A wonderful reflection from my friend and seminary classmate Shirley Hobson Duncanson
Martin Luther King Jr, responding to a question about, “What love is,” wrote: “Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. (The one) who loves is a participant in the being of God.” (From a handwritten note, which was put on auction in 2020.)
— Read on shirleyhobsonduncanson.com/2023/01/16/understanding-the-force-behind-martin-luther-king-jr/
“So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.”—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The secular or false self is the self that is fabricated, as Thomas Merton says, by social compulsions. “Compulsive” is indeed the best adjective for the false self. It points to the need for ongoing and increasing affirmation. Who am I? I am the one who is liked, praised, admired, disliked, hated, or despised. . . . If being busy is a good thing, then I must be busy. If having money is a sign of real freedom, then I must claim my money. If knowing many people proves my importance, I will have to make the necessary contacts. The compulsion manifests itself in the lurking fear of failing and the steady urge to prevent this by gathering more of the same—more work, more money, more friends.
These very compulsions are at the basis of the two main enemies of the spiritual life: anger and greed. They are the inner side of the secular life, the sour fruits of our worldly dependences.
This made me think of our dear friend Simon de Voil’s musical translation of St Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of Creation… Sister Death is not to be feared… she is our first and last breath
“The spareness of the trees reminds us of our own essence when it is stripped bare. Awareness of death has a way of reminding us of what is most important.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year – A Self-Study Online Retreat
What is winter’s invitation to you this season?
“Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have bought it or baked it or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even.”—– Daniel Berrigan
Verse of the day
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it.
– 1 Corinthians 3:10
Voice of the day
The point of our resistance isn’t to achieve a perfect abstention and become morally pure; the point is to collaborate with God in material change toward justice.
– Mitchell Atencio, “The NFL Exists Because We Keep Watching. So I Stopped.”
Prayer of the day
Lord, may we see our resistance work as building upon and collaborating with the foundation you have set for justice.
Verse of the day
I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter.
– Matthew 12:36
Voice of the day
What if not a word is lost? / What if every word we cast; / Cold, cunning, cold, accurst / Every word we cut and paste, / Echoes to us from the past, / Fares and finds us first and last, / Haunts and hunts us down?
– Malcolm Guite, “What if”
Prayer of the day
God of words, give us wisdom to discern when to speak and when to keep silent.
In his book Whispers From the Sanctuary: A Collection of Contemplative Reflections , Conor McCourt describes how love shapes us. Spirit, you stay hidden, shrouded in the rush of fleeting days. For you dwell deep in the purest mansion of our soul, the place we long to be. From here, you form us into Being as we recollect and surrender our will to the wellspring of your infinite Love. St. Clare of Assisi reminds us in the following, “We become what we love and what we love shapes us.” (p. 5)
As the new year begins I wonder how this love might unfold in my own life, in the life of the church, in the life of this country, in the life of this world. Granted I don’t have much control over it beyond in my own life. However, as I consider it, what I choose to love does in fact have an impact outside of myself. As Thomas Merton wrote in New Seeds of Contemplation, To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name. (p. 60)
My friend Conor along with St. Clare of Assisi and Thomas Merton are offering me some insight for the coming year as I seek to love and serve the Lord wherever I might be. As a friend and colleague in the Air Force Chaplain Corps used to say. I’ll bloom where I am planted. And in the process of blooming my prayer is that love will be at the center of all that I am. That’s a tall order and I know that I will mess up. But when that happens, I’ll pick myself up, dust myself off, and get back to doing the work God has called me to do.
Verse of the day
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.
– Ephesians 3:20
Voice of the day
God does not just mend, repair, and restore; God renews and generates, transcending our expectations of even what we desire, beyond what we dare to ask or imagine.
– Makoto Fujimura, Art+Faith: A Theology of Making (2021)
Prayer of the day
God of transcendence, may our imaginations be unshackled and our dreams be free to fly in this new year.
“Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-Four Brand New Hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.”—Thich Nhat Hanh
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