Roots

Should you plant your tree by the road that sinners tread, or by the stream of the waters of baptism? It’s not too late to change direction.

One of the great Christian storytellers of the 20^th century was a Jesuit priest from India named Anthony de Mello. One of de Mello’s many parables is about a woman in a coma, slowly dying. She’s barely aware of her surroundings as she lies on her sickbed. But she suddenly has the impression she’s been taken up to heaven and is standing before the judgment seat of God.

She sees nothing but clouds of dark smoke. Out of the ponderous silence comes a voice. “Who are you?” booms the voice.

Not knowing what to say, she turns to the answer she has used most often in life: “I’m the wife of the mayor.”

“I did not ask you whose wife you are, but who you are,” says the voice.

“I’m the mother of four children,” she continues.

She hears a similar response: “I did not ask whose mother you are, but who you are.”

“I’m a schoolteacher,” she says.

“I did not ask you what your...