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
I’ve never heard of any community that failed because it lacked material resources. Communities fail because they lack imagination and spiritual contact and soul and a sense of others and staying power and courage to move together and to live together. — Daniel Berrigan (The Raft Is Not the Shore: Conversations Toward a Buddhist-Christian Understanding—Thich Nhat Hanh & Daniel Berrigan, p. 131)
“To be most useful and alive, our opinions—particularly our political opinions—must be in curious conversation with each other. When we’re divided, politics feels like it’s exclusively about stopping the other side. But at its core, politics is about how we coexist wisely, how we create societies that support us in all our different priorities and preferences. . . . This is how our opinions serve us: not by pushing us to defend our point of view to each other at all costs at all times, but by representing it in ongoing negotiations that both honor and transform it.”—Mónica Guzmán, I Never Thought of It That Way: How To Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times
Verse of the day
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing clearly the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
– 2 Corinthians 4:4
Voice of the day
Remember the goodness you’re working toward. Because the backlash of hate is impossible to carry if you do not remember what it is to love.
– Austin Channing Brown
Prayer of the day
Christ Jesus, we keep our eyes fixed on you, the image of goodness we are working toward.
Verse of the day
The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their ways. Their roads they have made crooked; no one who walks in them knows peace.
– Isaiah 59:8
Voice of the day
The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is a more violent world.
– Hannah Arendt, “Reflections on Violence” (1969)
Prayer of the day
Disarm us, O Lord — our minds, lips, hearts, and hands — that we may more perfectly love you. We repent from our own political violence.
All Christian action—whether it is visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, or working for a more just and peaceful society—is a manifestation of the human solidarity revealed to us in the house of God. It is not an anxious human effort to create a better world. It is a confident expression of the truth that in Christ, death, evil, and destruction have been overcome. It is not a fearful attempt to restore a broken order. It is a joyful assertion that in Christ all order has already been restored. It is not a nervous effort to bring divided people together, but a celebration of an already established unity. This action is not activism. An activist wants to heal, restore, redeem, and re-create, but those acting within the house of God point through their action to the healing, restoring, redeeming, and re-creating presence of God.
