"Fear, the Enemy of Faith"

"Fear, the Enemy of Faith"

(Recorded at the Mount of the Beatitudes) The greatest enemy of faith is not doubt; the greatest enemy of faith is fear. Most of the world is controlled by fear, petty and big. Petty fears control people; great fears control nations. We could feed all the people in this world if we would stop building arms, but we are afraid. So the great peacemaker sat on this hill and preached to the world. In the Beatitudes he said those of you who make peace will be happy (Matthew 5:9). You will be God’s own. Yet even we Christian people are preoccupied with fear and protecting ourselves because we don’t believe what Jesus said here. We read the Beatitudes in church once a year on the Feast of All Saints. But we don’t base our lives on it. Jesus preached the Beatitudes here as the inaugural sermon of all of his teachings. Teachers know how crucial your first sentence is. What is Jesus’ opener? “Happy the poor in spirit.” We don’t understand Jesus at all until we understand the absolute centrality of that line and the rest of the sermon he gave here. Yet I could make a strong case that the Sermon on the Mount has been and is the most neglected and rejected part of his teaching, even by the Church. The Sermon on the Mount is an antidote to fear. But we have never seen fear as the crucial issue, only “doubt.”

from On Pilgrimage With Father Richard Rohr

A Transitional Generation"

A Transitional Generation"

We are in a transitional time, a hopeful bridge-building generation. Maybe every age is. Most little people born onto this planet have known that they are first the children of their parents and the parents of their children. We always stand in-between. We hold hands tightly and gratefully and know that we must finally let go. That is the fate of all humans. It is humble, partial, a mere link in a universal chain of being. For most folks it has been enough, and it is amazing that we baby boomers ever thought it would be different for us. All philosophy of progress, self-actualization and Yankee-can-do aside, we are overwhelmed by the amount of death and depression in our society. We are obviously mere tracings in a much larger history and a Mystery where only an Eternal God draws the final lines. That’s not a copout; it’s not denial. It’s the most courageous yes a human being can offer. After Gulf Wars for oil, catastrophic worldwide poverty and Churches that themselves run from the gospel, it might be the only yes that we can utter-and the only yes that will finally make a difference. Let’s try. It’s the only life that we have on this planet. I am content to build bridges that the next generation might possibly walk on. I am happy and even freed to be part of a merely transitional generation.

from Radical Grace, “A Transitional Generation

"Longing for Wholeness"

"Longing for Wholeness"

In the polarity between man and woman, God is able to speak to us powerfully. We don’t know what’s going to happen. But it’s there, in what is opposite, hidden and scary for us: masculinity for the woman and femininity for the man. Contrary to popular opinion, men and women are not merely longing for warm bodies of the opposite sex; they’re longing for wholeness. Faithful friendship and true partnership teach us more than a shallow sexual encounter. As one minister told me after his many mistakes, “It took me a long time to admit that I can help people a lot more from my chair than by jumping in bed with them.”

from The Spiritual Family and the Natural Family

"It’s OK to Be Human"

"It’s OK to Be Human"

After the first couple months of living in community, many people fall apart. All of us have this skeleton in the closet, this bit of guilt, this big fear, this demon, whatever it might be, and in community we finally feel free to let it out. We finally feel free to yell and scream. To say, “I hate myself; I’m angry at God; I’m angry at the Church!” Or we might admit being restless in our marriage or other vows. Now that’s a messy way to live. If you’re looking for a comfortable, neat, proper way to live, don’t get involved in community. The great risk we have to take is the risk to be human, to realize it’s OK to be human. A healthy community allows us and protects us while we “fall apart”. We’ve been trained to follow scriptural advice to become “perfect” (Matthew 5:48). [This passage must be seen as the conclusion to Jesus’ teaching on the love of enemies, a seemingly impossible ideal.] So it’s very hard to love and accept ourselves when we are imperfect, messy, broken, angry, or sad. Sometimes it’s hard to accept one another. You know what I think God’s calling you to be? Simply a member of God’s family. That’s all. This is the training ground for heaven. Heaven is “forever-family” where God is father and mother, and we are brothers and sisters. God wants to know if you want family, and if you are willing to choose it now-and forever.

from The Spiritual Family and the Natural Family

"The Harder Way"

"The Harder Way"

We’re not freed from our humanity; we’re freed in our humanity. We’re not freed from the flesh, which is what so many of us want; we’re freed in the flesh. It’s a matter of integration, of synthesis. That’s how grace works: in the flesh, in our humanity. Don’t try to climb over it; don’t try to deny it and tunnel underneath it; don’t try to run around it. Go through it. True, it’s the harder way. Both/and is for some reason much more demanding than either/or. It is an easy litmus test to distinguish the beginners from the more mature Christians.

from The Price of Peoplehood