March 2009 Archives

The biblical reference Obama made in his Democratic convention speech last fall, affirming that we are our brother's keeper, captured my imagination. There was something right about this message that seemed a departure from Cain's denunciation of personal responsibility ("I am not my brother's keeper") that characterizes our Country's recent past. It is time to depart from the climate of protecting our individual prosperity and embrace the responsibility of caring for our brothers.

But who should we count among our brothers? While my resources of natural compassion may encompass my own family and friends, I don't know if I would easily insist on being a "keeper" of anyone else. Clearly though, this call of "being our brother's keeper" must extend to those who do not have their own brothers. My initial thought was that we must become brothers with those outside our current kinship, for only if we adopt them into our "family" will we have the courage and compassion needed to help. Last night I was reflecting on the biblical Parable of the Good Samaritan whose help did not seem to be given on the condition of kinship. When asked who is our neighbor, and so I think by fair analogy, our brother, Jesus seemed to be saying the one who offers help. In usual Jesus fashion, he turns our societal assumptions on their heads, and encourages us to act like neighbors (or brothers) to those who are not a part of our family, even to those we have radical differences with.

We need a follow up call from our president challenging us both, to be our brother's keeper in this increasingly difficult economic time of providing for our own families, as well as to remember that our brother is not the government, but the person on the side of the street who may not look like our family. Ultimately though, the church needs to continue to call Christ's body to reject Cain's response and embrace the radical call of the good Samaritan. We are our brother's keeper.

Looking back at my recent posts, I see a pattern of "wanting to escape from the ordinary to learn from the exemplary". My recent read Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa taught me about meaningful work and service has enflamed my passion for stepping out of the workaday world to commune with God. In addition to enticing me toward a period of monasticism, this book, written by Mary Poplin a former professor of mine at Claremont Graduate School, provided me with a few intellectual nuggets that engaged my mind as well as my soul.

The first insight concerned this notion of the way our society has enshrined the skeptic. Having just assigned Philosopher of Religion William James' essay The Will to Believe the matter of believing without sufficient evidence was a matter mulling over in my mind. Poplin quotes contemporary philosopher Dallas Willard on this related topic:

The test of character posed by the gentleness of God's approach to us is especially dangerous for those formed by the ideas that dominate our modern world. We live in a culture that, for centuries now, has cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than the one who believes. You could be almost as stupid as cabbage as long as you doubt. The fashion of the age has identified mental sharpness with a pose, not with genuine intellectual method and character. Only a hardy individualist or social rebel- or one desperate for another life- therefore stands any chance of discovering the substantiality of the spiritual life today. Today it is the skeptics who are the social conformists, though because of powerful intellectual propaganda they continue to enjoy thinking of themselves as wildly individualistic and unbearably bright. Partly because of the social force towards skepticism, which remains very powerful even when we step into Christian congregations and colleges for ministers, very few people ever develop competence in their prayer life... Today we live in a culture that overwhelmingly gives primary, if not exclusive, importance to the visible. This stance is incorporated in the power structures that permeate our world and is disseminated by the education system and government."

The integration of intellectual explanation and spiritual application of certain phenomenon such as the one mentioned are highlighted throughout this book. Although I have witnessed the above preference for skepticism while in graduate school and teaching, I have not stopped to assess the way this "fashion of the age" has influenced my prayer life. I wonder what it would take to remove the cultural bias in my mind that predisposes me toward unbelief in the invisible. I wonder if the sisters of charity have this cultural hurdle to maneuver in their daily prayers.

The other point made which as incredible social ramifications is the one Poplin highlights through the contrast of Mother Teresa's work with that of the social progressives described in a quote by Theophan the Recluse, a nineteenth-century Orthodox saint who criticizes the progressives who seek the good of mankind at the expense of helping individuals:

"Those who keep thoughts of the welfare of all of mankind inattentively let slip by that which is in front of our eyes. Because they do not have the opportunity to perform a particular work, they accomplish nothing toward the main purpose of life."

I see this mentality in the upwardly mobile individuals in my building who would rather pay more taxes than go mentor an individual in crisis at the local homeless mission. I see this in the students who come to DOOR who come seeking to serve in our city but seem stymied when the discussion turns to what to do about "homelessness." I see it in myself when I would rather go to community organizing meeting that addresses homeless "issues" than walk across the street and introduce myself to the lady who has decided to camp out near our building. It is a lot easier to feel oneself more intelligent and strategic when addressing the issue as a whole, but if this is done at the expense of helping those in front of us we are more than a little off course.

I'm not saying that I wouldn't have more issues if I was brought up Catholic, but sometimes I find myself perturbed over my lack of awareness of all the rich traditions of our faith. I found myself most acutely in this state after finishing Sacred Pathways, a book by Gary Thomas which outlines different pathways people have taken to God throughout history. Though we seem to have no trouble acknowledging our different personality types and strenghts, as the many profiles on the market attest to, somehow we have failed to embrace that individual differences might also suggest that we draw near to God in distinct ways. From Sensates, to Naturalists, to Contemplatives, to Intellectuals, Thomas explains how different temperments are suited for different sorts of engagement with God. He also gives practical advice on how to incorporate the practices of the path most suited to your temperment. A few I enjoyed most were:

- carrying physical objects in one's hand to remind one of spiritual realities, for instance, carrying around a nail during the season of Lent to remind oneself of identifying with Christ's sufferings.

-joining the Benedictines and other orders in praying the hours at specific times of the day with intentional, historic prayers, in order to reorientate oneself to God through the day

-setting aside a distinct time of silence within the life of one's family to jointly acknowledge his presence and listen together.

This approach is also helping me with the guilt I often feel for not wanting to attend weekly Church services.

Perhaps I need to avoid books that highlight extreme expressions of faith because after reading them I always want to copy. I just finished Under the Overpass, a story about a Westmont student who chose to live on the streets for a period of time because he needed to find out if his faith was real apart from the comforts he was accustomed to. The book is not particularly well written or full of profound insights, but I appreciated his message to the reader. He was not recommeding that other Christians follow him to the streets, but that we take whatever risk God is calling us to walk into at this moment in our lives, without worrying about what we will eat, where we will sleep etc. For some reason my idea of risking always involves physical sacrifice. Right now I am reading a book on Mother Teresa, and I am slightly obsessed with living among the poor in a third world country. Maybe it is a blessing that I am married and cannot, without significant discussion and consensus, jump on a plane to Calcutta tomorrow. Maybe I need more examples of what risk can look like, or maybe this sacrificing physical comforts is a risk I always return to for a reason. In any case I want to live around the radicals at some point soon. I am open to having my definition of radical revised.

I'm sure Malcom Gladwell did not intend the psychological outcome of his book Outliersto encourage people to retreat from ambition, but after finishing it I breathed a deep sigh of relief. From nationality, to upbringing, to even the month in which someone was born, Gladwell deconstructs the american dream to include factors that determine success beyond individual's ambition and hard work. Although he affirms that success includes the ability to work ten thousand hours to perfect one's capability, the story of successful people, he argues, always includes a larger story about crucial advantages conferred on individuals from external factors. I know that the take away Gladwell intended was more along the lines of helping us recognize these external "outliers" so that we can give these external advantages to more people, while encouraging them to work hard. I must say,though, from a personal point of view I am breathing a sigh of relief that at the end of the day when I work as hard as I can, my success cannot only be attributed to my will and ability. You might think that my belief in a God that is in control of my life might have already given me the perspective that I alone am not responsible for the outcome of my life, but I suppose I often need reminding of my most foundational beliefs. God must be among the "outliers".