Sail Away

The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit! A fourth exclamation point!

So exams are fast approaching, which means that there is a lot of studying that needs to be happening. I, therefore, being a great student of the highest caliber, have done everything I possibly can...to avoid it. Instead, I have been reading some of St. Augustine's writings on the Gospel of John. Quality stuff...and I bet you I find a way to work it into any or all of my exams.

Professor: "Dimmi qualcosa sulla Incarnazione."

Me: "I'm sorry, what was that?"

Professor: "Una cosa sola sulla Incarnazione. Qualsiasi cosa."

Me: "Look, can I just say something on St. Augustine and have you pass me? People back home think I speak Italian, and it'd be really embarassing if I failed these exams and they found out the truth."

Professor: "I'm just kidding. Sure thing, kid. Say whatever you want. I'm just waiting for my smoke-break anyway."

Me: "Perfetto! Appunto la cosa che volevo udire!"

*Record Scratch*

Professor: "You speak Italian?"

So, as you can tell, my exams are going to be fine. In the process of reading St. Augustine, though, I came across a great image that he uses to speak about our Salvation in Christ. Basically, he says that through sin we became separated from the Father by a vast sea, and Christ came to bring us back across that sea to the Father. But the only way to get there is by floating across the sea on the wood of the Cross. It's really a beautiful image: the only way back to the Father is by the Cross, and that Cross is our ship which gets us across the sea between us and the Father.

Then I had a thought, an image that came to me at some point in the past. I can't remember if I read it somewhere or if I came up with it myself, so to be safe, I think I'll just say I came up with it myself.

We are in fact separated from the Father by a vast sea, but Christ came to give us a way back, a way across the sea, as St. Augustine said. So Christ built a boat, in which all of the faithful gather for the journey, and that boat is the Church. And He wanted that boat to sail back to the Father by the wind of the Spirit. In order to catch that Spirit, however, Jesus had to mount the mast, the wooden beam of the Cross, and make Himself the Sail by which the Spirit could push us along.

Now, I'm not sure I can say that all of this is perfectly theologically sound at every level. But I think the basic image is clear: the Cross is, in a very real way, the mast of the great ship we call the Church, and Jesus allowed Himself to be fixed to it as our Sail, carrying this great ship across the sea by the wind of the Spirit, wind being an image frequently used as an analogy for the Spirit. It just helps us to picture what is going on in our Salvation.

This analogy just seems to fit because I think it is clear that this life is a pilgrim journey. It is not the end. And as we move on our way back home, we never do so alone. We travel together--thus, we have the Church. But we cannot travel by our own power: it is only by the missions of the Son and the Spirit, both sent by the Father, that we are able to come back to Him. The only thing we have to do is get in the boat and stay in the boat, and they will take us the whole way.

I offer this image to you because I know how much it has helped me throughout the years, and I hope you too will catch a glimpse of the beauty of the Faith through it. Thanks be to God for all He has done and continues to do in our lives.

So now all we have to do is sail away.

God bless, and please pray for our exams. Less than a month till I get to come home! Thanks be to God!