what IS Christianity?
Sunday: relaxed, a relaxed morning, our Christian sabbath day of rest, though I think Seventh-Day Adventists honor Saturday as their sabbath, as does Judaism per Genesis 2:1-3 and Exodus 20:8-11. The Jewish observance is like the creation story, evening to evening, their sabbath sunset Friday to sunset Saturday.
Christians could do that, but we honor the Day of Resurrection as our sabbath, sort of starts with sunrise Sunday morning, an Easter observance.
It's all good. And the back and forth,
"God is good"
"all the Time"
Father Richard has a straightforward meditation that I appreciate this morning, on Love and Suffering, their inseparability in and as the essence of human life.
It reminded me of an elegant dinner I attended one evening in Sydney, Australia, would have been 1979. My consulting company hosted two retired U S Navy admirals, flying them to Australia to be our keynote speakers for a defense industry development seminar, and part of my role was to look out after one of them, a retired vice admiral who had been president of the U S Naval War College, Newport, RI when I was a student there ten years earlier. A devout Roman Catholic, he was a scientist who had been trusted by the Vatican to be part of a team that'd snipped a piece of The Shroud and subjected it to carbon dating. I blogged about this once before, but it's been years.
Christianity came up as a dinner topic, which was not common in my experience with the Australians I associated with in my business. They considered religion a topic to be avoided as in very bad taste, never to be mentioned, embarrassing, religion itself to be shunned, and described themselves as "hedonist". For religion, specifically Christianity, to be on the table as the dinner conversation was astonishing. The admiral took up the lead when someone, obviously meaning to pose the ultimate adroit and imponderable intellectual question to which everyone would nod wise heads, asked "What IS Christianity?" Not missing a beat and without taking a breath, the admiral said, "Love - - and Sacrifice".
That was more than forty-three years ago. Long dead, the admiral was one of my life's most admirable persons.
Christianity is not a Creed, it's not what you stand and say you believe. Christianity is not accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior to save yourself so you are as good for heaven as if you were already there. Christianity is not the Church, a human institution whose mission is to proclaim Christ crucified and risen, and/but which has a mixed markedly human record of light and darkness over the centuries. Christianity is a life of love and sacrifice, lived in response to Jesus' call that people return to the godly image in which we are created; an image that he came to show and tell.
Actually, I didn't mean to write a blog this morning. Happy Sunday, and here (scroll down) is Father Rohr's meditation for today.
Pic above: from 7H, Sunday dawning.
RSF&PTL
T
Week Thirty-Three: Suffering
Love and Suffering
Father Richard Rohr teaches that God uses love and suffering, and especially suffering, as universal paths to reach and change us.
Two universal paths of transformation have been available to every human being God has created: great love and great suffering. These are offered to all; they level the playing fields of all the world religions. Only love and suffering are strong enough to break down our usual ego defenses, crush our dualistic thinking, and open us to Mystery. In my experience, they like nothing else exert the mysterious chemistry that can transmute us from a fear-based life into a love-based life. None of us are exactly sure why. We do know that words, even good words or fine theology, cannot achieve that on their own. No surprise that the Christian icon of redemption is a man offering love from a crucified position!
Love and suffering are part of most human lives. Without any doubt, they are the primary spiritual teachers more than any Bible, church, minister, sacrament, or theologian. Wouldn’t it make sense for God to make divine truth so readily available? If the love of God is perfect and victorious, wouldn’t God offer every human being equal and universal access to the Divine as love and suffering do? This is what Paul seems to be saying to the Athenians in his brilliant sermon at the Areopagus: “All can seek the Deity, feeling their way toward God and succeeding in finding God. For God is not far from any of us, since it is in God that we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27–28). What a brilliant and needed piece of theology to this day!
Love is what we long for and were created for—in fact, love is what we are as an outpouring from God—but suffering often seems to be our opening to that need, that desire, and that identity. Love and suffering are the main portals that open the mind space and the heart space (either can come first), breaking us into breadth and depth and communion. Almost without exception, great spiritual teachers will have strong and direct guidance about love and suffering. If we never go there, we will not know these essentials. We’ll try to work it all out in our heads, but our minds alone can’t get us there. We must love “with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind, and our whole strength” (Mark 12:30).
Finally, there is a straight line between love and suffering. If we love greatly, it is fairly certain we will soon suffer, because we have somehow given up control to another. That is my simple definition of suffering: whenever we are not in control.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2009), 122–123, 127.
Image credit: Carrie Grace Littauer, Untitled 2, Untitled 3, Untitled 9 (details), 2022, photographs, Colorado, used with permission. Jenna Keiper & Leslye Colvin, 2022, triptych art, United States. Click here to enlarge image.
Image inspiration: The hollow feeling when loved ones are no longer present, like holes in a log. The pain of a thorn piercing skin. This tree has suffered and witnessed suffering. We too have suffered and witness suffering.