Hebrew Wisdom
- aptitudeforemptine
- Feb 16, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 17, 2022
There is simply too much organization when it comes to talking about contemplation.
In order for contemplation to be at all valid it needs to be fully lived.
The official title of the findings of the church's Vatican II council was entitled The Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World. But over fifty years later the church still does not understand what the modern world is, because modernity had to do with setting aside traditional roles and finding one's own place in a world without roles. So while the church recognized the need to be relevant in the modern world it has not only not reformed to this end, but has actively dissuaded its own sons and daughters from doing so through its own pastors. Priests from lands that only see faith through the roles that it has assigned to its members down through history now serve churches here. These have never been educated to understand what it means to serve churches in countries that have long ago left behind these traditional roles. A friend was recently told by his priest that he was possessed by a devil, when in fact my friend has been a faithful follower of Christ in the modern world. Another priest told other friends that it is simply a matter of time before those who have been baptized will return to the church. But having visited with many of these who no longer attend they have made it perfectly clear that they will never return citing the freedom they currently experience to be themselves in their relationship to God without the imposition of medieval autocracy. Furthermore, watching the archbishop here interact with First Nations it is more than clear that he is simply unable to set his own cultural preoccupations aside in favour of serving all people under his charge with understanding and respect. His inability to do so has cost the church members as these have exited over the church's inability to address how it has violated aboriginal members down through the centuries.
Twelve years ago when I first started attending this church there were forty on a Sunday. Last Sunday there were four.
Contemplative life - finding God everywhere - is the clear bridge to church viability. But this needs to be much more a reflection of actual life than in the restricting roles that it has formulated in the past. Hidebound to traditions that its own members now question, those in charge of the spiritual life of the church need to be caring parents and companions, and not prelates, police chiefs, or corporate presidents. The church cannot afford to arrogate to its leaders a function that does all of the thinking for its subjects. Modern people will simply not tolerate this any more, nor should they. The authentic and real meaning of dedicating oneself to the service of God means dedicating oneself to actual life on earth, and not empty and deceptive formalities that require oneself to pit oneself against oneself.
Hebrew wisdom is simply this: how to live a long and good life by not doing stupid things.
- F.H.
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