When is Enough Enough?

David W. Fagerberg

Gilbert 21.1

Do you think he will write about his granddaughter again?

He took a break from her last issue.

Yes, but how long can he resist?

It will be okay so long as its also applicable to me. He can be personal but not

idiosyncratic.

Deal! I shall seize the permission of the last speaker in the above exchange that occurred

in my imagination and use granddaughter Catherine once more as an entry point to Chesterton. I

was only watching out for your welfare; Im quite certain that Chesterton himself would not

mind a bit. The essential rectitude of our view of children lies in the fact that we feel them in

their ways to be supernatural The very smallness of children makes it possible to regard them

as marvels; we seem to be dealing with a new race The most unfathomable schools and sages

have never attained to the gravity which dwells in the eyes of a baby of three months old

[They] give us the most perfect hint of the humor that awaits us in the kingdom of heaven (A

Defense of Baby-Worship).

At nearly 5 months old, we are applauding Catherines accomplishments: she can roll

over from back to front, and now from front to back; she can place most objects into her mouth

with near unerring accuracy; she is able to reach Mr. Tiger and ceaselessly crumple him to hear

the crackling within; she can stare at tree leaves moving, and for a very long time; she kicks her

legs vigorously on her back, and with the helpful support of a plastic Jumperoo she can exercise

her legs by bouncing.

 We, her grandparents, are thrilled by these virtuosi performances, of course. We applaud

and cry out encouragement, and the smart phone uploads another video entry to YouTube. And

then I began to think in teleological categories (a theologians professional hazard).

Would anyone say of her at five months This is enough. Shes arrived. Thats fine.

Finished. Of course not. There are all the seven month markers to meet, like sitting without

support and playing peekaboo; there are all the ten month markers to meet, like waving bye-bye

and pulling up to stand; there are all the twelve month markers to meet, like the first spoken

words and playing imitative games. And at one year old, shall anyone say Not bad. Good

enough. Finished. Of course not. Human beings are made to develop endlessly. It may be more

easily seen between the ages of five months and five years, but it should be continuing between

the ages of fifty and sixty. God has placed a teleological ought into all things: the seed ought to

sprout, the branch ought to bloom, the flower ought to bear fruit. Catherine ought to pass from

childhood to youth, and youth to womanhood, and from biological life to spiritual life.

A medieval Byzantine theologian named Nicholas Cabasilas used the mystery of

biological birth to marvel at the mystery of our spiritual birth. As nature prepares the fetus,

while it is in its dark and fluid life, for that life which is in the light, and shapes it for the life

which it is about to receive, so likewise it happens to the saints (The Life in Christ, 1.2). In the

dark womb, nature prepares the fetus for life in the light. In this present world, God prepares

souls, as if fetuses, for their eventual life in the light. Cabasilas makes me imagine Catherine

once upon a time thinking in the womb, Why do these legs continue to grow when they only

constrict the limited space I have? What are they for? They are of no use to me in here. Even

now she does not fully understand their reason. They are good for kicking when excited, but she
does not know that one day she will be able to run across the yard with them. She should be

exercising her legs so that one day she can use them properly.

We have been given virtues to exercise so that one day we can use them properly.

Cabasilas can understand why Catherine might have been confused. The unborn have no

perception whatever of this life [outside the womb]. But he thinks we should not be confused.

The blessed ones have many hints in this present life of things to come. For the unborn, life in

the light is wholly in the future, he notes. But for the saint that future light is infused into this

present life and mingled with it. Catherine cannot understand the end toward which all her new-

found skills and abilities will take her because they are beyond her imagination. But our

imaginations should be lit up by Christ, and Mary, and the prophets and saints and martyrs, so

we have an inkling of our future.

The seed of grace given in this life ought to sprout, then grow, then fructify. The natural

development of the body mirrors a supernatural development of the soul. The push and pull of a

teleological ought affects them both. So Chesterton wrote, For Catholics it is a fundamental

dogma of the Faith that all human beings, without any exception whatever, were specially made,

were shaped and pointed like shining arrows, for the end of hitting the mark of Beatitude. Only

this will be enough. Only then will we have arrived. Good enough. Finished.