My wife was telling me that other day that the buzz in her
Catholic mommy crowd this lent is about some book on peace by Rev. Jacques
Philippe. Philippe is a member of the Community of the Beatitudes in France and a very
widely read author of works described as “classics of modern Catholic spirituality.” We don’t have the peace book but we do have his Interior Freedom. I’d picked it up
before, read about a quarter of it and lost interest, but inspired by the
reported buzz I took another look at it last night. There I read this
fascinating doctrine:
“We find it so difficult to accept our own deficiencies
because we imagine they make us unlovable. Since we are defective in this or
that aspect, we feel that we do not deserve to be loved. Living under God’s
gaze makes us realize how mistaken that is. Love is given freely, it’s not
deserved, and our deficiencies don’t prevent God from loving us – just the
opposite!”
Ah yes, just the opposite:
that means deficiencies actually allow,
cause, encourage God’s love in some way, evidently, that would otherwise be
prevented! So the Catholic doctrine
of merit? That’s probably a bit complicated, so maybe some other time. For now
just remember, our deficiencies actually allow
God to love us more, and thus a lack of
deficiencies actually somehow prevents,
inhibits God’s love for us,
apparently because God is our Father, and as any father will tell you, it is the
deficiencies in our children which allow us to love them all the more. (Right??)
Thus, by Philippe’s logic, while everyone may like a peaceful, happy baby that
makes no trouble, if we have a colicky crying baby that wails inconsolably hour
after hour for no discernable reason, much more will our weary hearts
spontaneously well up with love for that one! And we may love a child who is
cheerful, affectionate, obedient, caring, and conscientious, but how much more
does the heart of a father lovingly rejoice in a child who is, say, sullen, selfish,
and given to violent tantrums. And the same applies to friends or spouses: we
all love someone who is, say, oversensitive, selfish, unreasonable, hypocritical,
habitually drunk and disloyal or unfaithful, more than someone who embodies the
opposite alternatives – especially if these defective qualities mirror our own.
One might have believed that God knows and loves* what is good, and knows and hates
what is evil – but no, Jacques Philippe tells us; if anything, it is just the
opposite! [*One might consider one of the Latin words that commonly translates ‘love’
in the Vulgate, diligere, meaning to distinguish from among others and choose
(elect, eligere) in preference to the
others.] So you may have imagined that God loved (and so chose) the Blessed
Virgin Mary and her Immaculate (i.e., deficiency-free) Heart more than any
other creature; but no, just the opposite: if only she had deficiencies, this would allow God to
love her more. So think of the most
deficient person you know – I always say it’s a three-way tie between Hitler,
Donald Trump, and Satan – and apply Philippe’s logic: these villains with their
mega-deficiencies clearly have done nothing that would merit love, but opposite-loving God therefore loves them most of
all!
On the other hand, there’s God himself, speaking through the
prophet Isaiah (if you buy into that whole ‘divine revelation’ thing): “Woe to
you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for
darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Something to ponder. Anyway, notwithstanding
the buzz in the mommy crowd, I obviously have doubts about the soundness of Philippe’s*
doctrine of divine love. [*Just to be clear, I don’t mean to suggest that this
bleary ‘opposite’-doctrine is original (to Philippe) or unusual. The question is, why is it so popular? Nietzsche offered one intriguing answer: ressentiment (for a brief description see my previous post here).]
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