Beyond rage

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Prophets who continue to lead (or end) with their rage have only half of the message, it seems.  They have the anger but lack the compassion; mere moral positioning and ethical “answers” are not really the work of conversion… In our times, it is common to confuse articulate passion with prophetic when it is simply untransformed anger that will not change anything in the long term or lead us anywhere good.

 

Any opinion, liberal or conservative, might well be a good one, but what is its guiding energy and end point?

          Richard Rohr, The Tears of Things

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Sometimes I live in a cloud of rage

Each morning I stare out over the devastation

That is America.

 

I see power abused,

Wealth mistaken for worthiness

Injustice paraded as justice

 

I see the victims

their lives torn asunder by

racism and hate

their pain ignored

their very being canceled

 

and I am angry

 

And so I scream to the heavens

“God, do something!”

My fingers type out fury

Awash with righteous wrath

I proclaim my disgust with articulate passion

 

I am, I hope, a truth teller

But where, oh where, is compassion?

I am Jonah, furious that grace and love might fall upon

The objects of my anger

Sulking under a tree at the very thought

That they might be redeemed

 

I have left no room for compassion

Redemption

Reconciliation

 

I need to be right

I need to put those “sinners” in their place

I want to see them fall and be humiliated

 

Alas

 

God will not join us in that place

 

Yes!

We need to speak out!

Against injustice and inequity

 

Yes, we need to act to counter

The works of evil

 

We need to feed the hungry, clothe the naked

House the homeless,

Welcome the stranger

Fight for justice.

 

But we must let our God of love

Be Love

 

We cannot get lost in rage

 

Ours is a ministry of reconciliation

We cannot allow our frustration and anger

To kill our capacity

To feel the pain and emptiness

The lostness of the oppressors

 

God does not love any of us because we are good (or right)

God loves us, all of us, because God is good

 

The God of love is big enough to never give up

On anyone

To never quit seeking, reconciliation and renewal

 

I do not know how to balance my anger at injustice

And my disdain for the distributors of cruelty

With that unfathomable love

 

We must go beyond

Our inadequate views of mercy

And let God be God

 

Or else we will lose our capacity

To sing a redemption song

And that is all we really have

Fear

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Fear is the cheapest room in the house.

I would like to see you living

In better conditions…

 

I should not make any promises right now,

But I know that if you

Pray

Somewhere in this world

Something good will happen.

 

God wants to see

More love and playfulness in your eyes

For that is your greatest witness to him…

                     Hafiz ala Daniel Landinsky

________________________

 

When we live in fear

We live in the poorest part of the soul

That impoverished place

Where hate and anger, resentment and cruelty dwell

 

We live in the squalor of our own garbage

Our insecurities,

Our failures

Our lack of hope, and love, and joy

 

There are those who would exile us there

In that foul place

Who would use power and wealth

To oppress our hearts

 

And leave us stumbling and broken.

Into dark and dirty streets

 

There is only one way out.

Only one

 

Love

 

Love not as feeling

Nor as some sort of chemical connection

 

But the love that comes from Love

From that one who is love

And who pours love into our souls

 

Bringing light and joy

Into the dark corners

 

So let us trust in love.

Have faith in its power.

 

And dance freely along

Streams of cool water that refresh our souls

 

Let us lift our voices in song and prayer.

 

For love and joy

Are our greatest witness

Looking for mischief

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God, what love mischief can “we” do

For the world

Today

          Hafiz /Daniel Ladinsky

 

“What can you do to get into good trouble? There is a light inside of you that will turn on when you get into good trouble. You will feel emboldened and freed. You will realize that unjust laws cannot stop you. These laws cannot stop the truth that is in your heart and soul.”

John Lewis, Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation

_______________________________

 

They would like to win

They think they do win

As drenched with privilege

The rich and the powerful play their games

 

Coercion, control

Retribution and punishment

Are the name of the game

 

And for a moment

At this moment, they can strut

And smugly grin

 

But they do not know.

They do not understand

 

They are missing the parts that make us

Human

Imagio dei

Children of God

 

They have deported the Sacred from their souls

Leaving themselves impoverished

 

And so they cannot grasp the fact

That God

The wildly creative power that is beyond

All that we can imagine

 

Imagines a different world from theirs

 

They cannot understand that they can do their worst

And God knows they try

But in the end empire will fall

Evil will be overcome by good

Even death will be defeated

 

Meanwhile

We of little importance

Just ordinary souls

Permeated with God

Are planning a revolution

Birthing the Sacred

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If you want, the Virgin will come walking down the street

Pregnant with the Holy and say

 

I need shelter for the night, please take me inside your heart

My time is so near

 

Then under the roof of your soul you will witness the sublime

Intimacy, the divine, the Christ

Taking birth

Forever

 

As she grasps your hand for help, for each of us

Is the midwife of God, each of us

                             St John of the Cross

 

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Ah Sacred One

who lives and moves

in us

and around us

 

Ah Sacred One, whose ways

are mystery

 

Do not allow us in our limited minds

to reason away the mystery

 

to take what is wild and free

and life-giving

the fire of fierce love

and quench it

 

to take the powerful wind of the spirit

and reduce it

to nothing more than words and platitudes

rules and dogma

 

We can

It is possible

abort the birth of the divine

fail to allow love to be born

through us

 

Or

we can birth the Sacred

allowing that which permeates us

that with which God has impregnated us

to seep out of our souls

 

raw and screeching

unavoidable, inconvenient, and yet

the most precious gift

 

a treasure we welcome with wonder

and share

 

God

GodWithUs

GodInUs

 

Liberator and redeemer

the savior of the world

 

There is pain in the birthing

and danger too

 

But in the fullness of time

we, full of the mystery

can no longer resist the compulsion to give birth

 

Jesus will come

Irresistible

Transforming

 

Born forever

in us

in spite of us

 

a light that comes

into the darkness

and is not overcome

 

The Sacred Child

making us Sacred Children too

 

Back to the Garden

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His hands can shape through ours

And our sounds can somehow echo what God has ever

said…

 

His mind can shape through ours

Our bodies – and the earth – are like clay. Is

that not so, my

dear

                               St. Teresa of Avila

________________________________________

 

Ah dear children

“We are stardust, we are golden”

We are salt, we are yeast, we are light

 

Make no mistake

For all our fear, for all our greed

Despite our flawed belief

That life is an endevour we must undertake

Alone

 

We are instruments the Sacred

Clay to be formed

Vessels built to contain

Love

 

We are the hands and feet of God

We are the voice crying in the wilderness

“you are loved”

 

It is a matter of clinging

to Jesus as a vine clings to a branch

let the life force flow

through us

 

Separated

we become dry and brittle creatures

dry branches trodden underfoot

by the powers of the world

 

 

Detached we are

Tossed and blown

Deceived

 

But we can cling to God

Knowing that God clings to us

It is there, deep down

At the center of who we are

 

The presence, the spark,

the power and love

that permeates us

 

transforming

restoring the image

until love is the natural expression

of who we are

 

and we join the sun, and the moon

and the stars

and all creation

in proclaiming the glory

and love

of God

 

and we transform rather than

conform

 

bringing a little bit of heaven

to earth

leading the way back

to the garden

 

So I sit.....

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And with every step I took it became more impossible for me to turn back. And my mind was empty—or it was as though my mind had become one enormous, anaesthetized wound. I thought only, One day I'll weep for this. One of these days I'll start to cry.

 James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room

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I sit and stare blankly at the screen

my mind is empty, my hands are still

 

I do not know how long I have been sitting this way

My mind, heart, soul

An anaesthetized wound

 

I am preoccupied with the chaos

love is losing

Empire, replete with its trappings of fear, control, and cruelty

Is winning

 

My soul is assailed by evil and greed

By the callous disregard for people

That tears at the very fabric of who I am

 

I move from anger to disgust

From fear to (yes, I admit it) hate

From shock to sadness to profound grief

 

It is bad enough that people in power abuse it

That people with privilege exploit it

It is bad enough that people do ungodly things

In the name of God

 

But what shatters me is that so many do not care

 

I wonder if this is how the disciples felt that Saturday morning

After it was all over

after the political and religious systems

did their thing

 

and killed love

hung compassion on a cross

 

what must it have been like to sit there in that upper room

where only days before

the space had echoed with laughter

and bread was broken

and a cup passed round, again and again

 

what must it have been like to sit there

your heart ripped from your body

while outside

the Roman soldiers prowl and harass

and the people of Jerusalem

simply open their shops

buy their groceries

 

and go about their day

as if nothing has happened?

 

As the people walk the street, cowed and silenced by the soldiers

a conquered people who have capitulated to power

and live in fear

 

it feels so hopeless

I feel so helpless

As if there is nothing I can do

 

But I cannot just sit here

hoping it will all go away

hoping that people will wake up to the Sacred

hoping against hope

 

I know there are no easy answers

I know that Sacred seems distant and unconcerned

and lament is now a way of life

 

But still, I must stand

And I must go through each day

Left foot,

Right foot

Left foot breathe

 

Trusting in the Sacred,

Trusting God, GodWithUs, GodInUs

 

Trusting enough to leave those places of safety

to stand in the street, facing the fierce gusts of hate

and speak about justice, as justice is denied

and when those with power us it hatefully

live love

 

I must stand, because I know, on this Saturday

Something the disciples did not know, yet

 

I know about the resurrection

I know what God did

And I know

What God can do

 

And so I sit

But not for long