Dear Friends,
We pray for you a Happy and Blessed New Year!
Today's Meditation features a reflection by Matthew Fox who highlights the poetry and message of Dorothee Soelle.
We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in the church, in healthcare, in the workplace--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.
In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that it is God's economy of abundance: when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.
We hope and pray that you find peace, healing, hope and the infusion of joy in your life!
With our love and care,
Ron and Jean
MEDITATION: Dorothee Soelle: "Jesus Needs Us" via Matthew Fox
The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers
Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox
The real purpose of healthy religion is spirituality, namely to inspire and train people to get in touch with their deepest selves in order to serve others through good work and good relationships that are reflections of one’s deepest values.
Another name for this deepest self is Christ or Buddha or image of God inside us.
The essence of spirituality is about developing the mystic (the lover who says Yes to life) and the prophet (the warrior
Democracy Now! anchor Amy Goodman and Right Livelihood Foundation Executive Director Ole von Uexkuell discuss the international activist laureates of the 40th Right Livelihood Award.
who says No to lies and injustice in its many enactments).
When people are looking for spirituality and do not readily find it in organized religion they will of course look elsewhere. In upcoming DMs, let us listen to some of these mystic-prophets who have lived among us in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Consider this poem from Dorothee Soelle, a teacher of mysticism, feminism and liberation theology at Union Seminary in NYC for 10 years. She grew up in Germany during WWII and ended up with a very different understanding of life and religion than did her countryman, Cardinal Ratzinger.
Print of a revolutionary Mary, inspired by the Magnificat, by lithographer Ben Wildflower. Purchase HERE
every day I am afraid
that he died in vain
because he is buried in our churches
because we have betrayed his revolution
in our obedience to authority
and our fear of it
I believe in jesus christ
who rises again and again in our lives
so that we will be free
from prejudice and arrogance
from fear and hate
and carry on his revolution
and make way for his kingdom
Soelle laments what has happened to Jesus’ “revolution.” She is afraid on a daily basis that he might have died “in vain,” for he is “buried” and his life “betrayed.” How? By our obedience to and fear of authority.
And where is this revolution buried? “In our churches” where too much obedience can kill the soul and the promised kingdom. Perhaps her understanding helps to explain the dive in church attendance among Protestants and Catholics today, especially among younger adults.
But there is also going on a deeper interest in spirituality and mysticism. Or as Carl Jung put is, “only the mystics bring what is creative to religion itself.”
“No one should comply with an immoral law.” Mural of Monseñor Oscar Romero. Photo by Franco Folini is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Soelle’s belief is that Jesus’ resurrection is ongoing “in our lives,” or it is not going on at all. It not a past event, and this will one day empty us of fear, hate, arrogance. Thus would the divine kingdom/queendom be born.
Dorothee Soelle believed that love is revolutionary; and love is what Jesus and the “kingdom of God” that he preached is all about; and love is often missing in our institutions including our religious ones.
She sees a cure for this—and it is us responding to our authentic vocations and work and choices.
Consider her poem called “When he came.”
He needs you
That’s all there is to it
Without you he’s left hanging
AFSC marks a century of connecting movements resisting militarism, racism, and materialism. American Friends Service Committee
Goes up in dachau’s smoke
Is sugar and spice in the baker’s hands
gets revalued in the next stock market crash
he’s consumed and blown away
used up
without you
“God and Suffering: Dorothee Soelle” Professor Wendy Crosby of Siena Heights University reflects on Soelle’s reframing of Christ’s suffering and the work of his followers. Theology with Dr. Crosby
Help him
that’s what faith is
he can’t bring it about
his kingdom
couldn’t then couldn’t later can’t now
not at any rate without you
and that is his irresistible appeal.
Soelle returns to her belief in Jesus: He is needy. He needs us to accomplish the work of compassion. “That’s all there is to it.” Otherwise the death camps return; he goes up “in dachau’s smoke” and all the evil of humanity to others that that symbolizes and reminds us of.
He is part of what blows up when stock markets crash — unless we participate in redefining finance and economics. “Help him / that’s what faith is.”
Faith is action, a participatory action. Jesus dead or alive cannot do it without us. No kingdom without our work — never was, never will be. And that, for Soelle, is what constitutes Jesus’ “irresistible appeal.” He did not do it all for us, rather we are invited to do, live, resist, gather, love, act like he did.
“Homeless Christ” Icon by Kelly Latimore, commissioned by Alex Spenik. Used with permission.
Do you find this belief irresistible also? Do you believe that Jesus needs you, or that you need Jesus? What requires more “faith”–believing in his message or that his message can’t live “without you”? That our work and citizenship and choices truly matter.
That saving the Earth as we know it is worthy of our work and commitment? That choosing truth rather than lies in politics matters?
That living lives of gratitude and care rather than exploitation matters?
Queries for Contemplation
Do you find people whether identifying as Christian or not who find an “irresistible appeal” in the person and story of Jesus? Why do you think this is so? Do you agree that “he needs us.” How does that influence your life and work?
Recommended Reading
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us I wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless youth