Purgatory (Part 2)

“Come and play with me,” proposed the little prince. “I am so unhappy.”
“I cannot play with you,” the fox said. “I am not tamed.”
…”One only understands the things that one tames,” said the fox. “Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things already at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, so men have no friends anymore. If you want a friend, tame me.”
“What must I do, to tame you?” asked the little prince.
“You must be very patient,” replied the fox…
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near—
“Ah,” said the fox, “I shall cry.”
“it is your own fault,” said the little prince. “I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you…”
“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.
“But, now you are going to cry!” said the little prince.
“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.
“Then it has done you no good at all!”
“It has done me good,” said the fox….

It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important…Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become, responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose…” Antoine De Saint Exupery, The Little Prince


We often think of having bad luck and good luck, or bad fortune and good fortune. The philosopher Boethius, however, taught that all fortune is good fortune. Further, what is commonly thought of as “bad” fortune is actually better for you than what is thought of as “good” fortune. When good things happen, tend to get big egos and such, but when bad things happen, we have to reflect on our lives, think about things, and grow as persons. Fr. Joseph Girzone speaks of how there are times in our lives when we feel close to God, and feel God’s presence strongly in our lives. Other times, it feels like God has abandoned us, that He is not there and no matter what we do, we feel lost and empty. It is during these times, what St. John of the Cross called the “Dark Night of the Soul” or senses, that we can actually grow stronger in our faith. Anyone can have faith when God seems close, but it is harder when it feels like God is not there. I think St. Augustine was definitely on to something when he says that faith is a gift from God, it is a grace. It is not so simple as saying that we can just pick and choose whether to have faith.

We can stay in our comfort zone, and not take any risks. By choosing to go out and make friends, and enter relationships, we risk bad fortune, and hurt, and suffering. But, if we don’t ever take a risk, then we never grow. When the fox lets the little prince tame him, he gets hurt. He cries. Yet, the fox is wise enough to realize that it is for the better to have allowed himself to enter this relationship with the little prince, even if it means being hurt…(to be continued in a later blog)