WHAT MATURITY LOOKS LIKE

Turning the heart toward the neighbor: beyond oneself

There are many visions of maturity. For me, maturity is something like: the ongoing widening of love until not only the other in my life but the enemy of my life and their concerns now are absorbed into mine.

My Bishop added, “And this maturing is possible because we have been absorbed into *Christ’s* life and his concerns, including his concerns for our enemies and because the Spirit he has poured out on us is that very ongoing widening of love the Father delights in sharing with us.” - † Chris E.W. Green

The Bible enhances moral imagination by helping to mature the role of thinking in a culture. It allows people to grow to the place where they can begin to imagine the ultimate concerns of others as important. This is what maturity looks like. When we are young we are most concerned with things that have to do with ourselves. As we grow older, we become concerned for those who are near and dear to us. A great mark of true maturity is the ability to see the ultimate concerns of people who are not like us as important.[18] This is part of what it means, in the words of Jesus, to learn to love our enemies. People who fight for others to be well treated are in line with the concerns of God.

However, resistance to social change is also necessary. Without resistance, good ideas fragment the social fabric. Without resistance people who embrace the new way of seeing are not forced to think through their position or to fight forward in its articulation. Resistance provides the cocoon that must be broken in order for a new idea to be strong enough to hold the day for its period in history.

(Fitch, Peter. I Really Like Baseball . . .: Thoughts on Sex, Faith, Mysticism, and Social Change . The-volution Press, St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Kindle Edition.)