Dear Friends,
How do we find the wisdom to envision a new world and the courage to fight for it? How do we survive seemingly apocalyptic times? In a world on fire, how do we embrace love and joy?
Great questions! Questions that people of every age have asked and tried to answer to make sense of life and find true purpose. And yet the truth is that we happen to live in one of those moments in history in which these questions are intensified and the answers we give and live by can make or break this moment and the future for our children. As Pope Francis has said, “We are living in a change of epoch rather than an epoch of change.” Indeed. As Phyllis Tickle has pointed out, we are at the point of “The Great Emergence.” About every five hundred years or so, she explains, there is a dramatic shift in consciousness that drastically affects the way people live. Something new is emerging!
Quoting one of her bishop friends, Phyllis says about every five hundred years the “Church feels compelled to have a giant rummage sale and we are living in and through one of those five- hundred-year sales.” It is a time of major shifting.
We all feel it: we see it in the Church—in all Christian denominations. We see it in religion in general. We see it in society. It can’t be missed! And, for many, it is quite frightening. “What will become of us? What will become of our planet? What will the future hold for our children and grandchildren?”
Moreover, we see all around us people reacting with fear to the instability we are now experiencing. Yet we know fear never begets a good and noble and life-giving response. It only keeps us paralyzed or takes us backwards—as we can see in the MAGA movement, in Trump and all who voted for him, in similar far right-wing hateful movements throughout the world. It is an immature, unwise and ill-fated response to the challenge of our times.
Pope Francis, Valarie Kaur and others offer a more mature, wise and life-giving approach: Revolutionary love. As Kaur explains it, “Revolutionary Love is the choice to labor for OTHERS, OPPONENTS, and OURSELVES to transform the world around us.
This is exactly what MAGA, Trump and others have chosen not to do. They have chosen not to show love for others; they have chosen to have no concern for anyone but themselves and to maintain the status quo that deliberately oppresses so many to keep everyone in their “proper” place. (It is not unloving to state this; it is just an honest and necessary assessment of how things are now.)
Yet rather than just point fingers, we are challenged to ask ourselves: what do I choose? What is my choice? Can I choose Revolutionary Love? It is, after all, the way of Jesus. So, it ought to be the way of his disciples.
Now, choosing Revolutionary Love is not soft. And it doesn’t ignore our rage at the present horrors unfolding all around us in our country. That is why Kaur’s call for love of opponent is so important! Yes, we feel rage at the hate and discrimination and injustice we see sprouting up with greater intensity. And we dare not ignore our rage, pretend it isn’t there or condemn ourselves for feeling such rage. Our rage is “loaded with information and energy.” It tells us what is important to us and give us energy to seek out meaningful answers and mindful actions.
Even with our rage we can ask ourselves: what do I choose? What is my choice? How do I live Revolutionary Love even in this instance?
Valarie offers these wise words as a compass for our future, as practical reminders and actions we can take day to day:
- The future is dark; it is the tomb and the womb.
- We are in transition.
- All parts of you are welcome.
- Call your wisest ancestors to your back-family members, heroes, Jesus
- Keep the children of the future before your eyes.
- Freedom begins within.
- Build a space of freedom inside you—a space of rest and pleasure and joy.
- Joy will power your courage.
- We can practice the world we want in the space between us.
- Hod fast to the ones who set you free.
- Revolutionary Love is the call of our times.
- Let love be your compass.
Yes, in a crazy, changing, upside down world filled with people doing harmful things out of fear, ignorance and insecurity, let’s choose Revolutionary Love. Let’s let LOVE be our compass. It will be a struggle. It will hurt. It will be misunderstood. It won’t always look like victory. But as LOVE HIMSELF showed us, it is the only way that leads to Resurrection Life and a new world brighter and more beautiful than anything we can imagine in this moment.
Peace and every good,
Father Liam