Chapter 5: Passing Through the Eye of the Needle
The key to salvation is not worthiness, but God’s graciousness. You have to depend on it that meritocracy is not operative. Grace is that release. It makes us feel powerless. Successful people do not feel the need. We only hear what we want. We hear sins of the body but want essentials that tie us to clergy. We do not want to hear about justice. Non-essentials for Jesus (e.g., homosexuality, abortion) are now litmus tests for being religious.
But we do not hear about giving up all our possessions. ‘What must I do to gain eternal life?” is the wrong question. It’s narcissistic. Discharge your loyal soldier. Become a disciple, not caring about what to wear. What has to die is attachment to self-image, to our projection that we are leaders, bishops, etc. Go to the bottom of the pile.
Before 313, the church understood this: Didache (90), Shepherd of Hermes (120), Tertullian (200). The church was non-imperial and counter cultural. After 313, morality = sexual morality. Religious were on the edges. It used to be unthinkable to be in the army. Imperial forces were killing Christians; but then Christians became the army.
People transformed by grief have a different way of knowing. You can’t fix the loss and you’ll never understand it. Overly protected people cannot know deeply. Grief gives us solidarity with the real and the opportunity to be transformed. Go near the poor for this knowledge. Great love offers it also.
Chapter 6: Jesus’ Unique Assault on the Systems of This World
Religion needs to be about healing (and not just offer something for later). Salus = Healing. Not just maintaining order; not resolving spiritual issues with laws. Nothing in the Gospel mandates the emergence of monks. Laymen were considered people who knew nothing.
Meditation has no hierarchy or classes. Merton: we are not contemplatives; we just say a lot of prayers. Prayer beyond words is no longer taught.
Interior life is the ‘only antidote when religion has become a worthiness contest’ (60). “Buying and selling God must be replaced by prayer and healing.” Clergy became brokers of worthiness (as with the four courts of the Temple). Segregation pretends to come from God! (62). Consider, for example, the Communion rail and the Sanctuary. The Gospel became a worthiness system.
Jesus always touched the impure outsiders and criticized the inner court. “What you decide to see determines what you do not see.” Jesus is a mystical, not a moral flash point!
Giving from security vs. becoming poor like Jesus made it OK to get rich; to do charity instead of justice. Religious took care of the poor, made Catholicism survive. Opposition is a waste, but it may be effective to ask questions. Seek transformation, not to be right. Practice the better. Live like St. Francis.
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