"Spirituality in Difficult Times"
Fr. George Wertin
Sunday, May 16th, 2004

This was a tough week in the history of this world. There were revelations of horrible atrocities committed by the U.S. military in Iraq. An American was beheaded there as well. The Israeli-Palestinian crisis brought horrible killings on both sides. In Minnesota the legislature continued to show indifference in providing for poor people and is in a stalemate on the budget. One newscaster even signed off saying, “It was a tough day today. Good night.”

This world is a dangerous place. It is a place of duplicity and lies. There is double speak in the establishment and systems of this world: People speak of peace and love at the same time as they create weapons of mass destruction and inflict a war. This is a world where people sing about loving all peoples as sisters and brothers, but vilify people who are different from themselves. It is a world where people say they are hospitable, but who reject and condemn people who do not conform to their standards of behavior. This is a world where people are encouraged to act compassionately, but where domination and oppression of women and minorities is rampant. This is a world where people say they are free, but are totally trapped by the compulsion to consume.

It is a time to breathe deep and get regrounded. We continue to seek HOPE AND HEALING as a community of faith here at St. Joan of Arc. And that means we have to do ‘the inner work.’ As Meister Eckhart says,

But a healthy spirituality is more than a few pious prayers or doing what we are told. It is opening ourselves to that Spirit that Jesus promised he would send into the world in today’s Gospel.

There are various ways of defining spirituality. Some say it is the practice of discovering the divine in the human. I often say it is the lived dimension of faith. Sr. Joan Chittester says it is the way we express a living faith in a real world. I like that too. Whatever it is it involves cultivating compassion. I have come to realize that many people do not realize the full meaning of the word compassion. It means more than loving other people. It means identifying with them in their suffering. It means putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes so you can truly experience their needs. Literally, it means ‘suffering with.’

I am reminded of the story about the man who went into the woods and there he discovered a crippled fox. He wondered how it was possible for the poor fox to eat and survive. He observed the crippled fox from a distance for a long time and he saw that the other animals of the forest deposited items of food for him to eat. He decided to let God take care of him just like he did the fox. He let his wife and children wait upon him and all he got was resentment. He died and complained to God. God said to him, “You learned the wrong lesson.” I wanted you to become like the animals who provided for the fox!” Compassion has more than one perspective!

Our spirituality determines how we understand God. The old cosmology saw God as out there or up there manipulating us and the events in our lives. Contemporary spirituality says that God’s Spirit pervades all creation. Now we know that God is operative in all peoples—and all creation. The concern is whether we are allowing God’s Spirit to work in and through us. Are we willing to be co-creators with God?

As I have told you before, Anthony DeMello—that wonderful spiritual guide—used to say the three most difficult things in the world are not physical feats or intellectual achievements. No. they are 1.) to return love for hate, 2.) to admit I am wrong and 3.) to include the excluded. Those are all components of a healthy spirituality.

In the first reading today we read about the controversial breaking down of the barrier from allowing Gentiles to join with Jews in the early Christian community. But Paul in the Letter to the Galatians says more than that . He says “In Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.” Yes, there is no barrier between Jew and Gentile. It took centuries to rid the Church of slavery and racial discrimination, which still pathetically lingers. And we are far from achieving equality between women and men. To include the excluded requires us to put an end to any type of domination over another person or people.

In other words, we need to commit ourselves to transforming the domination system which is based on violence. This week we learned once again that once violence is unleashed it cannot be contained or restrained. In other words, we have to make nonviolent resistance to evil—not domination—an integral part of our spirituality. People think of prayer and forgiveness as dimensions of spirituality, but do we think of nonviolence as an integral part of our spirituality? We need to expand our consciousness.

We can find a new portion of hope in this war-torn world only if we rid ourselves of the illusions that peace and happiness can be found through violence, greed and domination over others. We are tempted to say I don’t care what happens to anybody else. Let there just be a zone of tranquillity for me and my family. But one of the underlying mysteries of the spiritual life is that we only achieve what we want by reaching out and sharing it with others. If you want to be attacked, attack others. If you want others to exploit you, exploit others. If you want peace, extend peace. If you want freedom, empower freedom for others. If you want to be loved, give love.

Yes, we need a new paradigm if we are to find hope and healing. It is one that makes go us beyond conventional ways of reacting to hurt and suffering. Let us take Jesus vision seriously and be compassionate as our God is compassionate. Let us not return evil for evil. Let us not vilify others. Let us recommit ourselves to a spirituality that is rooted in compassion, nonviolence and a vision of inclusion. And don’t forget to find centering in your life through some kind of meditation. Let us see beyond our fears.

Let me conclude with some profound words from the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero. He said: “We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”