Dear siblings in Christ,
Because we are fragile and so often filled with fear, it’s easy for us as humans to fall into false binaries, where we collapse complex, multi-layered issues into two mutually-exclusive options that are labeled “good” and “bad.”
This often happens when it comes to the Christian call to cultivate awareness of God in prayer, on the one hand, and on the other, the Christian call to stand in embodied solidarity with the most vulnerable among us. Somehow contemplation and action tend to occupy opposites sides of a chasm in our imaginations.
But contemplation and action very much belong together. To quote a meme (sorry), “Why not both?”
Franciscan friar Richard Rohr says, “There is a deep relationship between the inner revolution of prayer and the transformation of social structures and social consciousness.” I’ve been thinking about this during our current class on contemplative prayer.
Contemplative prayer is not something we do instead of action, it is how we strengthen ourselves for the action we are called to. Prayer also changes the quality of action we are able to take. “The effectiveness of action depends on the source from which it springs,” Fr. Thomas Keating writes. “If it is coming out of the false self with its shadow side, it is severely limited. If it is coming out of a person immersed in God, it is extremely effective. The contemplative state… brings Christ into the world.“
Learning to pray, in other words, brings to your action in the world a calm effectiveness and a keen discernment. But this happens at a hidden level beyond conscious awareness, because it is the “weak” power of God and the “foolish” wisdom of God operating on the level of faith (see 1 Cor 1:18-31).
This is how we learn to cooperate with and participate in the slow, patient way the Spirit of God is transforming the world day by day, through unlikely people in unimportant places. So, as I said in a sermon a few weeks ago, one of the best things you can do for our sick and unjust world is learn to pray (and probably go to therapy, too). In doing so, you will reduce the amount of fear and unprocessed pain pinging around in the world, and you’ll learn to perceive and participate in what God is actually doing in and around you.
So let’s keep praying, church: together on Sundays and in Table Groups, and individually at home and at work. And let’s keep taking action together: finding practical ways to show up in embodied solidarity with the most vulnerable among us right now. We find Jesus in both places, so… Why not both?
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Ben
