Fr. Richard Rohr
As I shared earlier this year, the Bible is "a text in
travail." Sometimes the biblical writers catch a glimpse of God's true
character--love, mercy, and justice--and sometimes they lose sight of it. Old
Testament scholar and theologian Walter Brueggemann traces the evolution of
human consciousness through three sections of Hebrew Scriptures: the Torah
(the five books of the Pentateuch), the Prophets, and the Wisdom literature
(including Job, the Psalms, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes). Just as
children must begin with structure and rules, religion starts with setting
boundaries, rituals, and rules about who is in and who is out. It's all about
protecting the status quo, our tribal and egoic identity. But eventually we
have to develop the capacity for self-criticism, as the prophets did, which
is the necessary second stage. If we do both of these stages well, we will
normally be catapulted toward wisdom and holiness.
Another way to look at this is a series of Order > Disorder
> Reorder. Most conservatives get trapped in the first step and most
liberals get stuck in the second. Healthy religion is all about getting you
to the third, Reorder. There is no nonstop flight. You must learn the wisdom
of both the first and second stages before moving on. Much of the chaos and
instability of our time stems from many young and sophisticated people now
beginning life in the second stage of Disorder and criticism, without first
learning deeply from Order. It appears to be a disaster. The three stages
must be in proper sequence for life to unfold somewhat naturally.
Throughout Scripture, even in the first books of the Torah,
there are wisdom statements such as this: "I will do the work for you;
you only need to be still" (see Exodus 14:14). From the very
beginning, we see the message of divine grace forming.
But the biblical stories quickly move back into legalism and priest craft,
painting a picture of God as demanding "smells and bells" and
purity and debt codes. Sometimes in the same paragraph you'll read an
absolutely enlightening line that just oozes with grace, and the next line is
punitive, accusatory, and shame-based. Grace and fear keep taking turns on
center stage. This is how life is for each of us, if we're honest.
The Bible clearly affirms law, authority, and tradition, as
most literature in history has done, but then it does something different and
even rare: it affirms reform, change, and the voiceless. The Bible idealizes
the victim, contrary to most of the world's stories and histories. Think of
David and Goliath, the story of a young boy victorious over a giant. Yet when
that boy becomes a king, the prophet Nathan chastises and corrects him. The
biblical text keeps self-correcting. This is what makes the Bible an inspired
book. It reveals an alternative consciousness; it critiques itself.
This is the necessary Disorder that keeps all Order from
becoming idolatrous and self-serving. The prophets always present Israel with
"The Great However" that stops them in their tracks. This
"but" dispels any idealization of perfect order, any so-called
normal, forcing the people to recognize their own hypocrisy and phony
self-interest. The prophets help them see that they are using religion to
worship themselves and not Yahweh. Prophetic criticism is never good news for
pretenders and opportunists--which is just about all of us until we learn the
compassion, mercy, and forgiveness that Disorder teaches us.
In my mind, liberation theology, the Prophets, and the view
from the side of pain, is absolutely necessary to move us into the third
stage of true Wisdom. To pass through to Wisdom, we need to experience a
major humiliation to our ego. This often comes through suffering or
failure--anything that brings us to readiness before Grace and Mystery. But
that very desire for grace and God is best created by an initial experience
of love, order, meaning, purpose, and direction. The easiest path of growing
up spiritually, and in many ways the most natural, is to start with some "law
and order." Then we must critically recognize that Order cannot solve
all or even most problems, especially pain and suffering. Finally, without
rejecting either Order or Disorder, grace will move you toward God's Reorder.
This is enlightened awareness, which is not nearly as common as we would
like.
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"If we try to change our ego with the help of our ego, we only have a better-disguised ego." --Richard Rohr |
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