January 25, 2005
Walking
A more winsome and faithful advocate of the Gospel than Madeleine L’Engle would be hard to find. Of her many intriguing and challenging books, one called “Walking on Water” was especially about Christianity, art, and artists.
Almost as an aside, she wrote that if Jesus was as fully human as we believe and could walk on water, as well, then, if we were fully human, so might we. The reason we cannot, she concluded, is because we don’t remember how, mayhaps because we are not all that fully human.
I never take Ms L’Engle’s speculations or counsel lightly, nor do I think ever that anyone else should. But when you come to think about it, we might be well-purposed and considerably assuaged that when Jesus said, “do this in remembrance of me” he was at the time merely sharing a bit of bread and some of the local vintage with his colleagues and was not, instead, walking on water.
I should think most altar guilds might breathe a sigh of relief about this, as well.