The River -Flannery O'Connor and Grace and Justification

1987: “If I Baptize you,” the preacher said, “you’ll be able to go to the Kingdom of Christ. You’ll be washed in the river of suffering, son, and you’ll go by the deep river of life. Do you want that?”

Ø  Harry is baptized but does not understand the preacher’s metaphor of the river and later in the story tries to drown himself in order to get to the Kingdom of God and away from his home. The boy shows his faith in rejecting the unfaithful people in his home and trying to reach Christ in the river.

1988: He plunged under once and this time, the waiting current caught him like a long gentle hand and pulled him swiftly forward and down.

Ø  Harry by drowning himself in the accepting river understands his participation in faith as the river will lead him to the Kingdom of God, literally. He was more open than most who had come to the river looking for healing.

1989: Very slowly, his expression changed as if he were gradually seeing appear what he didn’t know he’d been looking for. Then all of the sudden he knew what he wanted to do.

Ø  Harry comes to a realization that from what he learned from the preacher and Mrs. Connin he wanted to get away from his home and get to the Kingdom.

1990: “I know from my own self-experience,” a woman’s mysterious voice called from a knot of people, “I know from it that this preacher can heal. My eyes have been opened! I testify to Jesus!”

Ø  Although she gives the preacher credit, the preacher mentions numerous times that it is not he who heals but those who have heard and understood his preaching have faith and are able to be healed.

1991: “If you ain’t come for Jesus, you ain’t come for me.”

Ø  The preacher is putting forth the idea that to be healed is to first accept God with faith and then other gifts such as healing will come.

1992: He saw the pale oval close to him in the dark. “He said I’m not the same now,” he muttered. “I count.”

Ø  Harry is baptized and then all of the sudden he counts and is able to receive the gifts from God.

1993: The river wouldn’t have him. He tried again and came up, choking. This was the way it had been when the preacher held him under—he had to fight with something that pushed him back in the face.

Ø  It takes cooperation on both parts for grace and freedom to occur.

1994: “This old red river is good to Baptize in, good to lay your faith in, good to lay your pain in, but it ain’t this muddy water here that saves you.”

Ø  The river flows and moves along and ‘passes away’ but those healed in it do not pass away.

1995: “You won’t be the same again,” the preacher said. “You’ll count.”

Ø  The boy will be sanctified and will count as part of the Church and its community.

1996: Mrs. Connin represents Harry’s grace because she helps him along the journey and takes him to the river where he is baptized.

1997: He intended not to fool with preachers any more but to Baptize himself and to keep on going this time until he found the Kingdom of Christ in the river.

Ø  Harry decides to participate in the journey to finding God.

1998: “If you just come to see can you leave your pain in the river, you ain’t come for Jesus.”

Ø  Only good faith and Jesus can reveal the nature of Jesus himself and healing power.

1999: In the story the preacher teaches that the river the thing that can carry everyone to the Kingdom of Christ but you cannot enter only expecting it to heal you. You enter with faith and baptism so that you can participate in the river.

2000: When Harry returns home he begins to change and then decides to abandon his home and follow the river to the Kingdom of Christ, keeping with the call from the preacher and the call he hears within himself.

2001: Before the boy goes to the river, Mrs. Connin teaches him about Jesus Christ and he takes the Bible with him to the river and home feeling more prepared for what is to come.

2002: The boy freely decides to be baptized and later to follow the river by drowning himself to reach the Kingdom of Christ.

2003: The same blood that makes the River red, made the leper clean, made that blind man stare, made that dead man leap!

Ø  Others have been healed in the river by following and being open to the idea of Christ. And these people have built up the community of Christ.

2004: The preacher finds his responsibility in preaching and explaining faith and what the message of Christ means. Mrs. Connin teaches Harry the fundamentals of Christ and follows her responsibility by teaching the boy this.

2005: For an instant he was overcome with surprise: then since he was moving quickly he knew that he was getting somewhere, all his fury and fear left him.

Ø  The boy is only four or five years old, but he follows what he interprets. He enters the river and gets what he was looking for whether it is grace or not.