Bishops' Blog

On Hurricanes

It is natural that the recent devastating string of hurricanes should provoke questions that touch on our faith, including rabbi Kushner's “why do bad things happen to good people?” (Father Victor who offers a lecture on the subject in our online course at the Stanton Center adds that the opposite is a valid question too). In the 18th century the atheist French philosopher turned his sarcasm on the idea of God in the wake of the Lisbon earthquake. At least then people honored the truth claims of religion enough to fight over the question!  It is understandable that we Christians too should ask hard questions in the wake of our own instances of what are called “natural evil.” A good quick read on the subject is David Bentley Hart. 

My point is simple - this is a case of what Daniel calls the mystery of iniquity. No satisfying answer is possible until “we see face-to-face” (I Corinthians 13). But this ought not to be taken to be a reason to foreclose complaint and questioning. Job does both, and then God silences him and blesses him! We in the meantime are left, in the face of what we do not yet know, to confess what we do.  That nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus (Romans 8) must be said, but in a way that weeps with those who now weep. Eschatology is not meant to silence others. 

As a footnote, we acknowledge an outstanding piece of theological business. Consider this verse: “we know the whole creation has been groaning.. until the revealing...” (Romans 8:22). We do not really understand how the creation itself has suffered the corruption of the Fall, though it must in some sense be true. This too will be clearer by-and-by, when the circle is once again unbroken. 

+GRS

Let Go and Let God

The dialogue between the religions is in part about what they share - the love commandment, the experience of wonder, etc.  But it is also how they differ over what they share!  Muslims and Christians differ over their shared vision of the kingdom of God. Buddhists and Christians differ over their shared interest in contemplation. It is like the English and Americans divided by a shared language according to Churchill. 

An example of this is letting go. It is the very heart of the spiritual life - and it is hard! But what do we mean by it?  We recognize there are things we need to hold on to tightly - our conscience, our sense of our self, our awareness of God's presence in the world. We may have a rule of life we try to hold on to as a guide.  What then are we to let go of? Surely our desire to control our lives or those of others, or our regret and resentment. 

But why should we let go? In the midst of what account of the world as a stage are we endeavoring to let go?  A Buddhist letting go is consonant with their belief that the self is an illusion and that a pervasive awareness of emptiness as life's goal. And for a Christian? We let go because the risen Jesus is already Lord of my life, and because we seek of God the humility of a disciple. Letting go has ultimately to do with a rehearsal of dying, which in turn has to do with hope and new life. We let go because life is found in the wake of the great letting go of the dying Jesus, and so is conformed to the divine life. 

Let go and let God- this saying of AA is half aware of its Christian roots. We need to be fully so that we can see the Gospel dimension in this hope shared with our secular neighbors. 

Peace

+GRS