Day 28: return to nakedness

I was looking at Genesis again over the weekend, this time at the story of the fall. The passage regarding covering the nakedness of Adam and Eve caught my attention. I thought about what it must have been like before the leather garments which God crafted for them.

It reminded me of how God strips away my clothing as I walk through the waterfall, so that I come to Him naked.

Francis de Sales, my patron saint, coached his protege Jeanne de Chantal about being naked before Him.

I think that in the fulfillment of time we will cast off all barriers to each other and to Him, returning to the nakedness of the garden, gloriously resurrected and unashamed.

St. Francis de Sales on confidence in God

"The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart. This cross He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with loving arms and weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His holy Name, anointed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all-merciful love of God."

St. Francis de Sales to Madame de la Flechere

"There is a real temptation to become dissatisfied with the world and depressed about it when we have of necessity to be in it. God's Providence is wiser than we. We imagine we would feel better if we were on another ship; that may be, but only if we change ourselves! I am the sworn enemy of all those useless, dangerous, unwise desires, for even if what we desire is good, the desiring itself is pointless since God does not want that kind of good for us, but another, toward which He expects us to strive. He wishes to speak to us from the thorny bush, as He did to Moses, and we would like Him to speak to us in the gentle breeze, as He did to Elijah.

May His Goodness watch over you, my dearest daughter, but be steadfast, courageous, and rejoice in the fact that He has given you the grace to want to be entirely His. I am, in this Goodness, all yours."

St. Francis de Sales to Jeanne de Chantal (1)

"I see that all the seasons of the year converge in your soul: at times you experience all the dryness, distraction, disgust, and boredom of winter; at other times, all the dew and fragrance of the little flowers of Maytime; and again, the warmth of a desire to please God. All that remains is autumn, and you say that you do not see much of its fruit. Yet it often happens that in threshing the wheat and pressing the grapes we discover more than the harvest or vintage promised. You would like it to be always spring or summer; but no, my dear daughter, we have to experience interior as well as exterior changes. Only in heaven will everything be springtime as to beauty, autumn as to enjoyment, and summer as to love. There will be no winter there; but here below we need winter so that we may practice self-denial and the countless small but beautiful virtues that can be practiced during a barren season."