a searing novel by Marilynne Robinson:<\/p>\n
You have preserved my life from the pit of destruction, when you cast behind your back all my sins<\/em>.\u00a0\u2013 Isaiah 38:17<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters on a plane back from World Youth Day in Rio, Pope Francis made headlines with his comment, \u201cIf [gay people] accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them?\u201d But the hoopla around this comment obscured an even more radical statement in a similar vein: \u201cI see that so many times in the Church, apart from this case and also in this case, one looks for the \u2018sins of youth,; for example, is it not thus? And then these things are published. These things are not crimes. The crimes are something else: child abuse is a crime. But sins, if a person, or secular priest or a nun, has committed a sin and then that person experienced conversion, the Lord forgives and when the Lord forgives, the Lord forgets and this is very important for our lives. When we go to confession and we truly say \u2018I have sinned in this matter,\u2019 the Lord forgets and we do not have the right to not forget because we run the risk that the Lord will not forget our sins, eh?\u201d<\/p>\n
We do not have the right to not forget<\/em>. I thought of this line more than once as I drew near the close of Marilynne Robinson\u2019s brutal Home<\/em><\/a>, the 2008 companion piece to her earlier novel Gilead<\/em>, which I reviewed here<\/a> in a series on books about marriage. Home<\/em>, the most painful book I\u2019ve read this year and one of the most powerful, retells the events of Gilead <\/em>from a different perspective. Both books deal with the return of a small Iowa town\u2019s prodigal son: Jack Boughton, a preacher\u2019s kid who always stood apart from his big, loving family, a mistrusted and mistrustful type who went from being the town prankster to the town delinquent to the town thief. He finally skipped out decades ago, breaking his father\u2019s heart, and comes back only as the old man is dying. Is he hoping for reconciliation? Is he trying to make amends? Or does he have\u2014as his father\u2019s best friend, the narrator of Gilead<\/em>, suspects\u2014much more sinister motives?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
more<\/a> (and the connection between Pope Francis\u2019s words and the quotation from Isaiah is something I just blatantly stole from Elizabeth Scalia <\/a>btw)<\/p>\n
(This is probably the most painful book I\u2019ve read all year. I\u2019m so<\/em> glad I read it but I doubt I\u2019ll revisit it for a long, long time.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
a searing novel by Marilynne Robinson: You have preserved my life from the pit of destruction, when you cast behind your back all my sins.\u00a0\u2013 Isaiah 38:17 Speaking to reporters on a plane back from World Youth Day in Rio, Pope Francis made headlines with his comment, \u201cIf [gay people] accept the Lord and have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,177],"tags":[144,38,78,52,131,248,41],"class_list":["post-7468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-too-much-is-never-enough","tag-and-if-my-prayer-go-unanswered-thats-okay","tag-forgiveness","tag-home-is-anywhere-you-hang-your-head","tag-if-whiskey-were-a-woman-id-be-married-for-sure","tag-it-is-very-dark-you-are-likely-to-be-wrestled-by-an-angel","tag-marilynne-robinson","tag-reading-and-repentance"],"yoast_head":"\n
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