quotidian of daily life, especially post-conversion or post-vows. The member of a religious order who makes vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (sounds suspiciously like marriage vows :)) - has reached that point via supernatural means - i.e. via God. The monk or sister has, in this situation, walked a little ways on water. They cannot then simply rely on their natural gifts or they will sink. Their life, like the married's life, need be a constant reliance on supernatural means.

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