2b a Gardener

This post is sort of an add-on to Laura's, but not really a comment to it. I loved our talk about Genesis and the creation story, esp. the creation of Adam and Eve, and their Fall. The creation of woman, man's helpmate, is so completely romantic that it always sets my heart a-flutter. Their Fall, however, has always made me upset. So many times I think, "Gee, that rots. I didn't do anything. Why do I have to suffer because of them?" As Mom always says, and as I will inevitably say to Thomas and future children, "Life isn't always fair." I don't think I will ever understand the mystery of why the sins of our first parents and their consequences are passed on to us, but rather than get angry about it now, I like to think of ways to "get away" from the Fall and back to the Garden.

After all, Christ Himself helped us to counter the Fall and its effects--He took our sins upon Himself so that we would have eternal life with Him. One thing I love so much about Christ is that He has deep respect for the way things were "in the beginning"--the beginning of that great romance between man and woman, that romance between God and His children, that romance that He is even now still tending and nurturing.

Though we are fallen children, I think we are called, like Christ, to look at the way things were "in the beginning." Christ's Passion and death restored us to our prefallen state as children of grace. That is why, in our corrupt world, we can attain a level of transcendence of the things of the earth, and see the kaleidescope of light that is visible only in the life of grace. If we look toward "the beginning," we see how our lives were meant to be, and we see how we can live them by looking at Christ as our model--even in our fallen world.

We women, then, are called to be man's helpmate and companion--bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh. We are taken from his very ribs, and therefore are naturally drawn to be by his side. But what are our duties? Adam was instructed to tend the garden; was not Eve then to help him do this? Man and woman were meant to be helpmates and companions, but also gardeners.
I look around this world when driving to work, and I admit I don't see much of a garden to tend. It's all concrete and blacktop, buildings and houses. So how are we men and women supposed to be "gardeners?"

The garden we are all called to tend is a spiritual one, but it is also visible in many ways. In the married state, we are called as parents to tend the garden of souls, the garden of our children. Each and every little soul is a fresh flower awaiting the water of Truth and the sunlight of God's grace, and without good gardeners, these precious flowers will not blossom the way God wants them to. How could St. Therese, God's "Little Flower," have ever blossomed without the care of her loving parents, or become a beautiful blossom fit for the King? As married women, we offer our children, our flowers, to Christ; as religious, we offer our own souls' blossom to Christ and we pray for all of God's children; in the single life, we are called to tend various gardens of souls, ranging from the sick and the dying to the people we work with. In tending our gardens, we too give our lives for our neighbors, we die to self, and are renewed in Christ.

I think it is important that we all recognize and rejoice in the "garden of souls" we are given to tend. Laura, think of your beautiful children, and what a garden they will be! Think of what would happen if that garden were to never grow, and how sad God would be at that! Also think of that handsome fellow gardener, whose helpmate you are meant to be, and I think you will realize that the vocation to which you are called is a marvelous one indeed.