Do’s and Don’ts

Written by Christine Convery on Monday of the First Week of Lent

In The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky recounts “The Parable of the Onion.” A woman dies and finds herself in Hell after living an evil and selfish life. Her guardian angel recalls that once she gave an onion to a beggar, and God agrees that she may be saved from the lake of fire if she can grab hold of this onion as the angel pulls her out. The woman is nearly saved when the other souls in Hell begin to grab on to her to also escape, and rather than allow the onion to pull them all out the woman selfishly kicks them off and in doing so loses her own grip and her chance at salvation.

It’s a dark and perhaps harsh view of the afterlife, but it matches well with Jesus’ own parable found in today’s readings. I find myself reflecting this jubilee year especially on the Mercy of God, but fail too often to recognize my call as a Christian to live out that mercy. As a child of God I count on my Father/Mother for unconditional love in response to my shortcomings and failures, but children grow up. We learn from a young age the “don’ts”:

You shall not steal.
You shall not lie or speak falsely to one another.
You shall not swear falsely by my name,
thus profaning the name of your God. (LV 19:11)

The more difficult challenge for me is discerning what I should be doing, and the Bible’s advice in this area is typically more abstract, and very few of us get an audible call in the night and instead search anxiously for Vocation. Mercy and its corporal and spiritual works are one concrete example of our universal call to Holiness, to be Holy as our Heavenly Father is Holy. In giving of ourselves, of our time and our possessions, we minister to Christ Himself.  The direct command of Jesus to care for our neighbor is comforting to me as I constantly struggle with decisions and discernment and reminds me to move away from selfishness towards family-hood with my fellow children of God.

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Christine Convery
Christine is a graduate student in the School of Public Health studying epidemiology, as well as a graduate of LS&A.  She served as St. Mary’s first Intern for Retreats during the 2012-2013 academic year.  Christine was named for St. Christine of Belgium, aka Christine the Astonishing, who came back to life at her own funeral!  
Email: converyc@umich.edu