Escaping the Gravity Which Diminishes

Darwin remains to field arguments and be unflappable, but for myself, I am stepping away from the internet until Easter. In recent days I have failed at every point at which I could have chosen charity, and though this is mainly attributable to my own weakness, this weakness has been exacerbated by my wearying myself with easy access to the follies of others. Here is my meditation for the next few days, drawn from today's reflection in the Magnificat:

The Fathers of the Church maintained that human beings stand at the point of intersection between two gravitational fields. First, there is the force of gravity which pulls us down -- towards selfishness, falsehood and evil; the gravity which diminishes us and distances us from the heights of God. On the other hand there is the gravitational force of God's love: the fact that we are loved by God and respond in love attracts us upwards. Man finds himself betwixt this twofold gravitational force; everything depends on our escaping the gravitational field of evil and becoming free to be attracted completely by the gravitational force of God, which makes us authentic, elevates us, and grants us true freedom... 

Of ourselves, we are too weak to lift up our hearts to the heights of God. We cannot do it. The very pride of thinking that we are able to do it on our own drags us down and estranges us from God. God himself must draw us up, and this is what Christ began to do on the cross. He descended to the depths of our human existence in order to draw us up to himself, the living God. He humbled himself... Only in this way could our pride be vanquished: God's humility is the extreme form of his love, and this humble love draws us upwards... 

All these means of "ascent" are effective only if we humbly acknowledge that we need to be lifted up; if we abandon the pride of wanting to become like God. We need God: he draws us upwards; letting ourselves be upheld by his hands -- by faith, in other words-- sets us aright and gives up the inner strength that raises us on high. We need the humility of a faith which seeks the face of God and trusts in the truth of his love. 

--Pope Benedict XVI