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Beginning with Jesus’ four kinds of soil and receptivity (Matthew 13:4-9), to John of the Cross’ “nights” and Teresa of Ávila's “mansions,” through the modern schemas of Jean Piaget, James Fowler, Lawrence Kohlberg, Eric Erickson, Abraham Maslow, Carol Gilligan, and Bill Plotkin, we see there is a clear direction and staging to maturity and therefore to human life. We live inside of some kind of coherence and purpose, a believer might say.
Unless we can somehow chart this trajectory, we have no way to discern growth or maturity, and no ability to discern what might be a full, fuller, or fullest human response. Neither do we have any criteria for discerning an immature, regressive, or even sick response. Throughout this year in the Daily Meditations I have explored where this thing we call “life” is headed. Now, as we near the close of 2014, I want to talk about ripening and eldership—which most often come near the end of life, but not always. (If you have missed any of the Daily Meditation emails, you can find them on CAC’s Facebook page.)
There must be a direction to ripening, but we must also recognize that any steps toward maturity are by necessity immature. Thank God, Pope Francis is introducing an old and common sense word to Catholic moral thinking—“gradualism.” An understanding of ripening basically teaches us the wisdom of timing, love, and patience, and allows us to be wise instead of judgmental. No one “gets it” 100% right away; it is the work of a lifetime. Why do we reject people because they are not totally there yet? I am not totally there yet myself.
Having said that, if I am to believe the novels, myths, poems, and people that I have studied in my life, old age is almost never described as an apex of achievement, hardly ever sitting atop a summit with the raised arms of a victorious athlete. It is something else—usually something other than what was initially imagined, or even hoped for. Let’s call it a slow ripening.
Adapted from
'Ripening,' Oneing, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 11-12
Gateway to Silence:
Ripen me into fullness.
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