The regional, national, and international news has overwhelmed me to no end and just when I think it can’t possibly get worse, it does. Here in the US: Young adults have been shot by angry and paranoid old men who supposedly were “standing their ground.” When does a car turning around because it made a wrong turn or a young man ringing on the doorbell at the wrong house become a cause for gun violence and death?
This evening I read about the recordings released of two members of the sheriff’s department and a county commissioner in McCurtain County, Oklahoma. They were heard wishing they could bring back the days of whipping and lynching troublemakers. They were also recorded wondering if they could hire a hit man to kill a journalist!
I am overwhelmed with sorrow and anger. I feel a sense of dread, hopelessness, and doom. What can I do to make a difference today? What can those of us who think that such actions and comments are repulsive and hateful do in the face of this? So I wonder… what can I/we do? Today over a brief lunch/coffee break I picked up a book to read: Thomas Merton’s book, Passion for Peace: Reflections on War and Nonviolence (PfP).
In the early 1960’s Merton wrote passionately about the violence that he saw in our nation and in the world. The Soviet Union and United States were locked in a nuclear showdown and were, in Merton’s words committed to a policy of genocide. (PfP, p. 42) He wondered how could he, a cloistered monk in a monastery in rural Kentucky, speak out and make a difference. He saw in this nuclear showdown the very real possibility of another Hitler rising, he said that the atmosphere of hatred, suspicion, and tension in which we all live is precisely what is needed to produce Hitlers. (PfP, p. 42)
At the Vatican in Rome, Pope John XXIII had taken an interest in this monk from Kentucky and his writings. Soon they began writing to each other. The pope was taken by Merton’s thoughts and writings on the nuclear crisis and it is believed that Merton’s words helped influence the papal encyclical Pacem in Terris: Encyclical of Pope John XXIII On Establishing Universal Peace In Truth, Justice, Charity, And Liberty which was released in 1963. In the introduction, the Pope wrote the following: Peace on Earth—which man throughout the ages has so longed for and sought after—can never be established, never guaranteed, except by the diligent observance of the divinely established order.
All of this has been rattling around in my head and my heart as I watch the destruction of the very fiber of this nation and world. So what can a pastor and retired USAF Chaplain do? Merton offers me an answer: Christ our Lord did not come to bring peace to a world as a kind of tranquilizer. He brought to His disciples a vocation and a task, to struggle in the world of violence to establish His peace not only in their own hearts but in society itself. (PfP, p. 43)
We may not have the audience or influence of Thomas Merton or Pope John XXIII, but you and I, dear reader, can make a difference in our own part of the world. Will you join me in making a difference in this atmosphere of toxic hatred, suspicion, and fear? By doing that, perhaps we can establish God’s peace not only in our own hearts but in the larger society itself.
Verse of the day
For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
– Matthew 16:25
Voice of the day
Jesus’ attitude toward life was that it cannot be possessed, hoarded, safeguarded.
– Dorothee Söelle, “Theology for Skeptics: Reflections on God” (1995)
Prayer of the day
Lord, may we not cling to life with the fierceness that causes us to neglect loving those around us. Teach us how to live in the tension of caring for self and others.
Peace activist John Dear asks what Jesus’ teaching “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” might mean for us in times of global injustice:
“Blessed are those who mourn,” Jesus [says]. Millions of people in our world mourn because their loved ones have been killed by war, starvation, or injustice. Do we grieve for those who die in war? For those incinerated by nuclear weapons and bombs? For the [many thousands] who die each day from starvation? Do we allow the sorrow of the world’s poor to touch our hearts? Do we look the suffering of the world in the eye … or do we turn away in denial and thus postpone our own inevitable confrontation with grief? Jesus promises that, as we mourn the death of our sisters and brothers around the world, God consoles us, and we find a peace—even a joy that we did not know possible. — (John Dear, “Blessed Are the Nonviolent,” Radical Grace 19, no. 1 (January-February-March 2006): 12.)
“As with weapons of violence, the weapons of civil resistance are numerous, diverse, and ever-evolving. In addition to strikes, boycotts, mass demonstrations and other widespread actions, new tactics are regularly being invented as civil resisters adapt to opportunities, challenges, and tactics by their opponents.”—Michael Beer, Civil Resistance Tactics in the 21st Century
In a journal entry from April 17, 1965, Thomas Merton wrote the following reflection on our nation’s idolatry and Christianity’s explicit involvement in supporting that idolatry.
The great sin, the source of all other sins, is idolatry. And never has it been greater, more prevalent, than now. It is almost completely unrecognized—precisely because it is so overwhelming, total. It takes in everything. There is nothing else left. Fetishism of power, machines, possessions, medicine, sports, clothes, etc., all kept going by greed for money and power. The Bomb is only one accidental aspect of the cult. Indeed, the Bomb is not the worst. We should be thankful for it as a sign, a revelation of what all the rest of our civilization points to: the self-immolation of man to his own greed and his own despair. And behind it all are the principalities and powers whom man serves in his idolatry. Christians are as deeply involved in this as everyone else. A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals (pp. 161-162)
Fifty-eight years later, Merton’s words ring true in today’s world, in our nation, and in a significant portion of the church. Idols of all sorts are around us today. In fact, I am writing this blog on what might be considered an idol… an iPhone. When I consider some of the idols that I have struggled with over the years I am humbled. By taking a good, honest, in-depth look at myself I can readily see those idols—military rank, job titles, and educational degrees are just a few of them. Unfortunately, our issues are far greater and literally have global consequences.
I wonder if we really have learned anything from the “Bomb” as Merton hoped we would. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists “doomsday clock” was developed in 1945 by Albert Einstein and the University of Chicago. Today it is set at 90 seconds to midnight where midnight is the point of global nuclear catastrophe. Not only are nuclear continuing to proliferate and be a threat to the world, other weapons of war are flooding the streets and being used to slaughter innocents. We use the euphemism “military style” to describe these weapons but the fact is that they should never have been intended to be used outside of the military.
As a chaplain, one of my duties was to teach the introductory “core values” class at the Air Force technical training base where I was stationed. This base was one of the training bases where the new basic military training graduates came to learn the specifics of their military job specialty. I remember talking about individual rights and responsibilities and how they were integrated into the larger military’s mission. One example that I used was the right to swing your fist. While they had the right to swing their fist, that right ended at my nose.
Today I think that society has idolized a false notion of “individual” rights at the expense of considering the rights of others. The Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you) is too often replaced with a “my way or the highway” mentality. I look at the ministry of Jesus and see the exact opposite of the individualistic power of the us versus them system. Love God with all that you are and love your neighbor (even your enemies) as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-39)
The sooner that we can put down our idols and love as he taught us to love, the call of the prophet Micah can truly begin. He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
The first step toward that justice and kindness is to put away our swords (literally and metaphorically) as Jesus commanded one of the disciples in the garden on the night of his arrest—Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will die by the sword. (Matthew 26:51-52)
Verse of the day
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
– John 1:14
Voice of the day
The mystics also remind us that the ordinary is holy. The mystics enter into the reality of life. We cannot divorce Christianity from all that is embodied, the suffering and the good and everything else.
– Carmen Acevedo Butcher, “The Quaint Christian Mystic You Really Should Know About”
Prayer of the day
Lord, we thank you that wherever the ordinary is, that is where we will find you. May we not forget that we are people of an embodied faith.
In mid-June of 2019, Denise and I went on an Ignatian silent retreat at the Jesuit College (Springhill) in Mobile, Alabama. It was almost two years after my mom died and just over a year since her mom died. We were in desperate need of some time to simply “be still” with God. As we entered into the silence of the retreat I found solitude and comfort in the chapel and this particular portrayal of Mary spoke to my heart. The artist used a Springhill student as her model when she painted this portrait and there was something in her gaze that drew me into the silence of contemplation. Even today I still go back in my mind to simply be still in Mary’s presence and feel her loving presence in my heart.
Since our silent retreat we have experienced the pandemic’s isolation, moving in the midst of that pandemic, the death of more family members and friends, and another move after a Sabbath break in ministry. While the pandemic offered some folks “retreat” and “quiet” time, it offered Denise and me ninety-hour work-weeks and exhaustion as we rethought ministry and how to be the church in a pandemic world. I believe we are still recovering from the pandemic experience and really need to make time for another silent retreat.
A few years later, from a distance (with a fair amount of travel) we are caring for and walking with my dad through the valley of the shadow of dementia. It is especially difficult as he continues to grieve the loss of his wife (this past March 11th they would have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary). His loneliness is something I cannot begin to imagine. I know how much I miss her but it hurts my heart to see how much Dad misses mom who died a few months before their 65th anniversary. This isn’t an experience of solitude, it is the lonely path of mourning one whom you loved deeply that is complicated by dementia.
Interestingly enough, the entry for April 13th from A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals (p. 159) struck close to home for me: One thing has suddenly hit me—that nothing counts except love; that a solitude that is not simply the wide-openness of love and freedom is nothing. Love and solitude are the one ground of true maturity and freedom. Solitude that is just solitude and nothing else (i.e., excludes everything else but solitude) is worthless. True solitude embraces everything, for it is the fullness of love that rejects nothing and no one, and is open to All in All. (April 14, 1966, Learning to Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom, p. 40)
True solitude embraces everything, for it is the fullness of love that rejects nothing and no one, and is open to All in All. Wow! As I observe the cracks and fissures that continue to deepen in our nation and world, I am drawn to his words with a special urgency. In a world where division and fear seem to dominate the headlines, we need to be sharing a message of unity, love, and openness. Will you join me in this journey, dear reader?
“Let us develop respect for all living things. Let us try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion. And love.”—Jane Goodall
Verse of the day
Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
– 2 Corinthians 13:12
Voice of the day
It simply isn’t enough for us to pass the peace for a few minutes on Sundays; we must learn to speak peace into each other’s lives during fellowship time and in the parking lot, through email and text on Wednesdays, over coffee and boxes of Kleenex on Fridays. We must speak peace at the beginning and middle of our lives—but also at the end.
– Sarah Kyoungah White, “Insa: How the Korean Word for ‘Greeting’ Can Change How We Pass the Peace”
Prayer of the day
Broaden our vision of what it means to be peacemakers Lord. May convenience not dictate investment into our community.
I cant tell you how many times I have read the 23rd Psalm at funerals and at the bedside of people as they make their way over the threshold from this world to the next. The words of this psalm have also offered me much comfort during times of uncertainty and even darkness. This slightly different take on the 23rd Psalm comes from Thomas Merton’s April 11, 1948 journal entry which I read today as a part of my daily Merton readings.
Good Shepherd, You have a wild and crazy sheep in love with thorns and brambles. But please don’t get tired of looking for me! I know You won’t. For You have found me. All I have to do is stay found. (A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals, p. 158)
You have a wild and crazy sheep! Yes, I can definitely relate to that and from my readings, Merton was looking in the figurative mirror when he wrote those words. One of the many gifts of Easter is forgiveness. Just ask Peter who denied Jesus three times or I would even say Judas who betrayed him. Nobody is beyond the reach of God’s love, grace, and mercy. Nobody! I find great comfort in that and I hope that you do as well, dear reader.
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