The Inexhaustible Nature of
Grace
I have seen them on the streets, come to know them in the
coffee shop and the alleyway, befriended many and have found friends in the
most unlikely of places. Who are these strange creatures that defy the
conventions of logic by treating of their lives as an open book.
Quite frankly, they are the insane or at the least, those
less sane than us. Therein lies the misnomer and I am just as guilty in calling
them such. For they are not insane but rather touched with an insufferable
flame that could not be quenched. Here I beg to quote from Socrates in his
speech on divine madness in the Phaedrus: “Madness, provided it comes as the
gift of heaven, is the channel by which we receive the greatest
blessings…madness comes from God, whereas sober sense is merely human.” Note
that he says, provided it comes from heaven. That little caveat explains most
of the issues we have with the state of one’s mental health. Yet, whether self
-induced or a direct command, they still struggle with Herculean strength to
understand what most of us take for granted- common sense.
Sober sense is then the opposite of creative madness, and
madness becomes the better part of the human reason to propel forward the art
of manhood. At least, that’s how I would read Socrates. I’m sure you disagree
but suffice it to say that if you do, you are quite normal. The problem is,
they are not.
So we have two camps encircling each other, those sober in
mind body and spirit, and those who lack the very elements of any of the three.
Ah. Here it is then. And stumbled upon like it is makes it so much more a
revelation than had we discovered it within a normal process like logic.
Love. Love stumbles across things and love makes no mistakes
whatsoever. Love cannot err, only humans do that when they falsely accuse love
of leading them to that which it is they want instead of what love asks of
them. By controlling situations and deeming ourselves as oh so necessary, we
damn love and reduce it to our own petty needs.
Not so the ill. To them, common sense is to give the story
as a message to those who have, how much they are living without. It is to
propel them into the Divine Madness of which Socrates speaks and to allow them
to convince you that all is not what it seems. It is to give us the chance to
rise up and receive the gift that is them, and in return to receive the gift of
grace from the Father. It is in the end, the gift of faith, in the end, they
are the gift. The gift upon which our rational minds can work to provide that
which they need.
So then, a cup of coffee and fifteen minutes of your time
marks the beginning of a new adventure for those of us that suffer from common
sense. I pray that we all discover madness in all its forms. For those that
suffer not will, should ever the need arise, ever suffer to help another in
need of something so profound as common sense.
And that is the nature of our being.
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