Price

From The Radical Christian Life by Sister Joan Chittister, OSB   

"This above all: to thine own self be true 

and it must follow, 

as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to anyone."

  

Sister Joan writes that she memorized this quotation from Shakespeare at an early age but "only understood its real meaning stages and stages later." She adds, " It cost me when I didn't understand it - and it cost me when did. Which price would you rather pay?"    

  

It is not a question of whether or we surface as victors. Surely by now we know, even if we cannot fully accept, that any victory is short-lived.  What we should be asking is are we living as fully as we can into who we are as a child of God?  How are we serving this life and one another?  Can we find contentment in the answers that surface?   

  

I bought Sister Joan's book years ago, but put it aside. I just did not care much for it then.  As I return to it now, I am finding the short daily passages thought provoking, and more complex than I first realized.  

Christianity is about radical love, regardless of what stage of life we are in.  Like this book, such love seems seemingly simple, but actually is surprisingly complex.  Yes, one of the paradoxes we hold and live.