Over the past months several individuals have brought to spiritual direction sessions their great discomfort with the level of rhetoric and discourse occurring in the national political arena. These are toughened persons and several are accustomed to the give and take of advocacy issues. But things have descended to a plane of discussion that, frankly, sickens them. They ask what has happened to civil discourse? They are shocked by the images of violence and abusive language that they see in the media. This is not for them only a political matter but one that cuts to the core of who they see themselves as spiritual beings in society. When I listen deeply to what these good people say, I find that they are speaking out loud some of my own deep concerns and fears. This week I shared my concerns with my own spiritual director, who advised, wisely, to just stop listening to the "noise" and to "guard the heart". in the best monastic tradition. He was not counseling neutrality or lack of concern but simply not getting eaten up by the viciousness of the moment. This morning I spent some time, as I do every day, with A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals (selected and edited by Jonathan Montaldo). An entry titled "A Moment of Clarity" helped me understand my feelings in the wider (cosmic?) scheme of things: "A flash of sanity: the momentary realization that there is no need to come to certain conclusions about persons, events, conflicts, trends, even trends toward evil and disaster, as if from day to day, and even from moment to moment, I had to know and declare (at least to myself) that this is so and so, this is good, this is bad. We are heading for a "new era" or we are heading for destruction. What do such judgments mean? Little or nothing. Things are as they are in an immense whole of which I am a part and which I cannot pretend to grasp. To say I grasp it is immediately to put myself in a false position, as if I were 'outside' it. Whereas to be 'in' it is to seek truth in my own life and action, moving where movement is possible and keeping still when movement is unnecessary, realizing that things will continue to define themselves and that the judgments and mercies of God will clarify themselves and will be more clear to me if I am silent and attentive, obedient to His will, rather than constantly formulating statements in this age which is smothered in language, in meaningless and inconclusive debate in which, in the last analysis, nobody listens to anything except what agrees with his own prejudices" (p. 86). When this was written in March 1966 this country was in political turmoil about national and international matters. Merton's comments are sill very relevant and helpful, to me at least, in the political season of 2016.
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March 2023
AuthorDan Hoffman is an Indianapolis USA based spiritual director, supervisor of spiritual directors, and workshop/retreat leader. This occasional blog discusses things he is thinking about and wants to share. Comments are always welcome. |