{"id":21461,"date":"2022-07-12T08:14:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T12:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21461"},"modified":"2022-07-12T08:18:27","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T12:18:27","slug":"21461","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21461","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/83lLHqxi1-8\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Joy of Not Counting &nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For Father Richard, Francis of Assisi (1182\u20131226) is a shining example of someone who \u201cpracticed the better.\u201d Instead of relying on judgment and criticism, Francis understood the power of simply living a better way:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God gave St. Francis to history in the pivotal period when Western civilization began to move into rationality, functionality, consumerism, and perpetual war. Francis was himself a soldier, and the son of a cloth merchant; he came from the culture he critiqued, and he challenged these emerging systems at the beginning of their now eight centuries of world dominance. <strong>Rather than fighting the systems directly and risk becoming their mirror image, Francis just did things differently. <\/strong>He is the inspiration for this core principle of the Center for Action and Contemplation:\u202f<em><strong>The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better<\/strong><\/em><strong>. [1]\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As theologian Adolf Holl (1930\u20132020) observed, Francis was born as people started measuring time by clocks instead of church bells. [2] When Christian leaders started counting, Francis stopped counting. He moved from the common economy of merit to the<strong> wondrous economy of grace, where God does not do any counting, but only gives unreservedly.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Europe began to centralize and organize everything at high levels of control, Francis said, like a divine trickster, \u201cWho cares?!\u201d When Roman Catholicism under Pope Innocent III (1160\/61\u20131216) reached heights of papal and worldly power, Francis answered, \u201cThere is another way that is much better!\u201d When we began a style of production and consumption that would eventually ravage planet Earth, he decided to love Mother Earth and live simply and barefoot upon her. And <strong>Francis did it all with a \u201cperfect joy\u201d that comes from letting go of the ego.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Francis <strong>didn\u2019t bother questioning Church doctrines and dogmas. <\/strong>He just took the imitation of Christ seriously and tried to live the way that Jesus lived. In\u00a0<em>The Legend of Perugia<\/em>, one of the earliest accounts about Francis, he <strong>reminds the first friars that they only know as much as they\u202fdo.\u202f[<\/strong>3] His emphasis on action, practice, and lifestyle was foundational and revolutionary for its time and is at the root of Franciscan alternative orthodoxy. Francis and Clare fell in love with the humanity and humility of Jesus. For them, Jesus was someone actually to imitate and not just to worship as divine.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The early Franciscan friars and Poor\u202fClares<strong> wanted to be\u202f<\/strong><em><strong>gospel practitioners<\/strong><\/em><strong>\u202finstead of merely \u201cword police,\u201d \u201cinspectors,\u201d or\u202f\u201cmuseum curators<\/strong>\u201d as Pope Francis calls some clergy. Both Francis and Clare offered their rules as a\u202f<em>forma vitae<\/em>,\u202for form of life.\u202fThey saw orthopraxy (correct practice) as a necessary parallel, and maybe even precedent, to verbal orthodoxy (correct teaching). History has shown that\u202fmany\u202fChristians never get to the practical implications of their beliefs. \u201cWhy aren\u2019t you\u202f<em>doing<\/em>\u202fwhat you say you believe?\u201d the prophet invariably asks.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Living What We Are \u201cFor\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard teaches that <strong>we can only practice new ways of being in the world if we maintain some degree of nonattachment from the systems around us:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would insist the <strong>foundation of Jesus\u2019 social program is what I will call\u00a0<\/strong><em><strong>non-idolatry<\/strong><\/em><strong>, or the withdrawing of our enthrallment from all kingdoms except the Kingdom of God. <\/strong>This supports a much better agenda than feeling the need to attack things directly. Nonattachment (freedom from loyalties to human-made, domination systems) is the best way I know of protecting people from religious zealotry or any kind of antagonistic thinking or behavior.\u00a0<em><strong>There is nothing to be against. Just keep concentrating on the Big Thing you are for<\/strong>!\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul tries to create some \u201caudiovisual aids\u201d for this big message, which he calls \u201cchurches\u201d (a term Jesus used only&nbsp;<em>twice and in only one Gospel<\/em>&nbsp;(Matthew 16:18 and 18:17). He needs living, visible models of this new kind of life to make evident that Christ\u2019s people really follow a way different from mass consciousness. They are people who \u201ccan be innocent and genuine . . . and can shine like stars among a deceitful and underhanded brood\u201d (Philippians 2:15). To people who asked, \u201cWhy should we believe there\u2019s a new or better life possible?\u201d Paul could say, \u201cLook at these people. They\u2019re different. This is a new social order.\u201d In Christ, \u201cthere are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus\u201d (Galatians 3:28).&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In Paul\u2019s thinking, we were supposed to live inside of an alternative society, almost a utopia, and from such fullness \u201cgo to the world.<\/strong>\u201d Instead, we created a model whereby people live almost entirely in the world, fully invested in its attitudes toward money, war, power, and gender\u2014and sometimes \u201cgo to church.\u201d This doesn\u2019t seem to be working! Groups like the Amish, the Bruderhof, Black churches, and members of some Catholic religious orders probably have a better chance of actually maintaining an alternative consciousness.<strong> Most of the rest of us end up thinking and operating pretty much like our surrounding culture<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many people, however, now find this solidarity in think tanks, support groups, prayer groups, study groups, house-building projects, healing circles, or community-focused organizations.<strong> Perhaps without fully recognizing it, we are often heading in the right direction. Some new studies indicate that Christians are not as much leaving Christianity as they are realigning with groups that live Christian values in the world\u2014instead of just gathering again to hear the readings, recite the creed, and sing songs on Sunday<\/strong>. <strong>Jesus does not need our singing; we need instead to act like a community. Actual Christian behavior might just be growing more than we realize. Behavior has a very different emphasis than belonging.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Remember, it is not the brand name that matters.&nbsp;<br>It is that God\u2019s heart be made available and active on this earth.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Zealots and the Pharisees&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard expands upon the Center for Action and Contemplation\u2019s Third Core Principle: <strong>\u201cThe best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. Oppositional energy only creates more of the same.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There seem to be two typical ways to avoid conversion or transformation, two diversionary tactics that we use to avoid holding pain: fight and flight.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFight\u201d is what I\u2019ll call the way of Simon the Zealot. <strong>It describes people who want to change, fix, control, and reform other people and events<\/strong>. The zealot always looks for the political sinner, the unjust one, the oppressor, the bad person over there. Zealots consider themselves righteous when attacking\u00a0<em>them\u00a0<\/em>(whoever\u00a0<em>they\u00a0<\/em>are at a given time), hating\u00a0<em>them<\/em>, even killing\u00a0<em>them<\/em>. When they do, they believe they are \u201cdoing a holy duty for God\u201d (John 16:2).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zealots often have good conclusions, but their tactics and motives can be filled with ego, power, control, and the same righteousness they hate in others. They want to do something to avoid holding pain until it transforms them. Such people present Christianity as \u201ca cult of innocence\u201d as opposed to a movement for solidarity.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As<strong> long as\u00a0<\/strong><em><strong>they\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>are the problem (whoever they are), and we keep our focus on changing them and correcting them, then we can sit in a reasonably comfortable position.<\/strong> But it\u2019s a position that the saints call\u00a0<em>pax perniciosa<\/em>, a dangerous and false peace. It feels like peace, but instead is the false peace of avoidance, denial, and projection. The Peace of the Crucified comes from holding the tension.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This brings us to flight, the second diversionary tactic. This is the common path of the \u201cPharisee,\u201d the uninformed, and the falsely innocent.<strong> Such people deny pain altogether and refuse to carry the shadow side of anything in themselves or in their chosen groups. They allow no uncertainty nor ambiguity as they scapegoat and project their own wounded side somewhere else!<\/strong>\u00a0 There will be no problems. It is a form of narcotic, and at times probably necessary to get some people through the day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both fight and flight people are subject to hypocrisy, projection, or just plain illusion: <strong>\u201cWe are right; you are wrong. The world is divided into black and white, and we alone know who is good and who is bad.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cResurrected\u201d people are the ones who have found a\u00a0<em>better\u00a0<\/em>way by <strong>prayerfully bearing witness against injustice and evil\u2014while also agreeing compassionately to hold their own complicity in that same evil. It is not over there\u2014it is\u00a0<\/strong><em><strong>here<\/strong><\/em><strong>. It is\u00a0<\/strong><em><strong>our\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>problem, not\u00a0<\/strong><em><strong>theirs<\/strong><\/em><strong>. <\/strong>The Risen Christ, not accidentally, still carries the wounds in his hands and side. The question becomes: How can I know the greater truth, work through the anger, and still be a life-giving presence?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is the<em>\u00a0<strong>Third Way\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>beyond fight or flight, which in a certain sense includes both. It\u2019s fighting in a new way from a God-centered place within, and fleeing from the quick, egocentric response. Only God can hold such an act together within us.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"290\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-500x290.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21463\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-500x290.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-300x174.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-768x446.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image.png 1792w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Joy of Not Counting &nbsp; For Father Richard, Francis of Assisi (1182\u20131226) is a shining example of someone who \u201cpracticed the better.\u201d Instead of relying on judgment and criticism, Francis understood the power of simply living a better way:&nbsp;&nbsp; God gave St. Francis to history in the pivotal period when Western civilization began to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21461"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21461"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21465,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21461\/revisions\/21465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}