January 16, 2014

Simone de Beauvoir, baptism, and the gift of faith

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It was Simone de Beauvoir’s birthday last week (Jan. 9), an event commemorated by a Google doodle. If you don’t know much about her life, don’t worry, I shan’t expound here. Let it suffice that she turned her back on Catholicism after a ‘crisis of faith’ at the age of 14, became an atheist, and dedicated her life to existentialism, ardent feminism, and, well, depravity sums it up, really. (If she were here, she would tell us that we were not born women, but have become women; and because we are seen as being 'other', men have been able to oppress us. She would also tell us that we should not be allowed to choose to stay home to raise our children.)
Baptism of the Lord
Paolo Veronese

Sunday we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord, which brought an end to the private life of Jesus and marked the beginning of His public ministry.  In his homily, Father remarked that he is often asked by random people if it is true that they must be baptized in order to get to heaven.  “Yes,” he answers.  The answer is always yes. We must be sensitive to circumstances etc., when we give the answer, but the fact of the matter is, yes, we must be baptized. God has ways beyond our understanding to bring about the faith that is necessary to make us pleasing to Himself, but baptism is the way that we have been given. The rest is up to Him.

On the way home from Mass, I listened to one of the Lighthouse CDs. This one was of the testimony of Betty Brennan, a former Satanist. Thankfully she skirted the gruesome details, but the hair stood up on the back of my neck just at the brief mentions she made of what it entailed. What really stood out for me, from her whole talk, was that she said she didn’t turn her back on God because she was angry (it happened after her child died) but because she was vulnerable. She needed to be able to talk to someone, she needed help, comfort, and consolation, and the person who was there, happened to be a Satanist.  Isn’t that frightening?

So here’s the lesson I learned this week: faith is a precious gift. I am so grateful to have the mark of baptism, to have been claimed by God through His Church. I sometimes wonder who I would be, what I would be doing, if I ever let go of that gift. It’s not a pleasant thought. Hearing stories like Simone de Beauvoir’s or Betty Brennan’s, I resolve all over again to hold on tight, to not take it for granted, and to shore it up through frequent use of the sacraments and forging strong Catholic friendships.


May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
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2 comments:

  1. Faith is a precious gift indeed!

    And this blog is a gift as well. So I am passing along a blog award. "read all about it" at http://thebreadboxletters.blogspot.com/2014/01/best-moments-of-my-whole-life-gosh.html God bless!

    ReplyDelete

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What is a woman? What does it mean to be feminine? There is softness and hardness, compassion and ferocity. There is contentment and adventure, freedom and service. We're conundrums, especially to ourselves, but we all, in some way, possess beauty, creativity, intuition and love. We were made for love, and we are loved, cellulite and all. Here we aim to show every woman the richness and beauty of her own femininity and explore current issues relating to women in our world. We also wish to share our own experiences - exploring the joys and challenges of stay-at-home moms and single professionals and everyone in between. Welcome! So glad you're here!

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