I have just seen a review of a new book by one of the nation’s best religious thinkers, Benedictine nun Joan Chittister. Her book is entitled, The Time is Now: A Call to Uncommon Courage. The book review is by Dana Greene, whom I have never met, but have read some of her writings. I am glad to share some tidbits from the review, which contain some of Chittister’s own words. Hopefully, soon I can read the book and share some of my own impressions. But her work and words are too important to wait until I have read the book.
I am not surprised by the focus nor the title. Chittister has a regular column in the National Catholic Reporter, so I have been seeing some of her perspective there. She is clear she thinks our nation is going through a period of social disintegration. I agree there are some depressing signs. Perhaps that is true of every era in a nation’s history, but I also think most folks would agree the political split, rhetoric, etc. is more divisive than anything we have recently seen.
Greene offers an insight into Chittister’s perspective when she says about the author, “Her claim is that we have divorced spiritual obligation from political policy and have retreated from engagement with a suffering world to a kind of pious indifference.” We could write a book on what spiritual obligation means and, particularly, what it might mean for each one of us. Surely some of that would come from the words of Jesus himself as the gospel records them. No doubt, Jesus was interested in piety. The Sermon on the Mount offers things to do, such as prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Those surely count for the personal aspects of his message. But just as clearly, Jesus calls for some external action. He challenges and wants to shape his culture around the twin themes of justice and love. We probably are to do no less.
Greene tells us that Chittister says, “What is needed is a prophetic as well as a private spirituality.” Interestingly, Chittister thinks each of us has a “prophet inherent within.” I laugh, because Quakers talk about the Light Within, so this idea is not foreign to my thinking. Apparently, we also have a prophet within. I can imagine this is the call, indeed expectation, to do the justice and love work that Jesus asks us to do. And I doubt this is only a Christian thing. I think all major religious traditions ask for the same kind of prophetic work.
I was very intrigued how Greene begins to describe what Chittister means by the prophetic. She observes, “the prophetic call is about supporting life, and to bolster her case, she mines the prophetic tradition, garnering its ‘seeds’ — awareness, audacity, authenticity, self-giving, patience, wisdom, vision, faith and confidence.” This is an impressive list of words that pack a punch in the spiritual sense. It fascinates me to see each of these words as a spiritual seed.
Clearly, seeds need tending and attention. The words are not inherently spiritual, but they come to mean something special when used in a spiritual context. Take the first word, awareness, for example. Awareness as a spiritual word means we become knowledgeable about things in our world and think about dealing with those things in a spiritual way. It might have to do with politics, ecology---anything. All of life is spiritual, so all of life is a candidate for awareness and spiritual action.
I like the next word, audacity. That is a prophetic word, if there is any prophetic word. I am sure this is Chittister’s word for courage. To be prophetic demands we be courageous. That probably explains why so many of us shrink from the duty! And we have to be audacious in an authentic way. We have to be ourselves---our true self, as Merton would have it. Some of us are better conformists than prophets. That may be the place to begin.
The next three words used by Chittister to describe the prophet are understandable: self-giving, patience and wise. Self-giving may cause us again to shrink, because we would prefer to get rather than give. If we participate in a me-culture, self-giving is not really on our agenda. And being prophetic is almost never a quick fix. Patience is required. Joining this pair of words, we add wisdom. Jesus counsels a kind of wisdom that is different from worldly wisdom. Most of us have some of this wisdom, but we don’t use it, if we want to get along according to the rules of our secular culture.
The last three words are also important: vision, faith and confidence. Prophets do have vision. Their vision is connected with the vision Jesus had. That vision might best be captured by the single word, Kingdom. It is a call to relationship with the Holy One. And that will require faith. We need to trust in that, rather than the Almighty dollar or some other secular vision.
It will require confidence---confidence in ourselves and in the God who calls us. Greene is confident Chittister would tell each of us, “And now is the time, and the call is yours.” You will have your call to prophetic spirituality and I will have mine.
I am not surprised by the focus nor the title. Chittister has a regular column in the National Catholic Reporter, so I have been seeing some of her perspective there. She is clear she thinks our nation is going through a period of social disintegration. I agree there are some depressing signs. Perhaps that is true of every era in a nation’s history, but I also think most folks would agree the political split, rhetoric, etc. is more divisive than anything we have recently seen.
Greene offers an insight into Chittister’s perspective when she says about the author, “Her claim is that we have divorced spiritual obligation from political policy and have retreated from engagement with a suffering world to a kind of pious indifference.” We could write a book on what spiritual obligation means and, particularly, what it might mean for each one of us. Surely some of that would come from the words of Jesus himself as the gospel records them. No doubt, Jesus was interested in piety. The Sermon on the Mount offers things to do, such as prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Those surely count for the personal aspects of his message. But just as clearly, Jesus calls for some external action. He challenges and wants to shape his culture around the twin themes of justice and love. We probably are to do no less.
Greene tells us that Chittister says, “What is needed is a prophetic as well as a private spirituality.” Interestingly, Chittister thinks each of us has a “prophet inherent within.” I laugh, because Quakers talk about the Light Within, so this idea is not foreign to my thinking. Apparently, we also have a prophet within. I can imagine this is the call, indeed expectation, to do the justice and love work that Jesus asks us to do. And I doubt this is only a Christian thing. I think all major religious traditions ask for the same kind of prophetic work.
I was very intrigued how Greene begins to describe what Chittister means by the prophetic. She observes, “the prophetic call is about supporting life, and to bolster her case, she mines the prophetic tradition, garnering its ‘seeds’ — awareness, audacity, authenticity, self-giving, patience, wisdom, vision, faith and confidence.” This is an impressive list of words that pack a punch in the spiritual sense. It fascinates me to see each of these words as a spiritual seed.
Clearly, seeds need tending and attention. The words are not inherently spiritual, but they come to mean something special when used in a spiritual context. Take the first word, awareness, for example. Awareness as a spiritual word means we become knowledgeable about things in our world and think about dealing with those things in a spiritual way. It might have to do with politics, ecology---anything. All of life is spiritual, so all of life is a candidate for awareness and spiritual action.
I like the next word, audacity. That is a prophetic word, if there is any prophetic word. I am sure this is Chittister’s word for courage. To be prophetic demands we be courageous. That probably explains why so many of us shrink from the duty! And we have to be audacious in an authentic way. We have to be ourselves---our true self, as Merton would have it. Some of us are better conformists than prophets. That may be the place to begin.
The next three words used by Chittister to describe the prophet are understandable: self-giving, patience and wise. Self-giving may cause us again to shrink, because we would prefer to get rather than give. If we participate in a me-culture, self-giving is not really on our agenda. And being prophetic is almost never a quick fix. Patience is required. Joining this pair of words, we add wisdom. Jesus counsels a kind of wisdom that is different from worldly wisdom. Most of us have some of this wisdom, but we don’t use it, if we want to get along according to the rules of our secular culture.
The last three words are also important: vision, faith and confidence. Prophets do have vision. Their vision is connected with the vision Jesus had. That vision might best be captured by the single word, Kingdom. It is a call to relationship with the Holy One. And that will require faith. We need to trust in that, rather than the Almighty dollar or some other secular vision.
It will require confidence---confidence in ourselves and in the God who calls us. Greene is confident Chittister would tell each of us, “And now is the time, and the call is yours.” You will have your call to prophetic spirituality and I will have mine.
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