For many weeks now I’ve been
reading a Charles Dickens novel – “Dombey and Son” – and I’m happy to report
that I am beyond the 600th page with only 200 to go. This is one of
his later novels and it seems to reflect the domestic problems Dickens himself
encountered at this stage of his life. Mr. Dombey is an English businessman, a
widower, with two children – a daughter in her teens and a son perhaps seven or
eight. Early in the novel Dombey’s son dies and Dombey is overwhelmed. His
loss, however, has more to do with the fact that he was grooming his son, young
as he was, to eventually take over his business. Dombey loves his son only insofar
as the son is a means to an end.
Some months after the son’s death
Dombey remarries. He needs a wife for appearances’ sake and he chooses a
socialite widow who likewise wants a husband for appearances’ sake. At the end
of the chapter I just finished, Dombey had ordered his wife, a reluctant
hostess, to make an appearance at a dinner party he intends to give for
business associates. His wife refuses, demands a legal separation, and storms
out of the house with the intention of not returning. The man’s 17-year old
daughter, who dearly loves both her father and new mother, runs to her father
thinking she will comfort him only to have him strike her violently rejecting
her comfort. The girl flees and likewise runs into the streets. I can’t tell
you what happens next because I’ve yet to discover it for myself.
Dombey is an arrogant business man
who sees everything only through the lens of his own self-importance. He has
never taken an interest in his daughter who lives in fear of him yet deeply
desires to love him and be loved by him in return.
At this point in the novel all of
Dombey’s anger has come forth in one violent blow to his daughter. It doesn’t
take much knowledge of psychology to know that such anger is the action of a
man who refuses to accept his humanity and therefore who refuses to accept
himself as imperfect. Unable to do so, he takes out his anger on both his wife
and daughter, judging them inadequate and deliberately hurting both of them in
the most violent way.
There is no mention of God having
anything to do with this situation in the novel. But this example I’ve just
given provides an image of something similar that happens in Luke’s Gospel (5:
1-11) but with a different effect. Moreover, we might even recognize ourselves.
Jesus is out in a boat with his disciples the fishermen and they have caught
nothing after working through the night. He encourages them to push out farther
and to lower their nets for a catch. When they do so and find so many fish that
the boat is in danger of sinking, Peter falls to his knees before Jesus with
the words, “Depart from me, Lord, I am a sinful man.” In the face of something
greater than himself, Peter has the good sense to recognize that he is an
imperfect human being. This is not an uncommon reaction when any of us has a
genuine encounter with Jesus. We meet the Lord and we know we have met someone
not only very different from us, but also someone far above us. We recognize
our sinfulness, our inadequacy before him.
What is more important not only for
Peter but for us also is that Jesus does not use this strength of his and the imperfection
of Peter to hurt or judge Peter. Jesus simply tells Peter not to be afraid.
From now on, in this translation, you will be catching men. You will be fishers
of men. You will be bringing others to God. Unlike Dombey, Peter knows he is an
imperfect man.
What is it we ourselves fear? What
would our lives be like if we more frequently went before our God and
acknowledged our inadequacy as human beings? Would we hear God telling us not
to be afraid? Would we hear him telling us that He made us for a purpose and
that He dearly loves us?
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