The Heart of Christianity

The heart of the Christian message is so very simple. Perhaps that’s one of our problems. We expect it to be difficult. We think if something is too simple, it won’t work – we’ll not be challenged. Surely, we reason, the mind that thought up and implemented the mystery and complexities of the universe must want us to struggle, and struggle deeply, if we ever hope to grow into that likeness.

For many of us, just surviving our days is exceedingly demanding. To find time to work out what God has in mind is more than we can take on right now. We’re just trying to stay alive and make it on our own and not be too much of a burden on our loved ones. Figuring out what God is ultimately all about feels stressful.

But God isn’t about additional stress. No, God is about the elimination of fear, replacing our fear with a sense of safety, a sense that all is well – that, as Julian of Norwich said, “All manner of things shall be well.” Nothing can happen that can take my life off course. Change will happen, but in all the changes that come to me, I AM SAFE and always will be.

A baby born into a loving home feels safe. All is well. A baby can’t imagine the changes that inevitably will come, and unless there is sickness or disorder, the baby is just there enjoying it all, being irresistible in a baby’s natural adorable ways. It’s just that simple.

We were sent to begin our sojourn as adorable babies, resting in a place of safety and love. Things went awry, and our experience of that original intent was distorted. Our way of doing life became more stressful and less enjoyable and safe.

So Jesus wanted to let us know, there’s a way out that is unbelievably simple. All you have to do – are you listening? you won’t believe how simple this is – all you have to do is: be born again. Start over from the beginning. Leave the realm that isn’t working for you and begin again, safe and at ease, in a realm that is real and functions in a way utterly different from the way you’ve come to think is normal. This new reality is so simple it will feel disconcerting because you’ve become so accustomed to stress and difficulty. It also is so profound and complex that it will take a lifetime to grasp.

Hardly any other statement of Jesus has been more misunderstood than, “You are to be born again.” Many claim to understand this command of Jesus. They claim to have “got it right” and are therefore superior to those who haven’t. Being a “born again Christian” has become a claim of rightness, of being an insider. “I’ve got it. Wish you could get it. If enough of us could get it as I’ve got it, the world would be saved. Your lack of understanding is what is blocking the world’s progress.”

Could this possibly have been what Jesus was intending?

Rather than showing us how to be right, it seems to me Jesus was saying, “There’s another world than the one you can see. Your way of seeing is darkness. My way is light. If you want to see my world, you’ll need to start over with new eyes. I’ll show you how to open your eyes to another culture where God lives.”

Just as an alcoholic “hits bottom” and by the grace of God sees the world in a new way, we “cultural addicts” can wake up and be healed of our blindness that has created a distorted perspective. A practical way of working with this is to look at some issues the way the culture sees and the way Jesus sees. For example:

The culture says if a person steps out of line, imprison him. Maybe even kill him. But Jesus says, forgive him. Find ways to reconcile him with his victims. Love him more deeply.

The culture says if your enemies do you wrong, even the score. Round them up and get revenge. But Jesus says, consider your own culpability. Look inwardly before acting outwardly. Find creative ways to “turn the other cheek.” Never return evil for evil.

The culture says separate yourself from anyone who’s different. Belong to groups that look like you, think like you and affirm your rightness. But Jesus says, broaden the field you live in. Get to know my whole family. Be stretched by those who disagree with you. You are one.

The false understandings of the culture we were born into become so deeply ingrained in us that we begin to think they’re true. When we are “born anew” we’ll start to see God’s way. The more I experience Jesus, the more I see a realm of Cosmic Love that offers rest and welcome to all who desire it. Our primary work is simply to merge with this cosmic ocean of love, to be filled with more of Jesus’ Being, to revel at new depths in this eternal compassion.

As we open ourselves to this realm, we merge more deeply with the totality of the human family. To be born again means to drop all barriers to being known and to let this Love flow in. Not love as an energy or a principle, but the very Being of the Holy One merging with my being and touching the world in practical and unbounded ways.

Day and the Catholic Workers opposed all war, often at cost to themselves. When they protested WWII, many Catholics withdrew support from the Catholic Workers. Day was repeatedly arrested and jailed for protests against war and once while demonstrating in support of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. She was 75 at the time. 

Below are a few quotes from Dorothy Day. If they pique your curiosity, you might want to read these books by Dorothy Day:  By Little and By Little: The Selected Writings of Dorothy Day or The Long Loneliness. 

For more information on the web see www.catholicworker.com. 

There is a movement to have Dorothy Day canonized as a saint in the  Roman Catholic Church.

And Dorothy said: 

“Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.” 

“People say, ‘“What good can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?’ They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time. We can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes.” 

 “I firmly believe that our salvation depends on the poor.” 

“I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.” 

“Women think with their whole bodies and they see things as a whole more than men do.” 

“Words are as strong and powerful as bombs, as napalm.” 

“No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There’s too much work to do.” 

“The true atheist is the one who denies God’s image in the “least of these.” 

“It is surely an exercise of faith for us to see Christ in each other. But it is through such exercise that we grow and the joy of our vocation assures us we are on the right path. Certainly, it is easier to believe now that the sun warms us, and we know that buds will appear on the trees in the wasteland across the street, that life will spring out of the dull clods of that littered park across the way…There are wars, rumors of wars, poverty and plague, hunger and pain. Still, the sap is rising, again there is the resurrection of spring, and God’s continuing promise to us that He is with us always, with His comfort and joy, if we will only ask. 

“The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?”  

“The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God,  by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly….He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men and women together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure….So he becomes, first an accuser of his brothers and sisters, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.”

I am all for a church that gives all its money away.

I would like to see any money from the sell,  rental, or whatever, of Jose’s property go in its entirety  to missions and none to amenities or even needed repairs for the church. I don’t know the best means of disposing of the property, I just believe that it should be used for the long run benefit of the “least of these” (so-called.) Whether that means holding on until we can make mucho money or selling it now… I don’t know. I would  like to see the gain set aside for the benefit of others whose needs are more pressing than our own.

I would like to see the church commit to working toward having half  of all tithes, contributions, go to the poor and the peacemakers in the future.

I know all of the above is crazy and impractical.

I’ve checked the gospels and I don’t see Jesus calling us to be practical. Practical people don’t go around embracing lepers, hanging out with the poor, the diseased, the mentally unbalanced, the powerless. Clearly that kind of lifestyle could be dangerous and not at all conducive to career success.  But  practical people don’t get themselves crucified.  Jesus does.

That’s my two-cents worth. You can have it for free.

Anyway…Thanks, Jose, and we miss you.

Mike B.

 I guess those folks just had not figured out that the USA was a Christian nation.