heart: "Not sure which bothers me the most: the lousy performance by Biden or the hysteria taking over the Dems." And I would add: not just the Dems but a host of other good souls with tissue paper feelings who have grown accustomed to living in our bubble of privilege over the past 50 years. Those on the so-called Left (whatever that really means in the United States right now) have become isolated, arrogant, and afraid. And while these very real fears might impel us toward solidarity, like others of us dealing with our various addictions, more than likely we're going to need to hit bottom before we will accept reality - and Thursday's presidential debate gave shape and form to what that bottom looks like at this moment in time. Life under a MAGA régime driven by Project 2025 would be the contemporary incarnation of A Hand Maid's Tale.
The knee-jerk, no context editorial the NY Times posted yesterday urging Biden to withdraw is an excellent example of liberal hysteria. In this era of digital magic where I can log on to the Times editorials in less that 5 seconds and still carp about how slow my high speed internet works, all perspective has been abandoned. The late Jim Morrison wailed prophetically in 1968: we want the world and we want it... NOW! I, too, would have preferred that Mr. Biden step aside before the primary season so that other candidates would have to tough-it-out in pursuit of the nomination, but that didn't happen. Had it been true then our Vice-President, Ms. Kamala Harris, would have had to complete as an equal even if considered the heir apparent. She's no shoe-in either in my analysis and carries her own inconsistent baggage. But again, competition did not happen. So, like the Serenity Prayer teaches, I need the courage to accept what I cannot change while changing the things I can. And politically, ethically, and spiritually there are a two insights that ring true to me:
First, we need to nourish both a long obedience and a commitment to reality. The church historian, Diana Butler Bass, framed this well when she quoted Teilhard de Chardin: Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability — and that it may take a very long time.
Our arrogant politics and social isolation didn't occur overnight and it's redemption won't happen any time soon either. Thomas Merton told us back in 1948: It is true that the materialistic society, the so-called culture that has evolved under the tender mercies of capitalism, has produced what seems to be the ultimate limit of this worldliness. And nowhere, except perhaps in the analogous society of pagan Rome, has there ever been such a flowering of cheap and petty and disgusting lusts and vanities as in the world of capitalism, where there is no evil that is not fostered and encouraged for the sake of making money. We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest.
And don't forget the critique Eliot crafted in 1934: All our knowledge brings us near to our ignorance, All our ignorance brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death, no nearer to God. Where the the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.
Second, practicing a contemplative discipline that reminds us that our feelings are not the whole truth is a vital antidote to our culture's chaos and doing so in community is salvific. Look, I'm worried about this era - sometimes terrified, too - but my feelings are not the totality of reality. They are clues about how to respond. Fr. Ed Hays calls this the wisdom of our wounds - and they are counter-cultural. The Anointed Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount that we are blessed when we're not so full of ourselves. When we feel filled with fear and want to run away or strike out, that's a sacred clue to do the exact opposite and stay connected and engaged. When we want to scream, its time to be still and reconnect to the unforced rhythms of grace. Unlike Jon Stewart who recently said it's time to contact a real estate agent in New Zealand, now is the time to be still, listen to what's going on all around us, and respond with a tender compassion that is reasonably consistent. To do so from within a spiritual community insures both a measure of accountability and periodic encouragement. The virulent anxiety that has become dominant today need not be normative for ever. The Talmud teaches:
All of the spiritual masters of my Judeo-Christian tradition insist that until we can unplug from the chaos, we'll be a part of the problem, not the solution. This does NOT mean isolationism or abstract navel gazing. It does mean learning how to let go of all expectations so that we can rest for a spell within God's presence and come to trust grace. If we do not know at our core that the universe is a friendly place despite the set backs and pain, we'll either retreat into privilege, try to self-medicate our fears (which never works), or become what we hate. Merton once again cuts to the chase:
What empowers change, what makes you desirous of change is the experience of love. It is that inherent experience of love that becomes the engine of change. Faith does not need to push the river because faith is able to trust that there is a river.
In another, longer post he speaks truth to the challenges of this moment: "I think there are three basic levels of social ministry, and none is better than the other. I believe all are the movement of the Holy Spirit within us for the sake of others. I like to imagine a river flooding out of control—symbolizing the circumstances and injustices that bring about suffering—overflowing its banks and sweeping those in its path off their feet."
At the first level, we rescue drowning people from the swollen river, dealing with the immediate social problem right in front of us: someone hungry comes to our door and we offer them some food, or invite them inside. These are hands-on, social service ministries, like the familiar soup kitchen or food pantry. Such works will always look rather generous, Christian, charitable, and they tend to be admired, if not always imitated.
At the second level, there are ministries that help people not to fall into the swollen river in the first place, or show them how to survive despite falling in. In general, these are the ministries of education and healing ... that fill the world with schools, hospitals, and social service ministries that empowered people and gave them new visions and possibilities for their lives.
Finally, on the third level, some ministries build and maintain a dam to stop the river from flooding in the first place. This is the work of social activism and advocacy, critique of systems, organizing, speeches, boycotts, protests, and resistance against all forms of systemic injustice and deceit. It is the gift of a few, but a much-needed gift that we only recently began to learn and practice. It seeks systemic change and not just individual conversion.
I don’t think most people feel called to this third level of activism; I my-self don’t. It was initially humiliating to admit this, and I lost the trust and admiration of some friends and supporters. Yet as we come to know our own soul gift more clearly, we almost always have to let go of certain “gifts” so we can do our one or two things well and with integrity. I believe that if we can do one or two things wholeheartedly in our life, that is all God expects.
The important thing is that we all should be doing something for the rest of the world! We have to pay back, particularly those of us born into privilege and comfort. We also must respect and support the other two levels, even if we cannot do them. Avoid all comparisons about better or lesser, more committed or less committed; those are all ego games. Let’s just use our different gifts to create a unity in the work of service (Ephesians 4:12–13), and back one another up, without criticism or competition. Only in our peaceful, mutual honoring do we show forth the glory of God.
Ours is a moment of profound consequences and we all have a role to play in creating an alternative to the brokenness. The best contemplative wisdom invites us to: 1) take a LONG and LOVING look at reality; 2) Cultivate an inward practice of acceptance; 3) Nourish our practice with discipline and community so that we discern which of the three steps of social change are most important to us; and 4) Trust that God is a loving and just God. We are in for a long and agonizing journey but this moment is NOT the end of the story - only a part.
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