It's Important To Be Foolish!

I have just finished reading Brennan Manning's "The Importance of Being Foolish: How To Think Like Jesus". It's a timely reminder of the challenge of fitting God's Kingdom standards which do tend to turn things upside down. As Manning writes: "Jesus presents his heavenly Father as our model. As God rains peace and goodness on the just and unjust alike, so should we. Anyone can love their friends, those with whom we have a mutuality, a reciprocity. True godliness demands much, much more." One way in which we behave differently from normal convention should be our readiness to forgive (as God forgives us). Manning reminds us just how challenging, but how necessary, this is - "If we do not forgive our enemies, we ourselves are not forgiven (see Luke 6:37). For a long time the theology of the confession of sins has not been presented in this perspective. We have quibbled over the approximate number of times and the precise species of sin for which forgiveness might be warranted. We consider the boundaries crossed and the equal division of blame. When we do offer forgiveness, we do so too often with a spirit of superiority, using forgiveness as something to hold over the head of those we have deigned to let off the hook. The New Testament is relevant only if we grasp the fundamental meaning of the radical demands of the gospel while at the same time understanding that we can never completely fulfill them." He reminds us: "Contact with Christians should be an experience that proves to people that the gospel is a power that transforms the whole of life. Instead, our presence in the world is often marked by rank insincerity, a dilution of grace, and a failure to act on the Word." All in all it goes back to the idea of Jesus as our model. We may struggle with the call of the book's title 'How to think like Jesus' - but perhaps we can allow Jesus to model things for us and, if we can, it is probably worth remembering the open and receptive way in which Jesus approached everyone. As Manning says: "Jesus’s gentleness with sinners flowed from his ability to read their hearts and to detect the sincerity and essential goodness there. Behind people’s grumpiest poses or most puzzling defense mechanisms, behind their dignified airs, coarseness, or sneers, behind their silence or their curses, Jesus saw a little child who hadn’t been loved enough and who had ceased growing because those around him had ceased believing in him."

The Seven Storey Mountain

I have just finished reading Thomas Merton's "The Seven Storey Mountain", the fascinating autobiographical account of his quest for faith. Mderton has a very interesting 'early life' story, which this book recounts, ending with his admission to the Trappist Monastery at Gethsemani in Kentucky. He finished the book (published in 1948) in 1946 at the age of 31, five years after entering the monastery. Unsurprisingly, it describes many moments of exploration and of faith. Relatively near to the end of the book, Merton writes of his finding faith anc clarity on his call to the religious life: "It may seem irrational, but at that moment, it was as if scales fell off my own eyes, and looking back on all my worries and questions, I could see clearly how empty and futile they had been. Yes, it was obvious that I was called to the monastic life: and all my doubts about it had been mostly shadows. Where had they gained such a deceptive appearance of substance and reality? Accident and circumstances had all combined to exaggerate and distort things in my mind. But now everything was straight again. And already I was full of peace and assurance - the consciousness that everything was right, and that a straight road had opened out, clear and smooth, ahead of me." He also says: "I was free. I had recovered my liberty. I belonged to God, not to myself: and to belong to Him is to be free, free of all the anxieties and worries and sorrows that belong to this earth, and the love of the things that are in it. What was the difference between one place and another, one habit and another, if your life belonged to God, and if you placed yourself completely in His hands? The only thing that mattered was the fact of the sacrifice, the essential dedication of one's self, one's will, The rest was only accidental." A fascinating read with much of interest and many insights.