“Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.”—Leo Tolstoy, Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Selected from the World’s Sacred Texts
Radical servanthood does not make sense unless we introduce a new level of understanding and see it as the way to encounter God. To be humble and persecuted cannot be desired unless we can find God in humility and persecution. When we begin to see God, the source of all our comfort and consolation, in the center of servanthood, compassion becomes much more than doing good for unfortunate people. Radical servanthood, as the encounter with the compassionate God, takes us beyond the distinctions between wealth and poverty, success and failure, fortune and bad luck. Radical servanthood is not an enterprise in which we try to surround ourselves with as much misery as possible, but a joyful way of life in which our eyes are opened to the vision of the true God who chose to be revealed in servanthood. The poor are called blessed not because poverty is good, but because theirs is the kingdom of heaven; the mourners are called blessed not because mourning is good, but because they shall be comforted.
Here we are touching the profound spiritual truth that service is an expression of the search for God and not just of the desire to bring about individual or social change.
Verse of the day
Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
– Romans 12:15
Voice of the day
Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.
– Henri Nouwen, “Compassion, a Reflection on the Christian Life” (1982)
Prayer of the day
God, help us to be present with the people around us, in both good moments and difficult ones. Move us to be there for them like you always are for us.
Verse of the day
Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
– Psalm 90:2
Voice of the day
Climate change is a test of whether our big brain was a good adaptation. Or, perhaps more accurately, it is a test of whether our big brain is attached to a big enough heart to prompt us to act.
– Bill McKibben, “The Rules of God’s Creation Are Not To Be Trifled With”
Prayer of the day
Creator who is older than the earth itself, move us to use our big hearts to act on injustice.
Verse of the day
My child, do not let these escape from your sight: keep sound wisdom and prudence, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble.
– Proverbs 3:21-23
Voice of the day
Stay the course. When thwarted try again: harder, smarter. Persevere relentlessly.
– John Wooden
Prayer of the day
Great God, help us to stay the course as we pursue wisdom and prudence. Amid the noise of the world, may we stay focused on the path of justice.
Verse of the day
Did not he who made me in the womb make them? And did not one fashion us in the womb?
– Job 31:15
Voice of the day
We are not just autonomous identities to God, who invites us to hold all human beings in that nexus of tenderness, love, and mystery that a beloved child engenders in us.
– Julie Polter, “The Calculus of Responsibility and Complicity”
Prayer of the day
God, help us see each other as you see us. Remind us to hold each other, just as you hold us.
We continue to plunge into the mysteries of nature. Yet we have not learned how to understand and love one another even to the minimal degree demanded by our survival. And so our crisis is not that caused by the atom or cybernetics, or Cold War—it is rather one of faith and love. And so we must learn to resolve this crisis, or science fiction may become true in our regard, as we leave to inhabit another planet, while we leave this one in flames. — Philip Berrigan (Fighting the Lamb’s War: Skirmishes with the American Empire, p. 74)
It doesn’t take much to have despair and hopelessness break into my heart like the proverbial thief in the night. All I have to do is open Social Media, look at the news (especially the clickbait headlines), or see the sick tragedy that is politics in this nation. Looking for hope and a way forward, I have been doing some reading, research, and reflection.
I am currently reading Philip Berrigan’s autobiography, Fighting the Lamb’s War: Skirmishes with the American Empire. Berrigan reminds me that sadly, there is nothing new under the sun. The issues he protested against (racism, war, and poverty to name a few) are still very much alive today and just as malevolent as they were when he was writing and protesting. In the essay/chapter God and Ordinary People, Berrigan reflects on his seminary training and what changes he would insist on in that training today (1996).
Looking back, I marvel at how little we learned in the seminary. Would I study for the priesthood again? Yes, but only under certain conditions… We would learn in our classrooms and through interaction with people, about the Gospel as it applies to the world. Most importantly, we would be encouraged to enter into an active, experiential dialogue concerning justice. I would insist on experience with the peace movement, with the poor, with African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. (p. 37, The Lamb’s War)
I was fortunate enough to go to a seminary where such experiences were encouraged and supported. Was I an activist? Not in an obvious way. However, in my interactions with people who were being oppressed (LGBTQ personnel in the military, women who had been raped by fellow airmen and then raped again by the military “justice” system, etc.) I tried to make a difference. I also tried to make a difference in my ministry after I retired from the military and went back into parish ministry.
Now that I am fully retired from both the military chaplaincy and active parish ministry, I find myself in a period of discernment. How can I use my own experiences and ministry skills to serve those who are being oppressed by the church, government, and society? Can I even make a difference? Spiritual mentors like Philip and Daniel Berrigan along with Thomas Merton are busy encouraging me while also challenging me at the same time to make that difference, one relationship at a time.
I have been reading and reflecting today while Denise (my wife and partner in life, love, and ministry) has been working on the sermon that she will preach tomorrow at her home church in Mobile, Alabama. My reading and reflecting has been both frustrating and incredibly positive and hopeful. While Philip Berrigan has been reminding me that there is nothing new under the sun, he has also been encouraging me to find a way to do the work of the Gospel in a real and tangible way in this new stage of life.
One of the spiritual mentors of both Berrigan brothers and Thomas Merton has also reached out to me with words of hope during these challenging times. Mohandas Gandhi once said: When I despair, I remember that all through history, the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Think of it — always.
Dear reader, as we seek to make a difference in this chaotic world, may we be encouraged to continue this work with Gandhi’s words etched upon our hearts. The ways of truth and love have always won — always!
Thoughtful religious people are beginning to view the church as increasingly irrelevant. They are seeing the church as an institution, rather than a community of belief. Many people long to see women treated, inside and outside the church, on an equal basis with men. Others are tired of the war game, sickened by the terrible toll it takes, every day, on the poor. The United States government (using taxpayers money) spends $5 billion every week, $700 million a day, $500,000 a minute, and $8,000 a second on the military. Worldwide, 50,000 people die each day from hunger. At home, 27 children die from poverty every single day. In 1994, we spent $7 billion on child nutrition. — Philip Berrigan (Fighting the Lamb’s War: Skirmishes with the American Empire, p. 38)
“There have been loud cries for the abolition of police, for the abolition of war, for the abolition of militarism, especially from those who are activists in the nonviolence circles. But what is the root of all of these forms of violence—both physical and systemic—if not the nation-state system and its centralized institutions that cannot govern without the constant threat of coercion?”—Safoora Arbab
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