December 16: As Real As Real Gets

At a certain stage of their development, small children take to saying “No.” It is their first assertion of the self, the beginning of their independence. The story is told of one small child who had been saying “No” to everything. His father asked him, “Are you going to keep saying ‘No’ for the rest of your life?” “No!” he shouted back. 

There is no denying that there are times to say “No.” For example, our children learn from early on in their schooling to “say ‘No’ to drugs.” But there is actually something worse than saying “No” all the time, in every situation: and what is worse is a “pretend Yes.” This is a simulated “Yes,” a polite “Yes.” This runs head-long into the advice Jesus gives in Matthew 5, 37: “Say only ‘yes’ if you mean ‘yes,’ and say only ‘no’ if you mean ‘no.’”

An important Advent lesson is this: When we say a real “Yes” to God, to ourselves, and to others, we are being true to ourselves, and we are being authentic. As we often say in our parish, “This is as real as real gets!”

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I thank You God for most this amazing

day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(e e cummings)