The Divine Adventure

Photo by Pete Nowicki on Unsplash

People seeking wilderness adventures usually entrust themselves to an experienced guide, whether they are kayaking on Class V rapids, climbing Mount Everest, or hiking in the Amazon. Although we may never have pictured God as an adventure guide, Scripture is filled with stories of people who “plunged themselves into the divine adventure,” as Chiara Lubich put it:

• Abraham laid out a ritual offering per God’s instructions and watched in amazement as a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the carcasses

• The Israelites were led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night as they fled Egypt, and they were provided with water flowing from a rock and bread in the form of hoarfrost

• A widow at Zarephath fed the prophet Ezekiel the last of her provisions during a famine and found that her jar of flour and jug of oil never ran dry

• Mary of Nazareth agreed to bear God’s son and was offered protection of Joseph, who followed the advice of angels who visited him in his dreams

Those of us who are adverse to risk might well be reluctant to choose God as our guide, for to do so seems to mean that we should expect the unexpected. However, a common thread in the lives of those who do place their trust in God is that they are led to new life, whether that means a new home, a new occupation, sustenance in hard times, or the gift of a child.

When Chiara Lubich plunged into the divine adventure in the midst of World War II, she was led to start a movement called “the Focolare” (meaning “hearth”) that promoted unity, reconciliation and the spirit of love and fostered the spirit of renewal that took shape in Vatican II. As noted in the March 2022 issue of Give Us This Day, the movement was “based in small communities of both married families and single people and eventually spread to 180 countries, promoting a unity across all borders of religion, race, and nation.” When we place ourselves in the hands of our divine adventure guide, there is no telling where we will be led, but we can trust that we will find ourselves in a place of abundance and blessing.

The Ways of Peace

A prayer to St. Benedict by Deacon Allen Tatara includes this line: “You walked the paths of peace your whole life long and led all who came to you into the ways of peace.” This was quite a feat, because Benedict lived during a time of war between Emperor Justinian and the barbarian Goths, who swept down into Italy in the year 568, killing and pillaging as they went along.

In the second book of his Dialogues, Pope Gregory the Great includes a story of how Benedict led one particularly cruel Goth, Zalla, into the way of peace. Zalla took a farmer captive and brought him to Benedict, demanding money for the man’s release. Upon glancing at the cord that bound the farmer’s hands, it fell miraculously to the ground. Then, “Without rising from his place, Benedict called for his monks and had them take Zalla inside for some food and drink. After that he urged him to give up his heartless cruelty. Zalla went away thoroughly humbled.”

You and I may not be capable of the miracles that Benedict is said to have performed, but we can cultivate a peaceful spirit that allows us to defuse tense situations with equanimity. We can choose to offer hospitality to those who oppose us, as did some Ukrainians who offered food to young Russian soldiers they encountered — killing them not with bullets but with kindness. Jesus often ate with sinners and was quite successful at converting hearts; wouldn’t it be wise, then, to adopt his strategy?

Walking the way of peace takes great strength of character that is built through small choices we make every day — the choice not to gossip, not to retaliate for perceived slights, not to let our heart be clouded by envy. In consistently cultivating a peaceful spirit, we too can lead those we encounter into the way of peace and enjoy the blessing that Jesus promised to peacemakers. 

Inspiration That Never Ends

Sr. Anne Shepard told me that she recently visited a friend and her four-year-old grandson, who enjoyed looking at the pictures in the most recent Mount magazine and made up stories about them as he went along. When he came to the photos of the (mostly) elderly sisters in the obituaries at the end of the magazine, he said, “And these are the grandmothers who wrote the stories that go with the pictures!”

As I approach my 60th birthday, I’ve been thinking a lot about family and friends who have died and yet continue to help me write my story. How would I know how to live in community without the example of my grandmothers, who did their daily chores without complaint for years on end and kept their counsel in the midst of life in a large family? How would I know how to find peace in nature without watching my mom tend her flowers and my dad his vegetable garden? How would I know how to enhance my life with poetry without listening to Sisters Celine Carrigan, Jeremy Dempsey, and Mary Faith Schuster quoting lines from their favorite poems?

An oblate of the Mount, Dick Brummel, died unexpectedly last week at the age of 71. His social justice advocacy won’t come to an end, however, because through his efforts he has shown others how to become advocates themselves. Just so, we need to give ourselves wholeheartedly to our calling, whatever it may be — parent, teacher, environmentalist, advocate — because (a) we don’t know when death will come calling and (b) we don’t know how our daily faithfulness to our vocation will help others write their own story for generations to come.

I’m deeply grateful for all those who continue to help me write my story, and I hope that in my remaining years (however long that may be), I can follow their example and do the same for others.

Servant Leadership

Volodymyr Zelensky was a comic actor before being elected the president of Ukraine—not exactly stellar credentials for running a country, one might suppose. However, Zelensky has several very Benedictine qualities that have served him in good stead:

• Humility. From the beginning of his term of office, Zelensky acknowledged how little he knew and eschewed the trappings of office; for example, he reduced his motorcade to two cars without sirens.

• The ability to listen. As John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, has noted of Zelensky, “He’s a very intent listener.”

• Care for the sick and vulnerable. Zelensky recently risked his life to visit wounded soldiers in a hospital and, according to The New York Times, when he took office “He told government officials to remove presidential portraits from their offices and replace them with pictures of their children, to remind them of the stakes of their work.”

Zelensky may very well have approached the presidency as a new role to play, but somewhere along the way, he transformed from an actor playing a president to a bona fide leader who is courageously resisting the subjugation of his people by a murderous, ambitious dictator.

Neither becoming the president of a country nor following in the way of Jesus is easy. However, Zelensky has shown us a way forward: with humility, deep listening, and a heart for the vulnerable, start by playing the part and eventually we will live our way into being the  servant of others that we are called to be.

 

 

A Lenten Course Correction

If our soul has a navigation system, such as GPS, the message we are likely to receive on Ash Wednesday is this: “rerouting.” As Pope Francis said in his 2021 Ash Wednesday homily, “Lent is not just about the little sacrifices we make, but about discerning where our hearts are directed…. Let me ask: Where is my life’s navigation system taking me — toward God, or toward myself?”

The “little sacrifices” we make during Lent may seem inconsequential; what difference does it really make if I turn off the radio while I’m in the car, limit my screen time or the amount of sugar I eat, do some spiritual reading, or make a donation to a food pantry? Such practices are more important than we might think, because they direct us away from our desire for distraction, self-satisfaction, and control and the belief that we are the center of the universe. When our vision isn’t clouded by our preoccupation with ourselves, we are more likely to see the signposts that lead us to the fulfillment of life with God.

Journeying toward God is only possible because, as Pope Francis said, “God first journeyed to us.” Jesus came to provide a custom-made navigation system to the kingdom of God, with the key components being love of God (expressed through prayer), love of neighbor (expressed through almsgiving/service), and  humility (expressed through fasting/surrender). Thus our Lenten practices serve as a course correction and lead us on a straight path to the heart of God.

The road is bound to be narrow at the outset, as Saint Benedict noted in his Rule; after following our own whims for so long, our new path can’t help but feel constrictive. However, our Lenten practices will guide us through tight turns and detours until we reach our destination at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday, where we are invited to share in the new life and boundless love of the risen Christ.

Unleashing the Power of Love

When we face a crisis such as the war in Ukraine, it doesn’t seem like there is much we can do but pray (and refrain from complaining about higher prices that may result from sanctions we place on Russia). But does prayer really make a difference?

The peace activist Eileen Egan once said, “They make fun of us, the Catholic Workers, for praying so much, but we don’t care because we already know it works.” I suspect her confidence came from an understanding of how prayer works. The power of prayer lies in its ability to change hearts. Eileen knew that prayer works because over time her faithfulness to prayer led her to become more courageous, more loving, and more peaceful.

Prayer allows us to tap into the heart of God, with its infinite compassion and mercy. It’s not that God magically grants what we ask — rather, God invites us to widen the boundaries of our hearts and thus change the world in concert with God by acting in loving ways.

Our own transformation is the true outcome of prayer and is the conduit for miracles to occur. That is why Jesus so often probed a person’s heart and forgave his or her sins (blockages) before facilitating physical healing of an ailment.

So, can prayer bring about peace in Ukraine? Given the vast global outcry against the attack on the Ukrainian people and the willingness of other countries to impose costly sanctions and accept refugees, I would say that prayer is leading a great many people to broaden the boundaries of their hearts, grow in compassion, and advocate for an end to war and subjugation. As Jimi Hendrix said, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” And it is faithfulness to prayer that unleashes the power of love.

Perseverance in Love

With so many diseases of the soul manifesting today — war, greed, racism, intolerance — I often turn my hopeful eyes to the next generation, because many of the young people I encounter seem very accepting of people who are different than they are. However, our oldest generation also can be a source of hope, because they give us a long view: Wars eventually end. It is possible to make progress, however tenuous, in civil rights. Dictators can and have been removed from power. Enemies can learn to live together when their children fall in love.

But what about now? Is our only option to wait in patience for tides to turn? By all means, no! Our daily acts of respect for others, our small demonstrations of kindness, our willingness to listen to others, the continual efforts of parents and teachers to raise compassionate kids — all these actions have power, and collectively they will bring us to a tipping point that leads to a more just society. The one thing we cannot do is give in to despair and stop our efforts, however small they may seem. We have to be faithful to what we know is true — that “love is the most powerful force the world possesses, and yet it is the humblest imaginable,” as Gandhi said — and keep at our humble tasks. By doing so, we are helping to create the world we want to live in.

I’ve shared this story before, but it’s worth repeating. One person said to another, “What do you think the future will hold?” “Flowers,” came the response. “Why flowers?” “Because I am planting flower seeds.”

Our elders taught us to set aside impatience and persevere in living in the way of truth. They didn’t have to do it alone, and neither do we, when we make an effort to create mutually supportive families, friendships, neighborhoods, congregations, and workplaces. “If you want to have hope,” as Daniel Berrigan said, “do hopeful things” — and you will find that others are eager to join you.