Our Urban God

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The Way is Mysterious

In a world of shouting, God whispers. If we sit in silence long enough, if we still all of the external and internal voices, there is God, whispering. When I woke up this morning I ran over a pair of speed bumps that threatened to take the day off course rather quickly. I have found that if the day starts good and goes bad, it still has the possibility of ending as a good day.

But, if the day starts bad, too often there is nothing I seem to be able to do except ride it out and start the next day.

So, this morning, when I bounced over those two speed bumps, I decided to immediately reset the day. I told myself what became my mantra for the day, that I am carrying with me even now, here in the afternoon, as the day winds toward its end. “Slow. Slow. Slow.” I have spent the entire day consciously and deliberately slowing down every time I felt myself speeding up.

Just stopping.

Taking a deep breath.

And going “slow, slow, slow”.

Now it is close to three PM and all in all, it has been both a good and productive day. I’ve weaved my way through a series of meetings. I’ve resolved some sticky issues. I’ve handled some customer requests. I had a nice lunch.

I am sliding into the evening with a brief plan. I want to stop and get a fresh salad for dinner and I need to stop at the accountant and sign some papers. Since I am going to be next to a Coin Star location I am going to run my bowl of spare change through the machine and then crackle with glee as I count my riches.

Well, okay, I made the cackle with glee part up. Odds are that won’t happen.

I have been thinking today, pretty much all day, about the mysterious nature of the universe. It was the thought that was on my mind when I woke this morning (well, immediately after the thoughts that involved nakedness).

My friend Tony is in a transitional stage right now. He is at a fork in the road and over the next couple of days will be choosing a path or not making a choice and letting the choice be made for him. Either way, there is a path that diverges and he is at the fork.

As human beings our path is always forward, down the inexorable arrow of time. We can’t do anything about that, we can’t turn around and go back, we can’t reverse that particular journey. We can wiggle around a bit. We can make choices that are basic and simple, choices about a little more of this, choices about a little less of that. The more complex choices are largely made by what I like to refer to as the process of incidents and accidents. Things happen. Other things happen. Some of them we are active participants in. Others we are passive participants in. Either way the journey continues.

The great mystery closes one door.

The great mystery opens another door.

We strive, imperfectly, to follow the Way.

Thoughts On The Mystery of God

I’ve said a rosary each day of the last couple of days. Periodically, as a Catholic, there are events and incidents and accidents that lead me to into more prayer filled time. The events of this week has refocused me on the importance of prayer, the importance of faith, the importance of worship.

As human beings were are but very brief flares of life in a vast universe, a vast eternity that is beyond our ability to comprehend and that leaves us, if we are honest, ultimately, with merely faith and mystery.

I am not much of an individual who proselytizes his faith. I fall more into the category of the quiet faithful. I believe in God (insert the whole Nicene Creed* here), and I also believe that God is, fundamentally, Mystery.

Everything unfolds according to God’s plan, whether I know that plan or not. One of my favorite parables in the bible is the story of the faithful centurion (Matthew 8:5 – 8:13). I am simply a faithful soldier, going here and there, content in the sufficiency of my faith alone.

For all of those who have lost a parent, or are losing a parent, or will soon lose a parent, my thoughts and prayers are with you. It is not enough, but it is all I have, here and now, in this world. (And especially for you my love, and for your family.) When we lose a parent, when we lose a loved one, I remind myself of this – though we may, for a while, be apart from them, they are the ones who have, at last, gone home – while we are the ones who are still wandering. We may think of them as having left us, as having gone beyond our ken, as moving beyond the pale. But they are the ones who have woken up. To paraphrase Paul, they see clearly, while we see through a glass darkly. We weep for our lose, while they rejoice as being found, at last. It is a paradox of faith I guess. For myself, a faith that lies squarely in the Mystery of God.

*Nicene Creed

It dawns on my that some may not be familiar with the Nicene Creed, so let me lay a link here, for you, if you are interested. It is the fundamental profession of faith for Catholics. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11049a.htm

Set Aside Justice...

"Set aside justice and what are Kingdoms but enterprises of robbery." St. Augustine, City of God

I have charged full-speed into a few windmills over the course of my life. Somewhere along the line, I developed a strong sense of justice under the law, that argument that above all other things all persons ought to be treated fairly, given the circumstances.

I am, perhaps to my detriment, an advocate of proportional justice. I believe that there is a balance in the universe and that in order to sustain that balance people need to actively seek and support justice. Proportional justice can be summed up as "an eye for an eye" and that may not be the best approach to justice. I arrive at proportional justice from exposure to the pragmatic realities of life - that unjust individuals are willing to exploit the systems and procedures of the just for their own unjust ends, which is why I feel any attempts at an absolute justice are naive at best and manipulative at worst.

Oh, I most certainly believe in the power and importance of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a healing act. But, I also believe that in order to be forgiven a person must repent AND provide the appropriate, acceptable, level of restitution to make the aggrieved part whole again and so fulfill the fundamental requirements of proportional justice. So things are easier to forgive then others. Some things cannot be forgiven.

That sense of proportional justice has been on my mind for the last couple of days, what it means, what it entails, what it obligates. I don't have any answers, just thoughts, prompted by the incidents of life. The whole train of thoughts was prompted by a rather small “almost mistake” at work that got me thinking along the lines that sometimes injustice is allowed to arise with the best of intentions. We design systems and processes and procedures with good (that is to say just) actors in mind, and yet those systems can be exploited by bad (unjust) actors. Consequently, we must design into our systems, processes and procedures, the safe-guards necessary to ensure that the systems cannot be co-opted by the unjust.

Sharing: God Speaks to Each of Us - Rainer Maria Rilke

God speaks to each of us before we are,
Before he's formed us then, in cloudy speech,
But only then, he speaks these words to each
And silently walks with us from the dark:

Driven by your senses, dare
To the edge of longing. Grow
Like a fire's shadowcasting glare
Behind assembled things, so you can spread
Their shapes on me as clothes.
Don't leave me bare.

Let it all happen to you: beauty and dread.
Simply go no feeling is too much
And only this way can we stay in touch.

Near here is the land
That they call Life.
You'll know when you arrive
By how real it is.

Give me your hand.

- Rainer Maria Rilke