Nothing Special: Justice

"An appropriate and compassionate response does not come from the fight for justice..."  --Charlotte Joko Beck

Joko Beck in her book, Nothing Special, Living Zen, observes "When someone insists, 'I am never angry,' I am incredulous. Since anger, and its subsets, depression, anxiety, resentment, jealousy, gossip and backbiting and so on-- dominate our lives, we need to investigate the whole problem of anger with care... For the psychologically mature person, the ills and injustices of life are handled by counter-aggression, in which one makes an effort to eliminate the injustice and create justice. Often such efforts are dictatorial, full of anger and self-righteousness. In spiritual maturity, the opposite of injustice is not justice, but compassion... All anger is based upon judgements..."

The best answer to injustice is compassion, or love.  Joko Beck writes, "An appropriate and compassionate response does not come from the fight for justice, but from that radical dimension of practice that "passes all understanding," love.
As the Christ taught, "love your enemies," and Gandhi and Blessed Mother Teresea of Calcutta both knew, injustice is highlighted and resolved by means of love, of peaceful protest. It's not easy. We must go through the darkness, the pain and grief before coming to the lightness that will ultimately be our guide, and our justice.

"Let us not adopt some facile, narrowly psychological view of our lives. The radical dimension that I speak of demands everything that we are and have. Joy, not happiness, is its fruit."

Gathering Communities

We gather together to work, to learn, to grow; we gather into communities, towns, universities. People everywhere, they live in groups, they live in families; they cherish their friends and they spend time together, supporting and enjoying their ways and their company. We get sick, we go to hospitals to help us recover.
What all these things have in common, with each of us in our everyday lives, is that inescapable fact that humanity, as a species, seems hard wired for gathering.

 Into groups we collect and revel. Together. It all seems so natural. Why, by working together, supporting and accomplishing worthwhile tasks, what could be better?
The person who lives stalwartly alone, who is friendless, who has very little or no community to speak of, that is a person often pitied and eyed suspiciously. We exclaim, "are they ill? Why are they such loners?"
This all makes simple sense. It seems so natural to gather, to enjoy the company of our brothers and sisters, our loves and loved here on earth.
Yet when the matter turns to named things such as 'religion', many of us recoil. Why? Well, it seems we don't think to belong after all. Some don't want to belong. Thus reinventing the 'spiritual' wheel is okay.

In fact, it's better than okay. It may be for these persons, the only way to demonstrate their will to 'pull themselves up by the bootstraps.' Many among us think, in spiritual terms, that there are aliens around us, to be avoided at all costs.
Infected with perhaps a strong sense of humanist enlightenment, a person with such notions eschews anything of community within the context of faith.

Yet if a faith community is true, existing for a higher purpose, for the common good, then it is, it must be and it will do something. Let me say this again: Churches, mosques, temples, ashrams and so forth exist because they do something for others.
If they do not, they they exist not for long. Communities survive and thrive because of the activities of each of its constituents. What each of us contributes to the good of all, is the community.

It is this fact that escapes many in the blog-sphere. Simply talking isn't sufficient, nor are kind thoughts or nice words and graphics. Communities must do something, and religious communities continue and persist for this very simple reason!
 Join the collective, engage in acts of social justice. Learn about yourself from another's eyes.
Help a friend. Be a community, be a support.

Love Is Not Rude

"At the end of your life, you will be judged by your love."
--Saint John of the Cross

With the approach of another Saint Valentine's day, retailers remind us there are wide swaths of the world taken over by its sentiments.
While Saint Valentine was a real person in history, very few greeting cards, retailers or restaurateurs, candy makers or the like recollect this. Saint Valentine's belief and message to mankind was essential and simple. Like Saint John of the Cross he believed:
"as the bee draws honey from plants and makes company with them for that reason, so must the soul most easily draw the sweetness of love from all that happens to it. It makes all things subservient to the ends of loving God, whether they be sweet or bitter. In all its occupations, its joy is the love of God."
--Daily Readings with St. John of the Cross, ed. by Sr. Elizabeth Ruth, ODC

He followed in the way of the teaching to 'love one another.' But what does that mean? His view was something like this:  
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, It is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians chapter 12:31-13:13 or 13:4-13

Charity is the greatest social requirement. It recognizes and respects others and their rights. Charity requires the practice of justice, and charity alone make us capable of doing so. Charity is love. Because love has the function of uniting persons and communities, love is the center of human life.
 Celebrate the feast day of Saint Valentine, and Saint Valentine is with you, building your spirit in love.

Ancient History Today

"We have taken an oath to God before we took one before you..."  Maurice, Theban Legion officer

What's a bit of ancient history, anyway? Who cares? Well there was the time of the Roman Legions; going backward in time to about 280 CE--that's the end of the second century, the Roman empire extended for thousands of miles beyond the city-state of Rome. The Romans inhabited large swaths of Europe, including Germany, France and England. They didn't make the time to invade Ireland. Perhaps they thought the Irish unworth their efforts.
They've left many, many remnants of their culture and ideas to the West today. This legacy includes our modern languages and religion. So there. We've now easily returned to 2012, or about 1,800 centuries after the Theban Legion.

Here the story has interest: The Roman legion recruited from Thebes in Upper Egypt consisted entirely of early (Coptic) Christians. In 287CE they were mobilized to assist with putting down the rebellious Gauls (parts of present day France). They arrived at the place of present day Martigny,  near Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Ordered into battle at that place, they joined with the other soldiers who were making offerings and sacrifices to their gods of the eve of battle. The Thebans refused to take part in this event.

Declared insubordinate by the Roman commanders, they suffered under them. When they persisted in their refusal, the commanders took action against the Theban soldiers who would not participate in a religious ritual they held against their conscience. Therefore one of every of their ten were taken by lottery and put to death. Still the Thebans exercised their free conscience and free will. Soldiers they may be, Christians as well-- they continued to refuse. The Roman commanders were baffled. Was not their absolute power and authority--even unto death sufficient to motivate these men?
Was their issue simply a religious cause, or did they have a greater sense of justice? Historic tradition records the words, in part of at least one of the men, their commanding officer, Legionnaire Maurice who made statements on the Copts behalf: We are soldiers, true, but we are also servants of the Christ. We cannot oppose God our Creator; we will oppose all our enemies... we rather die innocently, as martyrs for our cause. 
According to historic tradition, all 6,000 of the Coptic Thebans were slayed that day for insubordination. Today no one easily recalls the names of those in power that day at Martigny yet the name of Maurice and the Christ live on.
History's a funny thing, isn't it?

A Theology of Evil

"The Devil has a whole system of theology and philosophy...which explains that created things are evil...in fact the whole universe is full of misery..." Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

According to the Evil One, the creator rejoices in the sufferings of men; the universe is filled with misery because the creator himself plans it and wills it. In myriad ways, the implication of a move toward what is good within a spiritual tradition, by definition, acknowledges its opposite, what is evil. This is an idea which has not been directly explored here before.

Evil is indeed the counterpoint to many if not most spiritual systems and modes of practice. Yet in a modern, pluralistic society such as the United States, its presence may be easily obscured by many factors, and it may be enveloped and packaged into a number of other ideas. Without clear, careful awareness of the implications of a thought or action, an individual or a mass movement, evil easily arises into our midst.

Thomas Merton writes-- indeed, says within this system, the Creator took real pleasure in the crucifixion of souls; the Christ came to earth so as to be punished. Punishment is in fact his chief goal for himself and for all others. The pair, the Christ and his creator, want nothing more than to punish and persecute; that mankind inevitably is in error, he is wrong, so much so that there is great opportunity to manifest the justice of the wicked.

In the cosmos of the Evil One, the first order of creation is Hell; it comes first, before all else. The proper devotions of the faithful are about evil so as to be cloaked with evil. It is so that man cannot escape his punishments, the justice that this One metes out.There is no escape for individuals, nor for society in this way; there is no mercy, for it has no place in these systems of justice by punishments. The suffering, the Christ and his cross have now been transformed into a new symbol, a symbol for the victory of Justice and Law.

The Evil One declares that it is Law and Justice, not Love that fulfills the teaching. "Law must devour everything,' writes Merton, 'such is this theology of punishment, hatred and revenge."
Those who live by this dogma, live for just punishments, and yet desire to successfully evade the very same for themselves. He or she will take care to see to it that others do not avoid suffering. This concern powers the believer. The chief mark of hell is that there is everything but mercy. God absents himself from hell.

His mercy is elsewhere. Those in agreement with the Evil One are perfect; they no longer have need of any mercy. It is perhaps because "they derive a deep, subconscious comfort from the thought that many other people will fall into hell which they themselves are going to escape."

By this feeling, this conviction they are saved. The Evil One makes many disciples; he furthers his conquest through announcements against sin, the evil of sin which is guilt. So don't feel guilty, lest you fall into sin! In syllogistic logic, the principle of pleasure is explored:
 pleasure is sin; all sin is pleasure.
Next comes the notion that since pleasure is practically unavoidable, indeed planted here by the creator, we have a natural tendency towards evil, our nature is evil; therefore practically no one can escape sins because pleasure is inescapable. And so in the philosophy of the Evil One, what is left except to live for pleasure, to live in the now--with no thought of anyone or anything else beyond the self?

Ironic how those lives are often miserably unhappy ones, isn't it? Yet it's all in the plan of Justice and Punishments devised by this creator who works without mercy or grace, explains Thomas Merton in his essay, "The Moral Theology of the Devil."

Reincarnation

"The withering hope in eternity is simply the reverse side of a withering faith."   J. Ratzinger

For as far back as recorded history exists, there rarely has been prevalent the idea that everything ends with death. Some form of the notion of judgement, and forms of salvation may be found the world over. In places with a strong tradition of faith within non-theistic religious expression, the imagining of  "other" life, life "beyond the veil," is sometimes vague and imprecise. While not quite an existence in nothingness, this unknowingness, or obscure relation, is perceived in a remarkable way, connecting itself with the everyday, living world.

Firstly, there are connections in many of those traditions, with the spirits of this shadowy realm who need the help of the living to continue to survive; first they need offerings and continual attention: food, prayer, money, housing, and other comforts. This makes for their immortality; they are not forgotten. And secondly, they, as spirits, are powerful; members of a universal realm, they may pose either as a help or as a threat to living persons.

People as often admire the departed spirit as they fear, even dread them.Over the ages a variety of rituals have been engaged to address the spirits and to sometimes protect themselves from them. Simultaneously the spirits of one's ancestors, primarily those who are seen in a protective role for the clan, are most often worshiped to ensure their favor. This practice of ancestor cults is one of the most ancient forms in human society.

Ancestor worship gives evidence that the bonds of love, family and community are unbroken, even by death. The belief of incarnation in these instances may be understood as a remedy for the justice or injustices of the world. One may, for example incarnate as a simple life form such as an animal or an insect, or they may attain perfection and complete their spiritual journeys, in the view of believers. The teachings of incarnation lend a sense of an inflexible justice, expiation for wrongdoings in life and a correction for that karmic condition. However when the bulk of life experience in this world is experienced as suffering, trans-migration of souls may not be enough. The goal may then be described as the intention to escape the bounds of individuality, to escape the confusion of the world, cycling of existence, so as to surrender to the origins of the true, universal self. This is sometimes described as the Dharmakaya, the great intelligence-mind.

Reincarnation encompasses a sense of everything and nothing; it is all times, all places and all spirit.  Full of hope and innocence, the belief in incarnation, cause and effect and the transmigration of souls is part of a vast, turning wheel in this world. For many today, however and for many in the West it loses its ancient sense of faith in moral justice; it is not universally perceived as the means by which a hidden power of justice is meted out in the here after.
Instead many now wish to interpret the ancient belief as a type of "energy conservation" wherein the soul's energy is not merely dispersed nor deleted at death; it instead in this view, there requires some form of embodiment. This newer view is at odds with the classic faith of the transmigration of souls.

Love, Our Moral Witness

"Love is the necessary condition of justice" Caritas in Veritate, by Pope Benedict

In a world increasingly influenced by the click of a mouse and the "viral" transmission of ideas, some ideas still, even today, travel slowly. Writing in his recent encyclical [essay], the current Pope and spiritual leader of the world's 1.3 billion Roman Catholics, Pope Benedict, writes in Caritas in Veritate [Love in Truth] that not only is God love, but that we too are to love one another. This is not news for many who are familiar with the Christian teachings. But then in this piece of writing he goes on further to say, "the development of peoples depends, above all, upon a recognition that the human race is a single family."

Well, many would have not even considered this a teaching originating from this community; they will be surprised to know its continuing work for justice. The exhortation that the human family is one is in fact, a long time teaching coming from this body, the same body that is instrumental in shaping the now standard and accepted "human rights" doctrine embraced by the United Nations and most others world-wide. It is this same institution to whom the Pope addresses himself, as well as to others, christian or otherwise.

As a Catholic Christian, Benedict wishes to clarify that the teaching of his brethren is inclusive; it is encompassing race, and culture. He reminds his reader that 'anyone who says, I love God, and then hates his brother is a liar.' 1John 4:20
The takeaway from Caritas in Veritate is summed up as something like: the fundamental attitude we take towards others is akin to our regard for a brother, our neighbor and family. He reminds and instructs that this fraternal attitude is not limited to one's intimates and family, but to society in general. This attitude he insists, is fundamental to the economic development of a just, civil society.

While some will dismiss this notion out of hand as mere sentimentalism, the Pope is steadfast. A highly educated scholar, he makes salient argument in areas beyond and including theology for the good of all, his prime interest. Recalling the struggles of those living under a-theistic communist regimes, the struggles for racial justice in the United States and elsewhere, Benedict echoes the words of  Martin Luther King who said, "Justice is really love in calculation. Justice is love correcting that which [would want] revolts against love."
As these two world leaders teach, love is indeed the necessary condition of justice. On a person to person level, if we love someone, will will likely insist that they be treated fairly, both within personal relationships and within the larger community. This realization brings us to affirm that love is at the very heart of a true and faithful witness.

Joy, the Radical Dimension

"There is no peace without justice" --Pope John Paul II

Joko Beck in her book, Nothing Special, Living Zen, observes "When someone insists, 'I am never angry,' I am incredulous. Since anger, and its subsets, depression, anxiety, resentment, jealousy, gossip and backbiting and so on-- dominate our lives, we need to investigate the whole question of anger with care... For the psychologically mature person, the ills and injustices of life are handled by counter-aggression, in which one makes an effort to eliminate the injustice and create justice. Often such efforts are dictatorial, full of anger and self-righteousness. In spiritual maturity, the opposite of injustice is not justice, but compassion... All anger is based upon judgments..."

The best answer to injustice is compassion, or love. Joko Beck writes, "An appropriate and compassionate response does not come from the fight for justice, but from that radical dimension of practice that "passes all understanding;" some call it love. As Christ taught, "love your enemies," Gandhi and Blessed Mother Teresea of Calcutta both knew, injustice is highlighted and resolved by means of love, of peaceful protest. It's not easy. We must go through the darkness, the pain and grief before coming to the lightness that will ultimately be our guide, and our justice.
"Let us not adopt some facile, narrowly psychological view of our lives. The radical dimension that I speak of demands everything that we are and have. Joy, not happiness, is its fruit." Radical because it is not what the world expects; radical because we may consciously and actively choose it.

Personalism as Belief, as Philosophy

"So then in love, in freedom, there is a conscious will for another person's good, an unqualified good, a good unlimited, that is a person's happiness." --author unknown

Personalism stands great as a philosophy and a compass for modern man. It is what the modern, current of 'human rights' stands upon; it supports the modern view of relationships, especially marriage, and it advocates the rights of animals and children to name a few areas in which Personalistic philosophy has something to say about man and modern, life values.

The ideas and ideals of personalism came into the fore with the increasing developments of science and technology during previous centuries. While often identified with Christian values, personalism is a wider concept and practice. The Hindu, Ramanuja of the 12th century advocated for it; elements of the philosophy are tangible in Judaism and other religions of the East.

While many of us encounter personalistic attitudes on a day to day basis, for example in areas like human rights, very few of us consider the basis for such a belief or practice like 'human rights.'
Most simply stated the notion of personalism necessarily carries that a person is a created being of worth and dignity; that all persons are valuable, none are expendable and all must be regarded as one, whole and complete. Personalism believes, protects and advocates for natural life in every and all instances.

Personalists regard every person as a creation of free will, possessing agency of the self, a personality unique and distinct. Personalism regards the role of metaphysics as the right justification of the person; through self awareness and knowledge-experience, one grasps value and meaning by these same experiences. In the metaphysical realm, the experience and understanding of a creative force, a god who created the self along with the universe is first contacted and known through the experience of a unified, whole and complete, giving love.

The French writer, nobleman and adventurer, Antoine de St. Exupery follows this personalistc mould closely. He writes in his book, Wind, Sand Sea and Stars that it is love, finally, when the will enters into the equation, providing a conscious commitment of one's freedom in respect to another person, in recognition and affirmation, providing a creative contribution of the love that develops between the persons. Thus love is between persons, existing in a space that is neither one nor the other, is created, and not possessed. So then in love, in freedom, there is a conscious will for another person's good, an unqualified good, a good unlimited, that is a person's happiness.

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward in the same direction. "           --Antoine de St. Exupery

We desire moreover to make the beloved happy, to please them and see to their good. It is this precisely that makes possible for a person to be re-born in love, to become alive, aware of the riches within himself, of his creativity, his spirituality, of his fertility. The person, in love, compels belief in his own spiritual powers; it awakens the creativity and the sense of worth within the individual. And yet for all its lofty abundance, human lovers must learn to translate their highest impulses into the everyday world. Personalism carves a way for this sense-experience and translates it into life experiences borne of justice, peacefulness, friendship, compassion and love.

Rosh Ha-Shanah, New Year

In recognition of the recent conclusion of the Jewish New Year 5771 observances, Rosh Ha-Shanah, and the High Holy days occurring annually about September each year, the Simple Mind revisits a most beautiful piece of literature contained within the Jewish Cannon, Sh'ir Ha-sh'irim also known as the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon. Each new year is commenced by days of reflection, alms giving and repentance. The observance of Rosh Ha-Shanah, itself is also a reflective time for believers. As a covenental faith, Judiaism proclaims a just and merciful G-d, a passionate, loving G-d as reflected in the 'Song.'

"The author of the Song, using the same literary figure, paints a beautiful picture of the ideal Israel, the chosen people of the Old and New Testaments, whom the Lord led by degrees to an exalted spiritual union with himself in the bond of perfect love. When the Song is thus interpreted, there is no reason for surprise at the tone of the poem which employs in its descriptions the courtship and marriage customs of the author's time. Moreover, the poem is not an allegory in which each remark, in the dialogue of the lovers, has a higher meaning. It is a parable in which the true meaning of mutual love comes from the poem as a whole."

"Although the poem is attributed to Solomon in the traditional title, the language and style of the work, among other considerations, point to a time after the end of the Babylonian Exile, 538 B.C as that in which an unknown poet composed this masterpiece. The structure of the Song is difficult to analyze; it is regarded as a lyric dialogue, with dramatic movement and interest. The Lord speaks of Israel as a new spiritual people, purified by the Babylonian captivity and betrothed anew to her divine Lover "in justice and uprightness, in love and mercy."
Quoted text source: various authors, USCCB.

Song of Songs, Sh'ir Ha-Sh'irim, Chapter 2

    I am a flower of Sharon,
    a lily of the valley.
     As a lily among thorns,
    so is my beloved among women.

     As an apple tree among the trees of the woods,
    so is my lover among men.
    I delight to rest in his shadow,
    and his fruit is sweet to my mouth.

      He brings me into the banquet hall
    and his emblem over me is love.

    Strengthen me with raisin cakes,
    refresh me with apples,
    for I am faint with love.

    His left hand is under my head
    and his right arm embraces me.

    I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
    by the gazelles and hinds of the field,
    Do not arouse, do not stir up love
    before its own time.
     Hark! my lover-here he comes
    springing across the mountains,
    leaping across the hills.

    My lover is like a gazelle
    or a young stag.
    Here he stands behind our wall,
    gazing through the windows,
    peering through the lattices.

    My lover speaks; he says to me,
    "Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
    and come!
    "For see, the winter is past,
    the rains are over and gone.

    The flowers appear on the earth,
    the time of pruning the vines has come,
    and the song of the dove is heard in our land.

    The fig tree puts forth its figs,
    and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
    Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
    and come!
    "O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
    in the secret recesses of the cliff,
    Let me see you,
    let me hear your voice,
    For your voice is sweet,
    and you are lovely."

Translation: New American Bible

Building the Civilization of Love

Carl Anderson writes boldly in his book, A Civilization of Love, "there is no gap between love of neighbor and justice." Attempts to contrast justice and love, serve to distort them both. Within justice is the meaning of mercy itself. To pursue justice without love is to engage in revenge. Love is not about revenge. From the earliest time, religions have pursued the liberation of the self, and the collective from every type of oppression and evil; they have promoted in degree, the dignity of the individual.

Within the civilization of love, there comes the realization that love is not mere sentiment, it is not mere feeling. Love is action, it is active; it includes the necessity of vocation, so that a civilization founded upon the dignity and value of all Creation may be realized. The sharing of love is basic to human life.  A heart which 'sees' and directs itself accordingly is one of the first actions taken in a civilization of love; priority must be given to the formation and re-formation of human hearts-- all hearts. The heart that 'sees' is one that has learned to see its own history, thus it knows how to recognize the other. Indeed, when the moment arrives that the heart in charity recognizes an experience of love and gift, it can no longer be perceived without awareness of one's own history. That is, the awareness of the loves that came before us: our parents, our family, the Divine, who loved us first and most.

There was, at one moment, a great act of Creation that begot us from seeming nothingness; we were brought into the world. In the civilization of love, someone's love is revealed as the initial source of our existence. The heart now awakened is able to see with 'eyes'. With the heart, events are viewed not only from one perspective, but from the greatest perspective of the acts of a co-creator in creation. The one who is blind, who does not see, then lives as if the divinity rests solely within them. Others may easily be forgotten or omitted. And yet it is not divinely demanded that we, as individuals, produce a feeling, or any feeling that we are not yet capable of producing. In the civilization of love, all are called to action for hope that our sight shall illuminate the way of the other. This is what is also called charity.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta modeled her life upon this civilization of love. She called all to it; divinity and love are inseparable. She was well-seeing into the truth that loving one's neighbor was a central task of the heart in action. It is this which will form a better society for the common good, she wrote.

An Outrageous Agenda: Be Merciful as Your Lord is Merciful.

"To err is human, to forgive is divine."--Alexander Pope

The Christian in the Bible book of Saint Matthew is exhorted to follow the way of the Lord, the way of his mercies. The Beatitudes sums up the genuine idea of the Messiah, the Christ, and the kingdom very well to the ancient and the modern Judeo-Christian mind.

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.

Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure of heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Mercy in Judaism is considered a fundamental act, an act from which all other acts are formed. The Jewish mind sees alms-giving in all its forms as a beautiful thing.

William Shakespeare wrote of mercy:

"The quality of mercy is not strained, it drops as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed; It blesses him who gives, and him who takes; it is the mightiest in the mighty; it becomes the enthroned monarch better than his crown; his sceptre shows the force of temporal power, the attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein does sit the dread and fear of Kings; but mercy is above this sceptred sway, it is enthroned in the hearts of kings."

The simple mind contemplates carefully the acts and understandings which lead to mercy, to compassion. To those oddities of self, of soul, defects in understanding; false notions lead away from the heart of the One. All is in the realm of simple understanding, of deep looking and clearer thinking.