Dreaming Can Give Hope a Concrete Vision

With reflections on Pope Francis’ Laudato si and Fratelli tutti behind us, (See past issues of Community Connections) we again put our ears to the heart of the Church. We begin to listen to what Francis is dreaming about for the Church and the world. I suspect we will be hearing some of this dreaming taking real shape as the Synodal Movement unfolds.

This month we will just look at seven major themes that come from Let us Dream: The Path to A Better Future by Pope Francis in conversation with Austen Ivereigh. They will challenge us just be reading them. Next month we will start unpacking what they might mean as we enter a time of becoming a new kind of Church as the Synodal Movement is launched.

 1.    To come out of this crisis better, we have to see clearly, choose well, and act right. Let’s talk about how. Let us dare to dream.

 2.    We must redesign the economy so that it can offer every person access to a dignified existence while protecting and regenerating the natural world.

 3.    What is the greatest fruit of a personal crisis? I’d say patience, sprinkled with a healthy sense of humor, which allows us to endure and make space for change to happen.

 4.    When I speak of change I mean that those people who are now on the edges become the means of changing society.

 5.     We do not possess the truth so much as the truth possesses us, constantly attracting us by means of beauty and goodness.

 6.    Sin is a rejection of the limits that love requires.

7.     Our greatest power is not in the respect that others have for us, but the service we can offer others.

These themes will offer us much to ponder in the months ahead…!

 

Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

As women and men of the Word, as Dominicans, we’ve put our ears to the heartbeat of the Church’s ‘Sweet Christ on earth,’ to use Catherine of Siena’s reference to the Holy Father.  We’ve been listening to what Francis has been writing to the whole world.

 We’re going to review where we’ve been this month, and then look ahead to where we will listen next. First, a review of Francis’ synodal approach to the world in Fratelli tutti:

I.               “Dark Clouds Over a Closed World” Francis is no Pollyanna. In this first chapter he tells it like it is from the illusion of communication to information without wisdom and more.

II.             “A Stranger on the Road” Using the parable of The Good Samaritan, Francis tells us there are no final ‘borders’ among neighbors.

III.          “Envisaging and Engendering an Open World” Here Francis points to our inadequate understanding of universal love and calls us to the value of Solidarity.

IV.          “A Heart Open to the World” Francis points out the geographical limits of borders, and calls us instead to a universal horizon, starting with our own region.

V.             “A Better Kind of Politics” Pointing out the benefits and limits of liberal approaches, Francis calls us instead to the sacrifices, integration, and unity of a ‘political’ love that puts fruitfulness above results.

VI.          “Dialogue and Friendship in Society” Francis here calls for a new culture that recovers the value of kindness.

VII.        “Paths of Renewed Encounter” Starting with the reclaiming of truth, Francis calls for an art and architecture of peace built on authentic forgiveness while safeguarding memory and denying violence.

VIII.      “Religions at the Service of Fraternity” Francis puts religion, and his own Christianity, at the service of all of the above. At its best, then, religion fosters an open world.

 What better follow-up then, to an invitation such as the Holy Father has issued, than to dream together of a better future.  So, as Dominican proclaimers of the word, we will do just that. The highly recommended text will be Francis’ own Let Us Dream: The Path To A Better Future, 2020. As we approach our coming Chapter of Elections, we will reflect on its three sections: “A Time to See,” “A Time to Choose,” “A Time to Act.” Fasten your seatbelts.

The Ultimate Foundation

We arrive this month at the final chapter of Pope Francis’ Fatelli tutti, his addendum, really, to his Laudato si. For following that document on care for the earth, Francis then opens to us the way to realize it: we need to do it together.

Chapter eight is titled, “Religions at the Service of Fraternity.” The focus is that religions, when they are true to their values, establish the ultimate foundation for human life. They tell us who we are. They affirm our identity as one community of children of God. (#271-280) Thus any persecution of authentic religion is an affront to all religions.

 Francis warns that religious terrorism comes from teachings taken out of context, breeding hatred, contempt, and the negation of others. The result is distortion. (#282) The real sources of such contempt arise from hunger, poverty, injustice, oppression, and pride. The texts are then twisted to lend legitimacy to violent behavior.

 The Parliament of World Religios has just taken place, hosting on line over 8,000 persons of various faith traditions. This is the eighth such Parliament. If Teilhard de Chardin is right, we are seeing hope unfold before our eyes. He wrote that when the religions of the world begin to really dialogue with one another, there will be another significant leap in the evolution of human culture. This pope appears to be a prophet of this hope. He is calling us to be all we can be, inviting us to midwife something new. The mystery is breaking through: in the equity movements, in the climate concern, in the call to a more synodal church. Do we not see it? Can we begin to proclaim it?

 

What…? Politics…?

 Pope Francis has a vision. He shared it with us partially in his first encyclical, Laudato si. There he invited all of us to reposition ourselves in the midst of our wonderful environment. Because we belong to it, and it belongs to us, we need to care for it. Then he opened the lens further with his encyclical Fratelli tutti. Here we have seen he invites us to look at ourselves…for if we are not in right relations with all in our global family, we will never be able to care for the earth. We have reflected on the sorry state of things (Chapter 1). Then he grounded us in scripture with the Good Samaritan parable, asking us to check what role we play (Chapter 2). Next he shocked us into imagining ‘an open world’ (Chapter 3). And in Chapter 4 he dared us to open our hearts to the whole world.

 What next? Well, in Chapter 5 he dares to talk about the forbidden topic: politics. He doesn’t shy away from it, nor must we. He calls for a ‘better kind’ of politics, one that puts the common good of all first. And there’s the rub. No more putting short-term advantage first; no more looking only to self- interest or the good of my group only. Shockingly, he calls for “a world authority regulated by law” that would have the power to provide for the common good, eliminate hunger and poverty, and defend fundamental human rights” (172). As if that was not shocking enough, he then calls for the reform of the United Nations, and the reform of economic institutions and international finance so that the family of nations has real teeth to get something done.

 Talk about a vision…! The better kind of politics Francis is calling for must be capable of reforming and coordinating institutions for long-term common good. Its major goal should be the total elimination of world hunger. He decries the waste of food worldwide while millions go hungry (189). No one must be excluded, no one must have fewer rights because of gender or birthplace (121). All of this flows from a change of heart…a new way nations see one another, a global ethic in the service of a future shaped by interdependence and a shared responsibility in the whole human family (127). It is coming…all of us in our own way, need to help midwife it…!

 

Hope as Heartache

 The season of longing is here. We know what heartache is. We so long for COVID to end. We long for its restrictions to be lifted. We long for the chaos at the border to be addressed. We long for Tegrey to get the food its people need…that the religious terrorism that now rules Afghanistan be gone…that Haiti have order…that our congress can once again really function…that the scars of our racism give way to a new order.

 We stand with Mary as she longs to see the face of the mysterious baby that has come to make its home in her. We see our own baptismal call in the stark figure of John and he issues his wake-up call to set things right. We settle in with the barren trees and the leafless bushes and the cold of winter, and we wait. Love lights its lamp of faith and waits in hope.

 Hope is expectant. It is built on the assurance that counts on promise. A promise has been made. We can count on it. We can count on the One who has given his word. The darkness of the absence of God will not last. We wait…and whistle in the dark.

 Hope is light. It dances. It might even giggle. It knows something it cannot yet see, so there is that knowing little smile while it goes about the day-to-day. Was Mary humming while she did her laundry and baked her bread…?

 

I know you’re there.

 I see you up to your usual game of hide-and-seek.

 You hide and I seek.

 I am filled with longing.

 My heart aches for justice…

 I hope for healing for all of humanity…

 May my longing empty me out

 Making room for what you want to give.

 Clean out my stable-soul.

Bring in fresh straw so we can hide and play peek-a-boo,

 And you can again wrap me around your little baby finger.

A Not So ‘Ordinary’ Time

 With the Feast of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, we bask for a week in the glow of Christmas. Then with the Baptism of John, we enter the public life of Jesus, and a quite lengthy Ordinary Time this year. Ash Wednesday is not until March 2, so we have about eight weeks to watch Someone who is going to model for us how to be authentically human.

 If we listen with our hearts to the scriptures we will observe this Human One, this Son of Man, doing a lot of the things we find ourselves doing. He talks with people, travels, eats, sleeps, puts up with difficulties, and with difficult people. It’s not what he does but how he does it that we need check out. He is constantly aware of who he is. He is Abba’s Beloved. This gives him a context to view everything going on around him.

 Maybe that’s the clue for us as we listen to the readings of these weeks. Christmas has told us who we are…we too are the Beloved. What would happen if we thought of that and smiled each time we looked in the mirror…no matter what we are seeing there? Then we too will talk with others, move about from place to place, put up with our own difficulties, and difficulties with others. Sound familiar? Yes, we too have our ‘ordinary’ time.

 Yes, it is Ordinary, this time…

But You were not ‘ordinary’ nor am I.

You are the Father’s Beloved, and (can I believe it?) so am I.

 

 

Like a Flashlight Beam…

 We are into ‘Ordinary’ Time. It is a call to smile while we do ‘ordinary’ things…like the laundry, the shopping, filling up the car, and brushing our teeth. Why a knowing little smile? Because the Word who married our humanness thought it important enough to spend thirty years doing those ordinary things with great love. Those ordinary things were the bulk of his human life, as it is with ours. Reflecting on this gives a whole new meaning to what we consider the hum-drum. And so, the knowing little smile as we intentionally pour all our love into the day-to-day.

 If we think of it, the liturgy of these weeks unwraps this like an extended flashlight beam, starting quite focused and then ever expanding. The child in the manger is the focus, seen first by Mary and Joseph. Then the expansion starts: the shepherds, then the Magi; Simeon and Anna and John and the Jews at the Baptism; then comes the apostles at the wedding of Cana, and finally the Purification in the Temple. Once the Light is out there, who knows where it will reach…! Maybe to you…maybe to me down the years.

 The Light is loose in the world. What does it do? First, it cleanses…it purifies. Then it finds a home deep within us and shines. Yes, even biologically we ‘glow.’ Our magnetic field can be picked up by sensitive instruments. So maybe we need to intentionally ‘light up’ each morning with that knowing little smile. For we have a guest, we are never alone. That Guest radiates risen life. Though it is veiled by our own physicality, what if we just made a point of ‘putting it on’ when we dress to remind ourselves that we are so loved? So, smile as you look in the mirror. Take on your ordinary day in an extra-ordinary way!

 Out there, it’s another grey wintry day…

But not in here.

You’re here with me.

So, I smile as I look in the mirror.

Nothing is going to happen to me today

that you and I together can’t handle.

Your love lights me up…

You are the wind-beneath-my-wings…

With you my heart sings!

Sonshine…!

Even if out there… it’s just another grey winter day.

Take up your Cross?

 Lent is upon us. I don’t know about you, but I look at others carrying huge crosses, and wonder how I got skipped. At this time in my life at least, I don’t suffer from a deadly disease that just isn’t going away, or not having a roof over my head, or enduring daily injustice because of the color of my skin. Am I alone in wondering about how I am to take up my Cross?

 Then it dawned on me that I might be missing what is right before my eyes. Maybe just being human is my cross. Some days it’s pretty heavy. My car door is frozen shut, and no amount of coaxing is going to unfreeze it so I can get to church. I wake up and just don’t have any energy today. Cramps in my legs kept me up half the night…I need to get a haircut…will have to wear my mask…and on and on. Nothing big, nothing momentous, just being human…and chaffing at its heaviness.

 The time after Christmas is like a light-beam shining on all the nooks and crannies of my soul. I blink often. All the little things of my little ‘hidden life’ come into view. Then comes Lent. It’s the time of spring house-cleaning of the soul. I stare at this Wild Lover ‘running’ toward the cross and wonder if he is out of his mind. But he is inviting me to ‘run’ with him…to actually choose my limited humanness, to bear it, grasp it, be bound to it as his infant swaddling bands wrapped him ‘round about. It is reaffirming my baptismal ‘yes,’ my going down into death with him, isn’t it…my ‘yes’ to all that weighs me down, all that is imperfect, all that is unfinished and waits with all my unfulfilled dreams.

 Nailed hands, feet fixed in place…his Body speaks when his mouth is still. I can’t do what I want to do, I can’t go where I want to go. Say ‘yes’ and embrace it…? That ol’ dead tree weighing me down bursts into bloom, and becomes a Tree of Life. Surprise! That’s how the story ends.

 

Are you out of your mind…

or just wild in-love?

Arms stretched wide…

to embrace all the mess…

me included.

Feet pinned down

so you can’t even search me out…

so I have to come to you.

And when I look you become my mirror

and there I am.