Author: David Schwarm

As Adam lost the heritage of union with God in a garden, our Blessed Lord ushered in its restoration in a garden. Eden and Gethsemane were the two gardens around with resolved the fate of humanity. In Eden, Adam sinned; in Gethsemane, Christ took humanity’s sin upon Himself. In Eden, Adam hid from God; Christ interceded with His Father; in Eden, God sought out Adam in his sin of rebellion; in Gethsemane, the New Adam sought out the Father and His submission and resignation. In Eden, a sword was drawn to prevent entrance into the garden and thus immortalize evil; in Gethsemane, the sword would be sheathed.

Each instinct and passion of man is amoral; it is only the abuse of these passions that makes them wrong. There is nothing wrong about hunger, but there is something wrong about gluttony; there is no sin in thirst, but there is a sin in drunkenness; there is nothing wrong with a man who seeks economic security, but there is something wrong with a man who is avaricious; there is nothing to be despised in knowledge, but there is something to be condemned in pride; there is nothing wrong with the flesh, but there is something wrong in the abuse of the flesh.

Imagine a large circle and in the center of it rays of light that spread out to the circumference. The light in the center is God, each of us is a ray. The closer the rays are to the center, the closer the rays one to one another. The closer we live to God, the closer we are bound to our neighbor; the farther we are from God, the farther we are from one another. The more each ray departs from its center, the weaker it becomes, and the closer it gets to the center, the stronger it becomes.

Truth must be sought at all costs, but separate isolated truths will not do. Truth is like life; it has to be taken on its entirely or not at all…We must welcome truth even if it reproaches and inconveniences us–even if it appears in the place where we thought it could not be found.