" May the gracious, (kind), care of The Lord, our God, be ours." Ps. 90.It is ours. Let, our moment to moment actions, reflect this living mysterious truth.
" Come, Holy Spirit come, and fill the heart of this faithless one."
" Today, if (when,) you hear the voice of God, harden not your hearts"
" The denunciation of injustice implies ,the rejection of Christianity, to legitimize order."G. Gutierrez
" Today, if (when) you hear the voice of God, harden not your hearts." It has been just over the last number of years I have begun to see the need to change the "if", which for me denotes uncertainty, to "when" which forces me to concentrate on "the here, and now". Corinthians reveals to us that "now is the acceptable time, now is the time of Salvation." Here and now, ALL , that The Gracious, Creative Spirit, in infinite Wisdom, knows I need to be an authentic co-creator is being channelled into me. NOTHING, but NOTHING is missing from this sacramental, grace imbued moment. Nor, from THIS sacramental , and this, this.... ad infinitum. As is was in, eternity ,so it is ,now, and ever shall be.
I, we, must make " Lord, that I may see", " Your will be done, and not mine", are spiritual bromides I must bring to consciousness again, and, again. Then, at least for me, this acceptance of my innate powerlessness, to do anything on my own, results in the emergence of a reality, way beyond anything I would ever be able to imagine. I am getting to be in deeper acceptance of what I heard Fr.Rohr first say, many decades ago, " The powerlessness of power, and the power of powerlessness". I have been growing in the acceptance of this challenging spiritual truth, not through any successes I may have.
The mysterious truth of this bromide comes ONLY , through loss, failure, suffering, rejection, and isolation. This is the spirituality of imperfection, the apophatic way so many of us have been chosen to tread. Is it not great to know we are never alone on this slog. Yes, strength is found within the bonds of those , the community who are embracing the challenging of living in daily living, depth reality of the Paschal Mystery. This community is vast. To consider Christian Nationalism, is to consider embracing a contradiction. It is too restrictive in its outreach and vision. Of it's essence, it is powerless!!
As Gustavo Gutierrez writes, we must denunciate a Christianity which ties to legitimize injustice, exploitation, dehumanization, denial of the basic needs of the human person. This can be applied, unfortunately, most certainty in our day and age. Is this not both sad, and embarrassing in a country that is looked on as educated, enlightened? I even read recently " once there is talk of "social justice' the "privileged begin to resist."
I have from my own experience seen people, walk out, loudly disagree, and in one case be invited to seek a transfer to a " colored parish'. The word colored was not used, the repulsive, denigrating word was hurled in anger. I asked the person, who encouraged my immediate transfer, if he had received The Eucharist? The reply was a very definite, "yes". It was then, I hung up. I was early on in my journey in the priesthood. Boy!! did that initially both shocked, and rattled me. On the other hand, my resolve to face the social, financial ,and other injustices was strengthened from that moment on. There are some things you do not challenge an Irishman with. Especially if he comes from County Cork and was raised the many exploits of Michael Collins. We share some of the same DNA !!!!
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