Dear Father Rutler,
My wife is from Poland, and with all the nuttiness in America today, I’m more and more inclined to accede to her request that we move back to her home country. It’s not that I don’t love America – it’s just that I don’t want our children growing up in this culture, especially if the socialists take over. Is that cowardly?
Paul M from San Antonio, TX
Did your wife leave her homeland out of love for you? Then she is noble, like the matriarch Ruth (Ruth 1:16). Ruth also knew as part of the parcel of love, “You can’t go home again.” (Thank you, Thomas Wolfe.) Even heroic Poland is not without its problems these days. If St Paul anticipated life in a safe environment, he would not have recommended wearing armour (Ephesians 6:11-17). Our Lord promised green pastures for the soul, but that grass is not “greener on the other side of the fence” in this fallen world.
