"If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree,, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." Luke 17
Abraham replied, 'My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.' Lk. 16
Dogma speaks to our intellects and erects the boundaries of understanding expressed in the Nicene Creed and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Poetry, a much more ancient religious language, speaks to us in delight, the experience of beauty and is capable of touching us very deeply. Why should we meditate on the poetry of the great Catholic poets in prayer and adoration? So that we might overcome the inertia that hampers our ascent to the Father. Poems discussed by Dana Gioia are "The Burning Ladder" and "The Seven Deadly Sins" by Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. " “As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame”
"‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns, who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has been found." Luke 15
In Luke 14, Jesus tells his disciples "“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." Remember that in Exodus 20 honor your father and mother is the fourth commandment, the first three are about the love of God; a love Jesus claims as his own. How do we love rightly?