Is Life a Parable?

Sunday’s gospel contains two familiar parables used by Jesus to describe the kingdom of heaven.  The first describes the common practice of planting seeds which grow day and night to become a fruitful harvest.  The second is the mustard seed, which though tiny, grows to become “the largest of plants.”  Pope Benedict XVI once explained that Jesus spoke in parables because “reality itself is a parable.”  In all of Jesus’ parables we discover deep meaning that has been there all along, in the familiar activities of life.  Many of Jesus’ parables describe the attributes of God, such as the father in the story about the prodigal son.  Others give us insight about the nature of heaven, comparing it to a wedding banquet, or a pearl of such great value that everything else pales in comparison.

The reality we are familiar with and so often take for granted, is filled with mystery and meaning when we consider it more carefully.  In fact, everything about our earthly existence seems to point toward an even deeper reality.  The seasons of the year point to the cycle of life: growth, death and rebirth.  Every living thing experiences these cycles, from plants that die and give up their seeds, to humanity whose offspring represent the future.  But if we stop there, we are overlooking the obvious metaphors that point to an even greater reality: our rebirth in life after death.  The recently departed Cardinal Francis George explained it this way:  “If our belief about life ends in the grave, then the world is closed in upon itself.  But if Christ is risen from the grave, then our destiny reaches beyond space and time, beyond what can be measured and controlled.  And therein lays our hope.”  But life itself points to this greater reality in metaphor after meaningful metaphor.  Like seeds that die and are buried, when we make sacrifices for others, our hearts are rewarded with fulfillment and happiness.  When a child is born and we hold them in our arms, we are overwhelmed by love and the desire to protect and sacrifice everything for that child.   When a loved one dies, we know deep in our hearts that they still live beyond the grave.  Modern culture’s recent obsession with vampires and zombies is a dim reflection of this deep seated belief in our immortality.

In my blog on The Mystery of Love, two weeks ago, I described the Community of Love that is the Trinity, and how we have been created male and female in that image.  When we aspire to love as God loves, unselfishly, mercifully, and sacrificially, we are building relationships that will endure.  When we die, Cardinal George said, “The only thing we take with us is what we have given away.  The only things that endure are our relationships with God and with others.”  The strongest, most enduring relationships we experience in this life are most likely within our family.  The family is not only the source of new life, but also the one place where we can truly be ourselves and learn to live with one another.  The love of father and mother sets the tone for relationships within the family, and cultivates civility among children as they grow into adults.  What children need most of all in the family setting is not only the love of parents, but the security of knowing parents love one another and will always be together, forming the backbone of the family and of society at large.  Being a family engenders responsibility, requires sacrifice, and brings with it the growing awareness of the ultimate meaning of life, which is that love matters.

Last week I read about an article that appeared on the website of the Australian Broadcasting Company, entitled, “Is Having a Loving Family an Unfair Advantage?”  At first, I thought it must have been satire, but the author, wrote, “One way philosophers might think about solving the social-justice problem would be by simply abolishing the family.”   While he admits that the family cannot be completely abolished, the author points out that the family is a source of unfairness because children raised by both biological parents have an unfair advantage compared to children raised by single parents, or parents who are lax in their responsibilities.   As far-fetched as this may sound, isn’t this almost exactly what the Nazis did when they removed children from their families and put them in state-run boarding schools?  Our own federal government, through the Department of Education, insists that it knows best how to instruct our children, including recent mandatory education regarding marriage equality, gender identity, and women’s rights, despite objections from parents whose moral values differ from those being proffered by the secular schools.  Schools, not parents are held out to be the final arbiter of crucial moral teaching in these matters.  As I’ve mentioned previously, in her stump speeches on the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton keeps repeating the mantra, “Deep seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases have to be changed.”  In other words, Hillary wants to continue the fundamental transformation of America by moving further away from our cultural mores and religious beliefs, when they conflict with the liberal policy agenda, and she apparently intends to accomplish by force of law or executive dictate.

What’s most troubling about all this, is that it ignores reality and denies consequences.  I believe it was G.K. Chesterton who observed that, “The greater the evil, the bigger the lie must be to cover it up.”  Attacks on marriage are attacks on children who have a God-given right to be raised by their biological parents, and to dismiss this is a great evil.  Even the Australian Broadcasting Company is aware of the effects of broken family relationships, but instead of addressing the need to protect marriage and family, it laments the disadvantages real families create for children of non-traditional families.  The evil of the Chinese one child policy, or to put it more accurately, the Chinese forced-abortion policy, is playing out in the form of a demographic disaster which is rolling out in slow motion over the next generation.  Declines in morality, resulting in lower birth rates are having the same disastrous effects on Europe, but most people today don’t give it a thought, because the burden of the consequences will fall on their children and grandchildren, not on themselves.  Each of these great evils is accompanied by lie upon lie upon lie, in all forms, from outright untruth, to elaborate schemes to hide the truth from public awareness. 

Nature and Nature’s God has revealed Truth in a million different ways:  In our biology, created male and female; in the nature of illnesses that are the consequence of immoral actions (think STDs); in the emotional and psychological consequences of selfish choices, not least of which is the choice to abort a child; in the health and well-being associated with making good moral choices; in the happiness and fulfillment we experience as the result of wholesome loving relationships; in the peace of mind that results from choosing good, even in the face of tragic circumstances.  All that is good and beautiful, points to the Truth as revealed by God in creation and in scripture.  Life itself points to the reality of God’s love and His promise of eternal life.  When these truths are denied or distorted, they lose their beauty, and evil is permitted to grow, despite all the signs that it is destructive to human life and well-being.