That which passes all understanding

For several months now I have been reading Anton Chekov's Ward No. 6 and Other Stories, and almost every single story includes references to times in the church year or includes a character who is a divinity student. Most stories use the church as a piece of the setting. But some take on the questions of religion more directly. In this story that I read yesterday neither the Church nor a divinity student were part of the story. Instead the thing that drove the story was one question, which I can only describe as religious or spiritual in its impetus and secular in its expression. 

In "The Darling" the main character, Olenka, is exposed by the narrator who states, "The black kitten, Briska, rubbed against her and purred softly, but Olenka was not touched by these feline caresses. That was not what she needed. She wanted a love that would absorb her whole being, her whole soul and reason-- that would give her ideas and an object in life, and would warm her old blood. And she would shake the kitten off her skirt and say with vexation: "Get along; I don't want you!"

I was talking with a friend yesterday about baptism, because they are having a baptism in their family next month. I did not remember this set of lines during that conversation, but I would have liked to. I didn't remember my catechism verbatim either, but I should have. Instead I had to use examples like Shakira and Gavin DeGraw...

But, these lines can speak to our baptism. I don't know if Olenka needed someone to love or to be loved by, but I know that by Baptism we are loved by God and it may be in this way: So that love does absorb our whole being, our whole soul, and reason-- so that love does give us ideas and an object in life, and it does warm our old blood.