Compassion as Jesus Practiced It | Ron Rolheiser, OMI

good afternoon we're just about ready to begin our next keynote but I do want to make a couple of announcements the first of which is that there is a handout for this presentation so I think most folks have already received their handout if not can you raise your hand up and Noemi can circle around it's a one-page handout front and back and it's coming around if you keep your hands up in the meantime I do want to also remind folks to take a peek at your cell phones and make sure they are silent and I have forgotten to mention there are there are complimentary copies of give us this day out at the registration area feel free to pick up a copy or two if you'd like and there they'll be out at the registration area and as we look ahead to tomorrow's presentations tomorrow morning's a keynote Meg hunter Kilmer will be presenting at 9:15 in the morning if you have your if you've traveled and brought your Bible please bring that if you are commuting maybe tonight packet so that tomorrow you'll have that so everyone who can if you can bring your Bible along for tomorrow morning's keynote I was gonna give another reminder before we depart this evening but just so that'll be percolating in your brain here I'm sure there's there are other announcements but I can't think of them right now now is has everyone received a handout now yes okay very good very good well our next our next keynote presenter is our school president and I know everyone here knows him and so we always say you know he doesn't need an introduction and he really doesn't and and doesn't like it when they're you know too kind or what he's terms too generous but how can we not so he we want to make sure that we stay awake even though we know we're not gonna fall asleep but this is why we have the lights up so much this is this is how how humble he is but we talk about right brain and left brain theologians and father Ron is is really gifted to be able to to help us pull from from both our left brain in our right brain and and from across centuries and across disciplines and cultures and and and articulate insights in ways that really we can grasp and we can understand intellectually but also really right here in our hearts and I'm that's all I'm gonna say so I won't embarrass him but please help me welcome to the stage father Ron role hi sir it's good afternoon everyone how is the sound you can all hear you know it's a couple of years ago in this very room we had a seminar on first world missiology and those of you know Billy morale was running it and so the first night we met at 7 o'clock and we had a speaker a keynote speaker but Billy thought it would be a good idea if we went around the room and everyone introduced themselves and said a little bit about their lives well at 9 o'clock we weren't quite finished so when they introduced the speaker he said Billy I want to thank you for giving me this envied slot ok well the three o'clock thing is not the envied slot if if David Hawes is in the room you got it tomorrow ok ok a little story to begin with I know if it's to do with religious fear but some years ago I heard just from a from a Filipino captain on a boat and he said you know I grew up in the Philippines is it and we were very poor Catholic and he said so we we were poor and I wanted a bicycle and my family couldn't afford a bicycle so I started praying to God to give me a bicycle but he said people were laughing at me they said that's not the way God works his pray for a bicycle he gives you one since Wes told when I went to confession he said apparently that's the way God works okay our topic actually when when Victoria asked me to speak on this the topic it was even was fear and discipleship I've done a lot of workshops and stuff in fear so I thought this time I want to hone it a little bit more on discipleship but maybe the subtitle of this could be what discipleship should look like if you're not living it in fear what what does an unfair full discipleship look like but just some preliminary remarks on fear you know religious fear is a very ambivalent thing as Dan talked to us last night no fear is a gift and fear is a scourge all at the same time but you know a scripture let me just contrast two things scripture tells us they say fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom it's quite a statement the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom and yet when you read scripture virtually every theophany in Scripture and theophanies when God appears in the form of an angel form of some kind of spirit in the form of Jesus in the form of the Proust at the resurrected Jesus the first words are always do not be afraid so the whole thing will teeth in Scripture when God comes into our lives the first words will always be don't be afraid if something frightens you he can be sure it's not from God so what about the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom well fear there is there's a healthy fear you know there's a fear of intimidation the bully intimidates you you know the person that Nigel might attack you you're afraid and so on that's unhealthy but there's a healthy fear of reverence you know you could translate that reverence of the Lord but reverence of everything is the beginning of wisdom you'll see that in Scripture God doesn't come into your life as some overpowering force so God notice Jesus the Christ was not born as a strong man he wasn't born as a superstar he came into our world as a baby babies don't scare you okay but you know we are afraid of a baby only in this sense you're afraid that you might hurt the baby you're afraid that in some ways you might not respond to the baby the way you should that's the way God is always in our world you know that's the fear of God that's healthy the fear that we might hurt God not that God will hurt us and so on you know God has said says I'm or power as the heaven scriptures eggs ooh see yeah you know there's a certain vulnerability that God overpowers nobody okay God is a baby in a corner beckoning us you can ignore God you can ignore a baby that's that's the only thing we need to fear now onto your sheets I want to spend just a short time introducing what I call it the pan ultimate invitation within Christian sample ship compassion as Jesus practiced it or you might say discipleship lived without fear so I want to say a few words about compassion as the penultimate disciple of discipleship and the invitation then I want to just give you I call them very quickly I want to give you 10 quotes for flavor just you know you should little salt in the soup and then we want to look at how did he compassionate the way God is compassionate so first of all compassion as the penultimate goal of discipleship you know if you look at all the great world religious all what I call authentic religion and what do you find that for you very briefly in a minute okay you'll see that in every great religion they're asking you to come to compassion that's where Buddhism Hinduism Taoism Christianity Muslim Islam they all come together around that that the center of every one of these religions is that it's the invitation to compassion okay and I call it the Japan ultimate invitation now I didn't just pick that because it's a nice sounding word okay but to quote an Irish friend of mine I did that with some considerable hermeneutical scrutiny okay it's the most accurate you know the word penultimate doesn't mean Beyond it means second-to-last you know it's not the end it's the second piece before the end so the second piece before the end of Christianity and of all of religion is compassion what's the end the end is union with God compassion takes us there compassion itself isn't the end it's the medium that takes us to the end the end is union with God in all religions okay and so I say the penultimate it's the last thing before the last thing okay is compassion now just a little footnote that's true of all authentic religion what is the authentic religion what makes the real religion and what's not a real religion I want to quote Paul Tillich Chicago great theologian Paul Tillich made a very simple distinction and sorry that's gonna be academic but I'll do it quickly okay Tillich distinguished between what he called a pseudo religion in a quasi religion in a real religion he said quite simply a Souter religion that that's religion that uses all the terms of religion they'll talk about you know God and grace and so on but they never reach outside of human consciousness it only takes you to what's highest inside of human consciousness God and all those words become in the end it's partly narcissistic you're recycling your own air even though you're using words that seem to take you to the heavens now we said interestingly have something called quasi religion and those are oftentimes ideologies which might even be atheistic and they don't use religious language but they actually take you beyond yourself Marxism you know but I say you should die for the common good well that's taking you beyond yourself and it's taking you further than pseudo religious too but it's still not notice it's still inside the human sphere and then real religion is whether it uses religious language or doesn't it's something that takes you to the transcendent so you're no longer breathing just air from humanity and the planet you basically you're not just recycling internal error you're bringing in some transcendent air now very quickly I want to give you some what I call them 10 quotes for flavor you know what you can have a very good dish in sometimes it's just a little spice or a little salt or something to Jack it up a bit so these are the jalapeno peppers for this talk okay and each one is a standalone first one it's one of my all-time favorite quotes Robert lacs was mertens lifelong friend this is a deceptive the sounds simply accepted wisdom this is the task of life is not so much finding a path in the woods as finding a rhythm to walk in now that probably isn't true for the first half of life mr. Tharoor would see earlier on we are looking for a path most of us in this room you've found a path but now we need to find the proper rhythm to walk in side of that path the second one I want to come back to that which comes from Edward skill of X which the Oblates have shamelessly stolen and we have in all of our of our chapter documents now it's a great line he said what you dream alone remains a dream what your dream with others can become a reality you're gonna see it's part of discipleship then this one's a studying one for any Sexton the poet and only poets can can come up with something like this she says Jesus was on that cross and after they had pulled the nails into his hands after that well after that everyone wore hats isn't there powerful in grand Kuiti in there you know Jesus dies for us we see women he better wear hats in church okay I'll leave you with that okay Rachel held Evans who sadly just died last month her funeral was just some days ago sis this isn't the kingdom for the worthy to Kingdom for the hungry then Sarah miles in the Eucharist we received the unbound Reed Body of Christ it's quite an expression the unbound reed boundary Body of Christ then Rachel again for better or for worse the faith of our youth youth informs our fears our nostalgia our reactions and our suspicions that's so true we live with so much religious fear that's tied to so much of our youth then John or Donna you me all that is Unforgiven and you be released beautiful prayer blessing then the last three are simply for humor I thought it was getting old would take a lot longer and here's a toast from Benjamin Franklin he says in wine there is truth in beer there is freedom and water there's bacteria okay and the last one stop trying to make everyone happy you're not tequila okay now the invitation to be compassionate as God is compassionate okay I'll start with that in Matthew and Luke Jesus has that but it's worded differently in the Gospel of Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount which is really the moral heart of the gospel Jesus ends that more heart with this invitation says be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect okay now that's an order you can't fulfill okay be if we understand perfection the way we understand it in our Greek mindset see we think in Greek software if Aristotle had written scripture would be in trouble but he didn't you know see an in Greek software that we think in common sense in our Western languages the word perfection means no flaws a perfect complexion has no flaws a perfect moral life would have no flaws and that's impossible to achieve we're human but that's not what it means in Hebrew you know that the New Testament is tricky because it's it's Hebrew thought written in Greek read in English but in Hebrew perfection means compassion so much though that in fact in Luke's Gospel Luke simply words it that way Jesus says be compassionate the way your heavenly Father is compassionate so as Christians we can't be perfect but we can be compassionate okay so be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate now I want to set that into Scripture that arrives in fairly late in the Old Testament and it's kind of the key inside of the whole New Testament you know if you read the work off the great scripture scholar Walter Brueggemann was some of you remember we had in here some years ago it's retired now but Walter Bergman did a lot of work on the Old Testament and he says this and it's it so I can simplify this we're gonna said if you read the Bible just the way it's glued together that's not exactly the way it was written but you know historically and so on he said you will see this you will see in in this Jewish Scriptures which we call the Old Testament you'll see that there's that there's a there are three three ways that people if you ask them what's the essence of all religion or have asked you this what's the essence of religion you get three answers so if you look on the Old Testament see what's the essence of religion they'd say it's proper belonging and proper practice so property religion Whitford we see a practicing Catholic it's somebody who's you know baptized and going to church and following the rules see for a Jew it was somebody who was properly initiated into Jewish community either by birth or my circumcision or whatever by some ritual process and then somebody who kept the commandments and not just the commandment but kept all the different Jewish laws and their codified there's many of them so for many years that what's the essence of religion proper practice and that held sway till the great prophets came along and the great prophets came along and they literally blew that out of the water so Isaiah you know Joel Hosea these prophets come along a zq only say you know something that God doesn't care so much whether you you know about all these rules they say you know what God cares about said God cares about the poor and they put in this powerful prophetic mantra which is still worth memorizing whether you see the quality of your faith is going to be judged by the quality of justice in the land and the quality of justice in the land will always be judged by how the three weakest groups in scripture that's cold widows orphans strangers how did they fare when you were alive so they say more important than religious practice how do you treat the poor and how are the porch faring while you're alive now the Jewish scripts the Old Testament does them there it ends with the wisdom literature and wisdom literature says you know what's more important than religious practice you know what's more important than treating than serving the poor it's how you do it you need to have a wise compassionate heart but God wants Moses mercy has said God wants compassion God wants a wise compassionate heart then you'll do religious practice and you'll serve the poor properly now jump ahead to the New Testament what does Jesus - what Jesus does with everything else he actually ratifies all three and complexify his religion forever okay so Jesus does ratify religious practice in keeping the commandments the New Testament says clearly if anybody loves me they'll keep my word if you don't keep my word don't pretend you're loving me okay then Jesus comes along even stronger than the Prophet says however how will you be judged whether you go to heaven or hell remember the great judgment scene in Matthew 25 you know they asked him the test what's gonna be the great test at the end how will you be evaluated for heaven or hell Jesus that's gonna work this way the Great King is going to set up the throne on the Judgment Day and then he's going to divide the people sheep to the right goats to the left there's only one set of questions do you defeat the hungry give drink to the thirsty clothe the naked visit prisoners so what about church questions what about did he go to church what about your sex life what about anything you know she said you feed the hungry know what text if he's just isolated it's one of the scariest texts in scripture you know Jesus said you're gonna be judged on the criteria of how you dealt with the poor and notice he makes no qualifications in there and in fact he he does something the prophets don't do see the prophets gave us what we take call today the preferential option for the poor God favors the poor Jesus takes it further Jesus says God is in the poor whatsoever you do to the poor is what you're doing to God interesting in that text notice both those who do it right and those who do it wrong neither knows what they're doing you know the people who did it wrong said had we known we had done it doesn't matter the people who did it right said we didn't know here between doesn't matter in Matthew's Gospel maturity cycle ship is not predicated on the jacket you're wearing it's the actions you're doing okay it's a pretty raw text I always tell students you know as a priest if you preach that just rolly from the pulpit like that you'd be in the bishops office the next morning okay so how did Jesus get away with it he didn't they killed him he didn't get into a Bishop's office that's one of the reasons they killed him because it upset the Jewish religious structure at the time but that wasn't the end either but then Jesus said that that the key point of his moral teaching however said what I want from you I want you to be compassionate the way God is compassionate okay now the subordinate clause there is very important he doesn't say be compassionate period because there's many definition of compassion that's why I didn't begin by defining well what is compassion look it up in a dictionary look up what Erich Fromm's is about it look up what you know the diagnostic Statistical Manual defines as healthy compassion Jesus doesn't go there Reese's be compassionate the way God is compassionate and then he goes on to defined that in a stunning line now which I want to tease out for you that's one of the most stretching lines in all of the scripture jesus said be compassionate the way God is compassionate because God lets his son that's the Sun in the sky shine on the righteous and the unrighteous alike see the Sun doesn't discriminate when the Sun shines it shines and vegetables and weeds just evenly it doesn't see vegetables are good I'm gonna give my dowsing weeds are bad I'm going to freeze him out he said God's compassion just shines on the righteous and the unrighteous and if you tease that out it's a scary thing that means God loves the saints in heaven and the Devils in hell equally God loves Mary the mother of Jesus and God loves Luther loose Lucifer equally now they may respond differently but let's take that a little further God loves pro-life and pro-choice equally God loves Protestants and Catholics equally God loves Christians and Muslims equally you know God loves when God loves us when we're bad and God loves us when we're good equal you know Richard Warrell assist it's a good line Richard Rohr says there isn't a single thing you can do to make God love you more and there isn't a single thing you can do to make God love you laughs you know there's nothing vegetables and weeds can do against the Sun the Sun just shines but now this is the stretch he said that's the way I want you to be compassionate you're compassionate to extend to everybody not just to the worthy or whoever is in your group and so on we're gonna love everybody I said that once in a church in Austin the thing was just man came up after that's almost too wishy-washy thing I've ever heard well take it up with Jesus I'm just quoting somebody here you know and that's a direct quote you know now what does that mean like love everybody equally and so on let me try to teach that I'm gonna make six points here okay the first one compassion as a why the embrace the longing for wholeness nobody gives just the beauty briefly just a beautiful chapter in Scripture Luke chapter 15 you can take that chapter as a standalone little gospel and in Luke 15 he has three stories in a row okay and he's talking to people like us he's talking to people like you now what one who gets to heaven and how should we behave and so on okay this isn't you know Sunday school for young kids okay and Jesus says has three stories he says God and he said what is God like he says how does God love you said God is like a shepherd who has a hundred sheep and 99 I mean he has 90 s of sheep one strays so what does the Shepherd do he leaves ninety-nine in the wilderness notice is not leaving him in a safe place at all he leaves the 99 in the wilderness and he goes after the one who's astray when he finds the one he said he brings it back lovingly and he said any rejoices because there's more joy in heaven over one sinner who converts then over ninety-nine righteous people have no need of conversion so when I ask you a rhetorical question here thus God loves sinners more than righteous people seems to say it here it's a trick question there are no righteous people all notice the ninety-nine they're not safe they're there in the wilderness they're also lost okay what the text is saying is we're all sinners and God loves us can can love us better when we admit our sin see when we don't admit our weakness we don't let God in okay but I want to try it tease out something else there you know you're gonna see on all three parables it's in the numbers in Hebrew a hundred is a whole number it's something secret okay 99 is not a whole number see so it's not so much the value of the one sheep it's the value of the whole flock this shepherd can't be happy in the unless he has everybody together let's see inclusivity wide embrace did he get to the second parable since there was a woman who had ten coins in scripture scholars tell you those coins weren't worth all that much she had ten coins she lost one and she goes frantic and she searches the house she puts on lights finally she finds the coin and she's overjoyed by finding this dime and she calls all our neighbors together and has a big party which probably cost more than the ten coins but she's happy okay why again it's in the numbers ten is a whole number for the Hebrews nine is not a whole number so it's it's it's not so much the value of the coin it's the value of the wholeness now you could recast that story this way it's Thanksgiving Day and a woman has ten kids and nine of them are home for dinner and one daughter is alienated the mother can't rest she can't sit down to Thanksgiving dinner cuz one daughter isn't there it's just the roam around and fidget finally the phone rings the daughter phones in they have a little reconciliation the mother can sit at the table the family is hold again see incidentally their scripture scholars also point out something else about that parable notice you have three parables in a role the Good Shepherd the one with the coin or good luck at the prodigal son yes notice in the first one God is imaged as a man the second one God is imaged as a woman the third one God will be imaged again as a man we've always neglected that feminists haven't okay then the last story which the one we usually emphasize and we call it the prodigal son no this is not a story the prodigal son in fact he may be them not the least the most important person that first of all it's the parable of the prodigal father as Henri Nouwen spoke so wonderfully brings out but you can see the older brother is also very important again it's a story of inclusivity a father has two sons and he's trying to get him both into the house the house is heaven okay the father's house he's trying to get his two sons into his house the younger son has gone through weakness and dissipation and so on and the older one is outside because of anger but they're both outside of the house so finally he gets the younger son to come in the older son is still out there but notice the story doesn't end with the celebration the story doesn't end the youngers we often end our homilies with that the younger sons come home big slivers somewhere the story ends the story ends with the father out pleading with the older son to come in which if he reads some Jewish common theories like Amy Joel Levine and so on they will tell you that's really significant because in Judaism and their stories if you read the Jewish Scriptures the older one usually gets shafted you know the story ends with Rachel not with Leah the story ends with Jacob not with Esau and so on see but this story ends different Jesus that the father comes out and he's pleading with the older son to come in because the father can't rest like the mother and the other story until everybody in the house until all the kids are there and so on incidentally a beautiful little point about that when the father comes out and he says son okay you know you need to come into the house the last time that was used in the scripture before that word that's what Mary uses when she finds the the 12 year old Jesus in the temple and he's been lost for three days she comes and we've been worried about you okay see the father's love is about wholeness so again how do we radiate God's compassion well first of all there has to be a powerful rich in us for wholeness let me try to draw some of this out you know I'm a Roman Catholic and I believe it's very strong in my tradition but Roman Catholicism is not a whole number you know one Protestants and evangelicals and stuff are not at the table with us where it's not a whole number and in fact Christianity itself is not a whole number you know things like acumen ISM or you know in previous years sometimes we had some really I just thought they're actually heretical expressions which went down where people would say no it's done a lot of people aren't going to church good they're just Catholics light anyway no that's completely against Scripture you know there doesn't say well that sheep was astray anyway let it go you know we we have to work towards a whole number be compassionate the way the father's compassionate God cannot rest till everyone's in the house okay secondly compassion cuts across all boundaries and divisions it's interesting in John's Gospel he puts that very very powerfully into the foot washing at the Last Supper that's a very significant text more significant than we often realize because first of all you know when you go to Mass and Holy Thursday as a Roman Catholic we're celebrating institution of the Eucharist but notice the gospel doesn't give you the institution of the Eucharist you get it in st. Paul but what you get in the Gospels you get the foot washing in John's Gospel and a place of the bread and wine you have the basin and the towel now what is that okay a little bit of background okay you know it there isn't just one Eucharistic theology in Scripture there are Eucharistic theologies and John is very different than the Synoptics see there's in the synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke they linked the last that the institution of the Eucharist very strongly to the last and Jesus takes bread and wine and concentrates it and so on and and and Roman Catholics we've actually picked up both we liquor are you Kristen very strongly to the sacrifice we call it the sacrifice of the mass and so on that's the Last Supper motif but at John's Gospel you don't have that John links the Eucharist to the feeding of the manna the bread the daily feeding the desert which incidentally Roman Catholics that's where we get the Roman Catholic practice of daily Eucharist from we give it from John's Gospel not from the Synoptics seeing John's Gospel the ideas the Eucharist is the bread from heaven the manna you need to eat every day scholars suspect that John's community had Eucharist every day and the other communities didn't have Eucharist every day you know and you know so already in the New Testament you have different theology of the Eucharist different wordings for it and so on now John's Gospel is written really late but the Year 90 to 100 and John had already seen 70 years of church life in 70 years of church life then are like 70 years of church life now they thought about everything okay and especially they thought about the Eucharist who off how often should it be celebrated when should it be celebrated who she preside and so on so when John gets to the Eucharist no came instead of having the bread and wine he brings out the basin in the towel it's a powerful gesture they say at the supper and John words is very carefully says Jesus knowing that he had come from God and that he was going back to God and that therefore all things were possible for him got up and began to wash his disciples feet against their objections now what is the meaning of this gesture well like everything else in John's Gospel it has various levels of painting and we more easily get the first one which is valid meaning so what we've what we've taken off of there in our iconography or homiletics and so on are Hemnes are you and so it is very much the motif of humility see the master washes the disciples feet and that's important motif that's level one in John's Gospel the master wash the disciples feet what is it John Shea the Chicago theologians written a wonderful poem on this and he says he said at the last supper he says he says Jesus took the mantle of privilege and reversed it into the apron of service so that's that's the first gesture it's a wonderful gesture of humility but the context gives you something else it's the context of all the divisions especially within the Eucharist so it's a gesture of humility but it's a particular kind of just ref you military it's this you know there's humility that's clean and humility that's not clean so you give you an example clean humility imagine it's Christmas Day okay and before you eat your Christmas dinner you go down and you help serve a meal at the food bank and you help serve some homeless people that's a wonderful gesture that's washing somebody's feet but you know something it's not that hard to do and you know something else you'll feel pretty good about doing it when you're taking your shower you'll feel good you've done something good and it is something good but there's humility that's different okay ha okay I want to risk something here if I ask you this what's the most divisive moral issue in this country today it's not even abortion not even a question okay it divides not the sincere from the instance here it divides to sincere from the sincere you know now you know what John would do if he came back today giving this text and everything like them where do we go with abortion let's do this let's bring out some basement towels and let that pro-life watch pro-choice his feet and the left pro-choice wash pro-life feet then left Donald Trump wash Hillary's feet and we'll have Hillary washed Donald Trump's feet and we'll have some Democrats washing some Republican feet Republicans wash Democrats feet I left some Christians washed some Muslim feet as the Pope did said then we have some chance of celebrating Eucharist we have some chance of having communion you know and it was very lucky twice in my life to have had Raymond Brown the great scripture scholar as my professor and he wasn't just the great scripture scholar he was a great priest and a great Christian and Raymond Brown said you know and said I wonder he said how different the history of the Eucharist would be in ecclesiology if instead of picking the bread and a wine the church has chosen the basin and the towel but he also said this said you know when you're young you should be cause II you know when you're young you need placards for him to be out there protesting so when you get to be about 70 said put your plaque cards in your closet and bring out a base in the towel instead of washing his feet across lines especially feet of people who are really different than you that's a powerful gesture now there's another little more teeth in there I want to tease out you know they said no and I actually didn't give you the text accurately see at the supper and Jesus knowing he had come from God and he was going back to God and that therefore all things were possible for him got up from the table and took off his outer robe then he washed his disciples feet then he put it back on that's not just a little teaser in scripture he took off his outer robe what's her outer robe okay well I'll give you mine they're not talking about clothing we all have outer robes I'm a white male Canadian Roman Catholic missionary priest pro-life all these things turn to my outer role and when I wear them there's certain things I can't do when I take them off what's left the same as with Jesus he said knowing that it come from God he was going back to God and that therefore all things were possible for him when we stripped down to what's just left for our baptism we've come from God and we're going back to God and then you can wash the feet of anybody but then notice afterwards he put the clothes back on I often argue with Richards roar because Richard roared so against dualism anti dueling this Richard sometimes you need it you got to take it off sometimes any gonna put it back on you know but sometimes the John says what's our inner identity you know you've come from God you're going back to God everything is possible to you then we live without fear then thirdly compassion is leaving judgment to God not stoning people with the commandments again this is the giant text and this is a powerful text that explodes in about three levels and that's the story if the woman caught in adultery in John's Gospel okay some of you have heard me talk about this before take a little nap while I do this again okay okay that's a really powerful text I won't walk that text through with you because it's so carefully worded so John says one day Jesus was alone motif sat in a crowd brought a woman stood her in the middle and they said to Jesus we caught this woman in the very act of committing adultery and Moses said to stone women like that to death what do you say so jesus said nothing they said Jesus was bent down and began to write with his finger on the ground and he looked up and he said let the person who's without sin cast the first stone and he bent down he wrote a second time with his finger on the ground John said then they all walked away one by one beginning with the oldest then Jesus turned to the woman he said has nobody condemned you said nobody sir said Gold don't sin anymore let's take this from the beginning one day Jesus was alone that's already a motif in Scripture in a crowd brings a woman you know scripture scholars tell you in the New Testament the word crowd is almost always pejorative so if you use the word crowd you used word mindless you know crowds have no mind they're dangerous you know see when you're alone you're half sober okay when you were the crowd you're an idiot no because we're just caught in there you know that the height and everything else and so now they bring the woman they stand her in the middle okay and they say we caught this woman in the very act of committing adultery so they stand in the middle tier she mayor see nobody has her back she could get her back to the wall she at least have some support there around her okay they're shaming her women always see where is the man okay good question about that's not part of this text okay it's a valid question okay now they said Moses said to stone women like that to death what do you say so it said Jesus was bending down to the ground and began tore his finger on the ground what's he writing he's not just doodling that's an important gesture remember in John's Gospel as I said in John's Gospel Jesus is always God there's no humanity to Jesus he's he is God in human flesh who writes with his finger God writes with his finger and what does God write his finger he wrote the Ten Commandments in a game to Moses Moses went up to hear all God wrote with his finger the Ten Commandments in stone Moses carries him down to heel when he gets to the camp he catches the people in the very act of committing idolatry there's only one vowel difference okay so what does Moses do he broke the commandments John wants you to get this pun Moses was the first person to break the Ten Commandments except he broke him physically he broke him physically over the golden calf and then he took the pebbles and he stoned him he threw him at the people notice the powerful metaphor there Moses broke the commandments that we stoning the people with the commandments John wants you to get this image you know but he was wrong because he broke the commandment to go back up the hill and get him written a second time so remember Jesus writes the second time with his finger when most of it on the hill the second time because God gave him a stir in less than between said Moses don't do this in my name don't judge people don't stone people don't do violence in my name and he got it now to the people's credit they also got it you know they got the gesture said Moses pulled us two-stone women like that Jesus just for saying Moses was the first person to get it wrong and you have it wrong you don't stone people in God's name and they got it and John said they walked away one by one it was they came in a crowd they walk away one by one doesn't it with any violence you know then Jesus who hasn't looked at the woman yet he looks at the woman for the first time why notice in Scripture there's a motif it's here in elsewhere God never looks at us in our shame see when she's being shamed just look at her the same as when Adam and Eve can't cover themselves with leaves God gives them the firs he gives us the wherewithal to cover our shame God doesn't see us in her shame he looks at the woman he says says nobody condemned you and she said nobody sir he said go now that's just that an ordinary verb that's a sing well this scene is over that's the verb that's used when Israel when Pharaoh has to let the people go let my people go he's saying I'm releasing you and releasing you to a new freedom into a new way of life don't sin anymore now there's a second motif behind this you know and that's also the story of Susana in in the Old Testament see this story parallels to Susana text except in the Susana text is very important notice in the Susana text she's guilty this Optima spurred me Susanna's innocent this woman is guilty that's a very important motif John is making and that is again be compassionate the way your father's compassionate the father's compassionate without the people who are guilty and to those who are innocent it doesn't matter okay I want to draw some without see she's innocent she's saved by Daniel okay who incidentally then and when Daniel saves Susana they turn against the men who accused her and they kill them somebody still dies in God's name that day you know but the point here I'll be compassionate we got us compassion our compassion has to go to the innocent and to the guilty give an example where that comes out for instance with capital punishment you know and you know the level of emotion we forgive ourselves that level of emotion we don't if somebody's really repentant you feel sorry from they shouldn't be executed if somebody's hard and cold and callous a kill on us so see our compassion or more importantly pro-life you know so see pro-life and the Catholic position is you have to be against killing a baby in the womb and you have to be against capital punishment people say well the baby's innocent they're guilty it doesn't matter it doesn't matter you know see human compassion who is out against it's God's compassion is for everybody you know what Teddy a quick little story here now I want you to pick up the irony in this story I think you'll get it and it's from Captain Cook's Diaries and you're Captain Cook wasn't a Disneyland character he was an English anthropologist and at one time he spend a number of years in the Polynesian islands and he lived with the chief and he learned the language and they were animists and one day the chief took Captain Cook to witness a human sacrifice they killed a man on an altar for God and cook was horrified he wrote in his diary we said I was simply horrified by the primitiveness of his people he said I told that to the chief he said you are a primitive people this is horribly said in England we'd hang you for that okay see anthropologists they have a wide scope it's called human sacrifice whether it's capital punishment abortion whether it's a Anna animus killing someone you're killing somebody and you're killing somebody in God's name you know and we've never stopped doing it today you still didn't horrific you know with all the persecution around the world and so on so many people are being killed in God's name but we just do it a lot more subtly you know pope francis got in trouble for saying this he said Who am I to judge well he was the first person who said that Jesus said that remember in John's Gospel Jesus says I judge no one he said God judges no one doesn't mean they're in any judgment he said God's love God's truth God's light comes into the world and we judge yourselves God doesn't have to judge anybody there's nobody in hell because God send them there you know we can only put ourselves to hell and so on see we judge ourselves remember Jesus I'm quoting you I judge no one okay and also he tells us to be very very patient in judging others remember the great story that's not the gospel bought the wheat and the Dhahran all he said a farmer sowed some wheat and during the night his enemies came and sowed Arnall and then his workers said you know where there's Darnell she'll be pulled out I said you can't you know actually my farmers to understand this weed and Darnell look exactly the same until they come to full head so he said you have to wait till the harvest and then you can separate right from wrong so jesus said just patience and we're always judging each other we're always stoning each other with the commandments okay then compassion is giving voice to human finances the notice I didn't say Mary because in John's Gospel John never says if her name okay in John's Gospel Jesus gives Mary a very very important role different than snap the Gospels but he never says her name even if the other Gospels you know what a name is she's she's always the mother of Jesus and the reason he says that because in John's Gospel she functions as Eve she's not just Jesus mother she's your mother she's everybody's mother she's the mother of the planet now and also in John's Gospel Jesus is always God remember from the John's Gospel in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the word became flesh so Jesus is God walking home with human skin and his mother is Eve so let's take him to to them the wedding feast of Cana interesting text they said that's interesting that's first of all the text about Mary more some of them about Jesus they said there was a wedding feast at Cana and Jesus mother was invited and Jesus also in the long notice he's the tag along okay you know you know we remarkable woman from Mexico here a few years ago and she and to think about ladies Our Lady of Guadalupe she showed me a wedding invitation her daughter was getting married in Mexico so she flew down to put a handwritten invitation by the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe showed me the invitation says come to the wedding and you can bring your son along okay okay well seeing John's Gospel the mother of Jesus so now they're at the height of the feast and the mother of Jesus comes to Jesus and says son they don't have any wine okay now you're gonna see that text fires at a couple of levels okay we're look at the second level the next thing to change the water to wine and Jesus's woman you know said the way you address your mother that's God talking to Eve this is the mother of the planet and she says we talked that later on the heart of life but the first is John's Gospel as a surface level in a deeper level at the surface level she is a mother and she is noticing that they're gonna run out the caterer come up short it's important but so she's trying to bail them out but notice what she's doing she's giving voice to an adequacy voiced the human finer tude you know see the mother of the planet she's speaking to God that's gonna be a second level about what's not happening down here you know and then he eventually Jesus gives her the Mary call but see and see John doesn't talk about social justice and so on this is the text see our task when we're compassionate our task I could do the whole thing on this is just going to do it very briefly our task is always to give voice to human fine attune whenever we notice there isn't any wine whenever we notice somebody's coming up short somebody has a disability compassion has to step into there but now the second level of that text compassionate setting our our comes was to change water into wine okay in John's Gospel things always have at least three levels so the first level is she gives voice to him and find that you'd this is second level she says son they have no wine that's a very interesting expression why because wine isn't the protein you don't need wine to live she didn't say no I've looked checked their fridge and there's nothing healthy deed in this house they have torito's and coke there you know okay she says they have no wine wine okay first of all they're at a wedding it's the image in the Gospels that's the center of life so Jesus God and Eve are at the center of life and Eve says I'm at the center of life and it's flat down here see wine is something that makes your spirit bubble and warms you she's that they have protein they're getting the business done but they're grinding their teeth at each other you know it's an interesting metaphor you know I go to a lot of meetings I suspect many of you do too but if you go to any meeting or any house or any gathering in five minutes on any day you'll know whether just wine in the room or no wine in the room I go to a faculty meeting some temperatures wine there it's wonderful other days we all want to kill each other you know and we get business done the business gets done the same way but it's just mmm the grinding and there's tension there's no wine in the house okay it's a matter for the same you can go to any house so you sit down at your family dinner table some nights there's wine and some nights there isn't okay but now Jesus says what's that to you and I said my hour has not yet come now we must understand that he said my hour is not him that isn't his hour to do miracles he's not saying like mom you know my from the father and I have a schedule as scheduled if you're in England okay and see miracles are really second and third year you know the hour hasn't come no the hour always refers to the hour of his suffering and his death he said my hour has not yet come he's not that to miracles it I'm not suffering yet that's a very deep motif you know what brings wine into a room it's not necessarily a person who tells the best jokes and so on and lightness the atmosphere who is laying down blood for the family or the faculty or the community that's what brings wine there you know I was blessed with wonderful parents you know we were poor we'd have wine in the house often drinkable wine we always had wine in the house because my mother and father are putting life down for the family their hour had come the hour to be parents the hour to give to your children and so on the hour to do what it necessary to suffer what's necessary and so on see today oftentimes in our churches in our country's offense we're not doing this for each other you know it's kind of you know you live your life I'll do mine and so on you know the we have to suffer and that's what turns the water into the wine you know and not only to one it turns it to the best morning of all all and of course since John is John that's only the second level there's a third level because that wine becomes the wine of the Eucharist and the wine of forgiveness and then in John scoffs but at the end when they pierce Christ's side the blood and the water flow back so the water becomes the wine the wine becomes the blood and the blood and the water fall back on humanity at the end of John's Gospel but see to love is Jesus love I'm a compassion that means we have to suffer for each other and then lastly compassion is collective it's interesting Jesus says be compassionate the way they're having a Father's compassion first of all your heavenly Father is not one person it's three the way the Trinity is compassionate communities are compassionate this expression by scale backs races he says what we dream alone remains a dream would we dream with others can remain a reality that you know we've learned that we learned from sociologists we've learned from other people that effective compassion compassion is really only effective it's effective one-to-one but for any kind of change in our culture and everything else it has to be from a community you know Henri Nouwen great spirits right he didn't experiment he had a sabbatical one year and during that sabbatical he met with the same group of people about eight or ten people met for every once a week for a couple of hours for a whole year and they just looked at the question of compassion what can you do to change the world what can you or I do to change the world at the end they came up with this they said alone he can't do it he can't do it you know and he uses this image he said you know when you watch the news at night off watch the 5:30 news and most nights is pretty discouraging you know the world work you know we're not getting along this is happening there's terrorism there's shootings there's this than that so you go away feeling helpless you know why because you are helpless because you've watched the news alone I imagine if a parish community watched the news together they'd still be pretty helpless but they'd be more powerful than one person if a diocese watch the news together they'd still be pretty powerless of what they'd be more powerful than one parish if the whole church and all the churches of the United States watch the news together they'd be pretty powerful and of all the people of faith in the world watch the news together we changed the world but we're not gonna change the world until we watch the news together you know we've made that I agree dog'll a slogan but your dream alone remains a dream would you dream with us we have to be linked in compassion and notice Jesus the first thing he does he sets up he forms a community he doesn't write a scripture he doesn't write a book he forms a community of men and women around him and 2,000 years later we're here because of that community and so on so when Jesus says be compassionate that's the essence of discipleship you know but notice how he finds compassion not just as simple as a sentiment as in the emotion not that those things are bad you know but this all embracive the Sun is the shine of the bad as well as the good you know I'll be the first to see I'm not there I'm not there you know trying to get there you know what they say are you a practicing Catholic say God I still needs lots of practice I hope we're all practicing Christians here because none of us are there okay now very briefly in the five minutes to struggle for compassion it's hard and what we need to do to get there is we need to live the baptism of Jesus and not just the baptism of John you know what's the difference between the baptism of Jesus and the baptism of John you know they come to Jia to John and they say are you the Christ and John is unequivocally said no he said I'm not the Christ in fact I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals strap he said because i baptize with water and he comes baptizing in the Holy Spirit what's the difference mean baptism by water and baptism by the Holy Spirit okay I want to be a piece of a John Shea poem but he he he mouths some words from John of the Cross why yes John of course why are you not the Messiah says because of this he said I can denounce the king but I can't enthroned one I can strip an idol of its power but I can't reveal the true God I can wash this the soul in sand but I can't dress it in white I can devour the word of the Lord like wild honey but I cannot place his sandal I can condemn sin but I can't bear it away behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world no give you an image water and fire okay he baptizes with fire i baptize with water imagine this imagine you're walking along the riverbank and you find an old lap in the sand and you pull it out and you take it home and you get one of these power washers and you just absolutely power wash it they've got all the sand and all the silt and stuff off of it and it's perfectly clean but it hasn't changed if you put it into a four inch and into fire you can melt it down and change it into something else so you said John the Baptist says you know what I can do for you I can tell you everything that's wrong with you now I can't fix you but I can tell you everything that's wrong you know I've been in the academic world for the last 45 years and it's been wonderful it's been a great ride but you know where we've been strong we've been strong in every kind of diagnosis and we've been weak on every kind of prescription we have done just incredible deconstruction work which is very important but mostly we can't fix the toilet we can tell you why your toilets broken and we can tell you when you drink a cup of coffee at Starbucks everybody who's been involved in the farmer in Kenya who grew that and how little he got he got 10 cents for it and all we can tell you all this we can't change anything see John the Baptist says I can tell you what's wrong with you but I can't fix you okay but what what what is spirit spirit is Grace and that's the key thing grace takes see beyond willpower you know so often we try to live our life by willpower a powerful example you know when the rich young man walks away from Jesus Jesus says you know can you give up everything and he can't okay and then cynthy don't villainize this young man he's a good young man you know he doesn't go away from Jesus bad he goes away from Jesus sad that's something very different okay he comes to Jesus is a good rich sad young man and he goes away as a good rich sad young man and Jesus says to his disciples it says I'll tell you it's hard it's hard for a rich person to go to heaven and it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven and Peter gives one of his best answers in Scripture he said if that's the case it's impossible he doesn't say it's difficult said that's the case it's impossible she says it is it is it's impossible he said for human beings it's not impossible for God Elana mentioned this morning 12-step programs II every person in the room will understand exactly what that means if you're an addict you can't stop drinking it's impossible for you it's not impossible of grace see so that and and understood that the struggle for I'm gonna venture say something for most of us in this room you know most of us roomie you're here for strong people we're not addicts and so on you know something that's a great gift and it's also great hindrance because oftentimes we're trying to live our lives by our own power willpower I'm a good strong guy I'm my dad's son and by god it was a moral man I can do this and sometimes we can even do it but you know something we end up like the older brother the prodigal son we thought it all right and all the energies are all home you know were bitter as a slave and so on see grace his community it's a fire it's love it's something different and so on see so the older brother he was able to do it but he but he wasn't the longer in grace it was a bitter man notice he was just as much outside of the house as his younger brother who was outside participation okay trying to live his life by willpower you know it said before I came from I had wonderful parents it was a great blessing but they were also very strong people you know who believed in willpower don't make a mistake and you're strong enough you can do it and so on my biggest struggle hasn't been to you know stay out of the gutter it's to stay warm and not bitter and cold of heart you know and at the end that's the big struggle you know somebody once said I'll end on this they said you spend your first half of life struggling with the fifth sixth commandment and you know which one that is they said you spend the second half of your life struggling with the fifth commandment thou shalt not kill all you know and long before anybody's ever shot with a gun they're shot with a word and before the shot with a word they're shot with a thought who does he think he is that's murder you know we were kids we had to go to confession and confess bad thoughts against the sixth commandment when you get older we should be confessing bad thoughts but about the fifth commandment who do you want to kill who don't you only be a table with who can't you stand who are you looking that she's so full of herself and so on that's the great struggle of the second half of life you know to come to to come into the house with a mellow heart you know with a compassionate heart and so I'm gonna end with this we have a little time actually for some questions if you want and so on but um so Jesus says be compassionate the way your Heavenly Father's compassion them not the way Erich Fromm defined this and so on who lets his son shine on the bed as well as the good on pro-life and pro-choice Democrats and Republicans Catholics Protestants evangelicals Muslims Jews atheists we gotta love to eat Jesus loved that's the stretch it's the pan ultimate invitation its its second to the last one the last invitation is for Union to make love with our God but to get there we got to go through there's only one route there and it's the same in every true religious path to compassion I want to end sense of fear let me end by reading something from you're all familiar with this but you need to hear it once in a while it's often attributed to Nelson Mandela but doesn't come from him he used it in his inauguration speech but it comes to Marianne Williamson and it's about fear she writes this wishes our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure it is our light our darkness that frightens us you might ask yourself Who am I to be brilliant gorgeous talented fabulous actually who are you not to be you are a child of God and you're playing small doesn't serve the world just nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you we are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us it's not just in some it's in everyone and as we let our light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same as we are liberated from our own fears our presence then begins to liberate others but I will I don't you have some questions and we can go or run around with a mic or some reactions or if you think it's wishy-washy say so father that was I mean that was just beautiful to me and it actually makes me want to cry I just loved what you said but you know what I think about compassion a little closer into my okay when you know when I think about compassion I think about being compassionate to ourselves I think you know one of the reasons that it's difficult to be compassionate to others is that we're not compassionate with ourselves we don't start with ourselves you don't find a place where say you know what I screwed up and that's okay too you know and I was thinking about that when you said that and I just think if God is an all-consuming fire you know God is an all-consuming fire and I don't know if these are questions or not but I'm probably just talking I don't know i father it was just it was just fabulous and I think that you have really taken so much time to think these issues through and I just wanted to thank you for that because it just it touched my heart completely well thank you for sharing that maybe just to pick up on one comment you have in there and that's about you know that we can't be compassionate to others if we're not compassionate ourselves that's a very important point see and oftentimes we but they're tied together see it's not that you do one first or the other say first I want to take care of myself then I want to take care of other people or I want to take of other people and care of myself they're always integrally bound you know so that but you're right we're going to if we are hard on ourselves they're going to be hard on other people if we're compassionate ourselves we'll be compassionate other people so that we we are going to treat them that way but I guess the only warning I'd have is it's not so much that I'm gonna do self-care first and then I'm going to take care of others it's it's always going on all at the same time as you're taking care of others you need to take care of yourself as you love others have to love yourself and so on because they'll feed each other you know if I try to take care of myself without taking care of others I'll become narcissistic and eventually because we're wired for health I'll start beating myself up you know and also I think you know how our parents raised us because you know we really have to think about you know how how are we raised and where did we where'd that self-doubt creep in where did we stop believing in ourselves you know where did we lack compassion you know in our hearts for ourselves and and then when we start looking at that we can say oh my goodness no wonder I'm thinking this thought that's so negative about you know someone else or how I'm and then lacking the compassion you know that God happy that God wants us to have for everyone and for each of us and and that's a lifelong struggle in itself so you know I think being compassionate to yourself is huge and probably you know and you know and one other thing I I Lord revealed to me and this was a big one is that we have to love ourselves first before we can love anyone else and I thought oh my god I thought I had to love God first but the truth is if I don't love myself I'm not gonna love anyone else and I think that was a big aha moment for me and I went oh my god you know no wonder I go off on this tirade or what have you so that was another one father so thank you very much I say thank you for that John not pure kick thanks John father Ron hi it's me there's a lot of tension right now okay I gotta say it between the basketball games and stuff and all okay we got that taken care of but no my question to you is as you speak of compassion the as we all live in some kind of tension or other the the tension piece to compassion could that be defined as exposing our vulnerability or not being able to humble ourselves would you say what would be the piece that would cause that tension in compassion it's a good question Rita I don't think it's one piece but I think that the deepest anchor and I think Dan touched unless is actually fear fear you know which which closes us off but I've also taken from what she said when she said like you know why don't we love ourselves and and because if we don't love ourselves we're not gonna love others and so on and you know when somebody hates you or hates somebody that means they're full of self-hatred you know I want to risk something you know I once took a wonderful course from a guy called Anton forgot it was a very famous psychologist in Belgium and so not that his word is the gospel but but Anton was it was a course on fear and like guilt neuroses and so on and he said you know we always blame the churches we have this whole thing about Catholic guilt and Presbyterian guilt and Jewish guilt and we try to off guilt each other you know and and he said it doesn't come from religion he said long before religion got to anybody said it comes from your earliest years you know where you're hardly conscious it comes from the first time you're sitting in the high chair and you even conscious who you are and you're burying jello on your face and someone said don't eat like a little pig you know stop that you know and every time so I was you know you're full of yourself and so on or shut up and so on see what end up we end up with a cursed consciousness that's what they call it in anthropology you know a cursed consciousness as opposed to a blessed consciousness let me give you a bust consciousness see when Jesus is baptized very significant text they said he heard his father that heavens opened up the father said he said you are my beloved in whom I am well-pleased in whom I take delight and scripture scholars will tell you you can't understand the Gospels with understand again see that forms Jesus consciousness that's why you can look out and say blessed are you when you're poor and blessed are you when you're meek and blessed are you in every situation okay see he felt he hurt himself has blessed this so he it forms his eyesight okay and see conversely unless you've been extraordinary lucky and you've come to adulthood without a whole lot of wounds and curses you know it's hard for us to love others because we feel ourselves as cursed so that every time someone looked at she's full of herself well that's speaking about me it's not speaking about the other person you know you know the Buddhists have this wonderful parable on that you know in in Christianity we always say quoting Thomas Aquinas you know whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver so they say you don't see what's out there you see what's inside of yourself and you project it out so they have this beautiful little parable those if you read the holy longing it's there you know so the Buddha's sitting under the tree and the Buddha is always fat okay and so this young trim soldier looks down at the Buddha and said you look like a pig and the Buddha looks up and said and you look like God the soldier said well why would you say I look like God he said well we don't see what's outside of us we see what's inside of ourselves who project it out said nice sit all day and think about God and when I look out that's what I see said you must be thinking about everything okay yeah my brother's a farmer is a great joke on that he says there was a grandfather and every Saturday morning it's five-year-old granddaughter he'd take her out for ice cream and shooter you like that you know so one morning he couldn't do it so grandma took her out for ice cream so they came back and said how was it with grandma said well it wasn't as much fun since grandma's so nice she's just smiles and everybody says grandpa points out who the jerks are in the idiots okay okay see grandpa has a cursed consciousness you know one of the men on our faculty Jim Myers Oh said if you get up in the morning the first five people you meet are jerks and idiots is a pretty good chance true that jerk or the idiot you know notice we project don't see but see that happens to us long before we live religion can feed in with false fears and so on but our our religious neuroses are not really religious they come out we and in religion but they're they're put there you know long before the church made you feel guilty about sin somebody said don't eat like a pig and so on see we we would we get shamed in our enthusiasm and see your enthusiasm that's what's your boy and see for life that's what makes you know and once you're ashamed in and we all get shamed in it see then fear feeds in then if you get bad religion you know which switch trucks on fear you know that can be really bad but the root canker is not religious okay hello I'm Theresa Jesus sets the ultimate example for how to live as God wants us to live and the little story you shared about going to the ice-cream parlor shows an example of how you don't want to live because other people are watching us they may be close they may be far but they're still watching us so you gave an example of liberating your own fears helps other people to liberate their fears can you talk about using that approach to say community organizing or helping with immigrants or something like that good question you know I wish I was in a better position to answer that because it's a one of the weaknesses in my life is I've never done community organizing other things like parish structures and so on maybe all I can say is that and it really tax attracts into that that the theme of this week is that we have to become less afraid to do these things you know we have to become less afraid just to step out you know so much of us is fear-based how many of you forever have done an inny ogram you know I was once a living at the Trappist guesthouse in Portland and there were sitting at the table they were talking on india graham and this one man sharon interest joy says you know I gave the intagram four years I gave it he said and one time was giving one in San Francisco and after says woman came up says who taught you how to do that he said in law I learned from this system well you're doing it all wrong said no you're still okay you can do it sit but that's not greedy and she says Indian Abraham says nine out of ten people should be a six so nine out of ten people are fear-based said no you landed another number said but in the end nine out of ten people work out of fear remember there's a great line at the beginning off the movie a river runs through it and remember Robert Redford he's narrating assisted I'll tell you stirred by my brother said he was born he said he was a beautiful person to see he was never afraid of anything in his whole life said of course he died young Dan you're talking like you know or something he watched the Olympic and you watch all these these these skiers who jump they're all these stuff well they were there one out of ten you know you know some people are born fearless they're just born fearless and most of us are born we're fear there's there's fear in us and it's also a gift you know it's kept us alive all of us in this room you're in this room because you've been afraid of ah stuff that's why you're still alive and so on okay there's a lot of people not in this room who weren't afraid of a lot of things and then it killed him you know but see my assists it's it's I admire you know the people like Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King of the extreme examples and so honor you know the Jim Wallace isn't people like who can simply step out and do this you know I'll be honest I've always been a pretty timid person you know it's kept me alive but it hasn't made me Martin Luther King or a great community organizer so it's almost like the courage just to do this you know see courage take see beyond fear and what you know what we need us they just need courage to do this a lot of us just haven't got it one last question if someone's got one okay Ron I'm Michael and my colleague is Makayla and we're coming from South Florida and when we talked about Ash Wednesday a couple years ago we were 20 minutes from where the shooting was and many of our students were deeply affected because a lot of our students come from that particular area this is not really a question it's just a sign of hope when you talked about the flock and the 99 the students that I've dealt with and most of my students are seniors at our high school they have forgiven the kid the ones that they have not forgiven are the ones that they point the finger at the 99 we adults who have not made a change and it's amazing to see them gather around this kid and recognize Dan talked a little bit about this last night they would not demonize this kid so as I'm listening to this that's why Mikael and I are here we're healing we're trying to process all this but it was really powerful in the words were powerful and again to recognize this I just want to say thank you thank you it's a step in in the healing process of what we're trying to grapple with this is high school teacher so thank you both of you all three of you thank you yeah and just thank you for sharing that I think it's it's important we all hear that okay you've been more than patient I'm going to release you

Channel: Oblate School of Theology

Views: 19,222

Rating: 4.84689 out of 5

Keywords: Ron Rolheiser, Daniel Horan, Richard Rohr, Theology, Spirituality, Ministry, Fear, Faith, Jesus, God, Oblate School of Theology, Missionary, Discipleship, Christian, Compassion, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, San Antonio, LGBTQ, Catholic, Christ, Social Justice

Id: w1lE6cDJ16I

Length: 66min 18sec (3978 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 17 2019