To understand Christianity only as a battle against sin reminds us of the gardener who is so busy clearing his garden of weeds and other damaging elements that he never has the opportunity to plant a tree in the garden. Such a gardner might ask himself the question, “Why am I always clearing and caring for this garden when nothing ever improves? The same weeds keep returning.” He may become disheartened and waste his whole life, or he may give up that part of his work, or even abandon everything. However, when he plants good seed into well-prepared ground, and the good seeds begin to grow, he will no longer tire of clearing the garden and creating better conditions for the good seed that is growing.
In a similar manner, Christianity is not only a fight against sin, but it is also a fight for positive values. That fight continues until death and may even require the sacrifice of one’s own life by fully giving oneself for others. The real meaning and beauty of the Christian call, the call to discipline, prayer, fasting, and confession, is a call to heroic deed of love and charity.
The following analogy might be helpful. If someone told you, “God gave me legs so that I wouldn’t fall.” Certainly you would not agree with that. You would insist that legs are given to enable you to walk, not protect you from falling. If people were convinced that legs were simply given to protect them from falling, then they would sit for their entire life, because if they got up they might fall. Ironically, then, the one who sits in one place and does not move becomes a greater problem than the one who walks and occasionally falls. If we transfer this analogy into our Christian life, we may suggest that a person who refuses to stand up out of fear of falling is destroying himself more than one who gets up and walks, even though occasionally he falls.
• adapted from Fr Slavko’s book: Give Me Your Wounded Heart
