Clinging to mystery

Thanks be to God for wonderful, attentive, thoughtful parents. Here's another post, inspired by my dad this time. In response to my post about baptism, my dad sent me the sermon he preached Trinity Sunday of 1999 - just a week or two after I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's. It's so interesting to read what was going on in everyone's minds during that time, and compare it to what's happening now.

But back to the sermon. Two things stuck out at me. One is, looking at the Greek of the passage in which Jesus says to "go and baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," that would be more accurately translated, "into the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." Placed, even thrust, into the care and protection of God. There's no getting out! You're stuck! Mwahaha!

But fake-evil laughter aside, that is a comfort, isn't it? And that brings me to the other thing that stuck out to me about my dad's sermon. It is from a line in the Athanasian Creed, the lesser known but sticks-a-punch third ecumenical creed. Its opening statement says we should, "above all, cling to the catholic faith." (<-- note: "little c" catholic means "universal.") Not "understand" it. Just cling to it. Understanding fails - there is always a point at which that happens. So when it does, cling to what you know is true... which my faith tells me is, "God claimed me, God loves me, God is with me."

There's something sort of liberating about that, no? I don't have to understand why I had to be in the 30% of Hodgkin's Disease survivors who are stricken with breast cancer. I don't have to understand what is just or fair about this. I don't even have to understand why I am lucky enough to have caught this early and have a bright prognosis, unlike so many other women and men who are diagnosed with cancer every day. All I have to do is cling to what I can trust regardless of what mutated cells are growing in my body.

God claimed me. God loves me. God is with me.

Thank Goodness!

(I should also add to the "what I know" list: that I have hundreds of people loving me and praying for me, from near and far, and that this is a huge source of strength. Thanks for being a part of that!)