Skip to main content

Bigger Heart

Richard Rohr, one of my favorite contemporary writers on spirituality, spoke at a recent gathering of folks to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton’s, death.  Regular readers of my inspirational reflections know that I like and often quote Merton.  I agree with Rohr and many others that Merton still has a relevancy to our world today.  And I find that much of what Rohr talks about resonates with Merton’s spirituality.
   
Rohr is a Franciscan, who runs a Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque.  I want to share some of his reflections because I think they are pertinent to the concerns of contemporary Christians and seekers. 
   
Heidi Schlumpf captures some of Rohr’s thoughts in a recent article entitled, “Rohr: Church needs an ‘awakening of the soul.’”  I like how she opens her piece.  “Unless Christians rediscover the ‘bigger heart’ and ‘bigger mind’ of the mystical and contemplative tradition, the church will be unable to make positive change in the world — or reform itself, said spiritual author and teacher Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr.”  I very much like the idea of people getting a bigger heart.  For me that is a spiritual issue---whether one is a person of faith or not.  I believe every one of us is spiritual in some sense. 

It interests me that Rohr calls for us to “rediscover.”  That presupposes we once had a bigger heart and bigger mind.  If that is so, it is right to ask how we shrunk it or lost it?  This is where Rohr turns to Merton.  Of course, I like what he says.  I think it is true and hope it is true.  Schlumpf quotes Rohr and captures some of Rohr wit and, sometimes, bite in his message.  Schlumpf writes, "Merton gave us the tools to develop a deeper sense of consciousness and therefore conscience," said Rohr, criticizing the kind of ‘kindergarten Christianity’ that makes an idol of a political party or country.”

Surely, a deeper consciousness is a key to spirituality and to a more profound spiritual life.  And to have a developed conscience is crucial if we are to deal with the pressing issues of our time---issues like peacemaking, climate change and the like.  Christianity and all the major religious traditions have a key role to play in addressing our world’s problems.  Quite correctly, I believe, Rohr tells us we can’t rely on politics to make all the necessary changes to deliver a sounder, more promising world. 

He makes a bit of fun when he talks about a “kindergarten Christianity” and its inability or, perhaps better, unwillingness to effect the changes our world needs.  Clearly, Rohr is critical of contemporary politics, but he is not alone in this.  Christianity and all the other religious traditions cannot make an idol of political parties nor country.  This makes a great deal of sense to me, as a Quaker.  Rohr is not against political parties and certainly not against our country---nor any other country.  He simply warns us not to make idols of these entities. 

This does not make Rohr an anti-American.  I am not either.  But we should not confuse America---or any other nation---with God.  Our primary call is to be children of God.  We live this out as Americans, Germans, Chinese, etc.  Rohr calls us to grow and to grow up as spiritual people.  This means seeing all the people across the globe as brothers and sisters.  Of course, not all God’s children are good.  In fact, some of them are real challenges!  But killing them is not a very good way to shape them up and bring them into a new way of being. 

To do this will require bigger hearts and minds.  Small minds, as the Buddhists describe it, will not be up for the task.  Small minds will come up with solutions to our problems that might address temporarily an issue, but it won’t be a solution.  In fact, in many cases we do not need a “solution,” so much as we need healing.  If we think about sin, we can recognize we don’t “solve” sin.  We forgive and heal.  Rohr’s analysis follows Merton’s reasoning.

One way to understand both of these spiritual writers is to recognize that spiritual folks cannot operate with dualities---that is good people and bad, Americans and Chinese, etc.  We are all members of the family of God.  And that family lives on the one planet which is God’s house for us.  We cannot pollute the relationships by sin in the global family nor can we pollute this wonderful cosmic house of God---our world.  How do we do this, we might ask?  Rohr is ready with his answer, which is creative, but apt.  He says about people and everything in our world that “You grant them dignity, give them voice: I don't care if it's a lizard or a leaf.  If it exists, if it's in the great chain of being, it has dignity.”

This makes sense to me.  I grant that Rohr is a challenge.  I close with one more of his lines from his presentation to the Merton gathering.  "God is just another word for everything,” he said. "Don't say you love God if you don't love everything" is his challenge.  I understand how this can make many folks uneasy.  I am confident many spiritual people do not think God is another word for everything. 

That invites a serious theological discussion.  I am ready for that, but admit it calls for more than a “kindergarten Christianity.”  It requires an openness, a willingness to grow and probably change.  I know this is what the college-aged generation seems to want---while recognizing some colleges have young people much different than the ones I know.  That’s ok.  My work is helping people develop bigger hearts.  Our world depends on it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I-Thou Relationships

Those of us who have read theology or, perhaps, those who are people of faith and are old enough might well recognize this title as a reminder of the late Jewish philosopher and theologian, Martin Buber.   I remember reading Buber’s book, I and Thou , when I was in college in the 1960s.   It was already a famous book by then.   I am not sure I fully understood it, but that would not be the last time I read it.   It has been a while since I looked at the book.             Buber came up in a conversation with a friend who asked if I had seen the recent article by David Brooks?   I had not seen it, but when I was told about it, I knew I would quickly locate and read that piece.   I very much like what Brooks decides to write about and what he contributes to societal conversation.   I wish more people read him and took him seriously.             Brooks’ article focused on the 2016 contentious election.   He provocatively suggests, “Read Buber, Not the Polls!”   I think Brooks puts

Spiritual Commitment

I was reading along in a very nice little book and hit these lines about commitment.   The author, Mitch Albom, uses the voice of one of the main characters of his nonfiction book about faith to reflect on commitment.   The voice belongs to Albom’s old rabbi of the Jewish synagogue where he went until his college days.   The old rabbi, Albert Lewis, says “the word ‘commitment’ has lost its meaning.”    The rabbi continues in a way that surely would have many people saying, “Amen!”   About commitment he says, “I’m old enough when it used to be a positive.   A committed person was someone to be admired.   He was loyal and steady.   Now a commitment is something you avoid.   You don’t want to tie yourself down.”   I also think I am old enough to know that commitment was usually a positive word.   I can think of a range of situations in which commitment would have been seen to be positive.   For example, growing up was full of sports for me.   Commitment would have been presupposed t

Inward Journey and Outward Pilgrimage

There are so many different ways to think about the spiritual life.   And of course, in our country there are so many different variations of religious experiences.   There are liberals and conservatives.   There are fundamentalists and Pentecostals.   Besides the dizzying variety of Christian traditions, there are many different non-Christian traditions.   There are the major traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and so on.   There are the slightly more obscure traditions, such as Sikhism, Jainism, etc.   And then there are more fringe groups and, even, pseudo-religions.   There are defining doctrines and religious practices.   Some of these are specific to a particular tradition or a few traditions, such as the koan , which is used in Zen Buddhism for example.   Other defining doctrines or practices are common across the religious board.   Something like meditation would be a good example.   Christians meditate; Buddhists meditate.   And other groups practice this spiri