According to Laurence Freeman, some hermits used to say, "If you see a young man climbing up to heaven by his own will, catch him by the foot and pull him down to earth, for it is not good for him."
Hard as I pull on my own bootstraps, I’ve never been able to lift myself even an inch toward heaven. Have you? The cliche has never made a lick of sense to me. It makes perfect sense, however, that a bootstrap would provide a fine grip if you’re trying to pull somebody else back down to earth. It seems the bootstrap theology of the hermits of the Egyptian desert was a near perfect inversion of ours.
Our conception of economic life is one thing that’s floated off toward the heavens in my lifetime. We’ve increasingly thought of economic health more in terms of disembodied markets rather than incarnate human beings living deeply interconnected lives. It's more about Dow Jones Averages than actual people who get up in the morning and cook a meal or teach a child or install a faucet or write a contract or dress a wound or care for a parent.
The last financial crisis was called a “correction.” What didn’t get corrected was our notion that an economy is something other than an extended household. That’s where the word economy comes from, you know. In Greek, oikos means house, and oikonomia means “household management.” And reimagining household, i.e. economy, was near the heart of the strange project of the Fathers and Mothers of the Egyptian Desert. Even a hermit's cell is a household that exists only in relation to others.
Today, all sorts of people are agreeing not to go to work for the potential health and safety of their neighbors. For an individualistic, “bootstrap” society (in the nonsensical sense of the term), many of these are astonishingly selfless acts. Acts that move me as much as they frighten me on my better days. But what is also emerging, maybe for the first time in many decades, is the restoration of an image of economy, not essentially in terms of abstractions like money and markets, but as the interdependent work of actual people. We are remembering that our common life really is like a great household in which members contribute all kinds of necessary gifts. We’re seeing an economy for what it is, as we worry about how long it can survive if we all cease to do our work. These could be the seeds of a spiritual transformation.
The hermits taught that it was an act of mercy to pull someone climbing by his own will toward heaven back down to life on earth. Back down to life in community. Back down into a world in which God has made us deeply dependent on one another. The present crisis will come to an end. My hope is that when it does, you and I will be among the many who will have been pulled mercifully out of the illusion of the independent will, and back down into life with other people.
Hard as I pull on my own bootstraps, I’ve never been able to lift myself even an inch toward heaven. Have you? The cliche has never made a lick of sense to me. It makes perfect sense, however, that a bootstrap would provide a fine grip if you’re trying to pull somebody else back down to earth. It seems the bootstrap theology of the hermits of the Egyptian desert was a near perfect inversion of ours.
Our conception of economic life is one thing that’s floated off toward the heavens in my lifetime. We’ve increasingly thought of economic health more in terms of disembodied markets rather than incarnate human beings living deeply interconnected lives. It's more about Dow Jones Averages than actual people who get up in the morning and cook a meal or teach a child or install a faucet or write a contract or dress a wound or care for a parent.
The last financial crisis was called a “correction.” What didn’t get corrected was our notion that an economy is something other than an extended household. That’s where the word economy comes from, you know. In Greek, oikos means house, and oikonomia means “household management.” And reimagining household, i.e. economy, was near the heart of the strange project of the Fathers and Mothers of the Egyptian Desert. Even a hermit's cell is a household that exists only in relation to others.
Today, all sorts of people are agreeing not to go to work for the potential health and safety of their neighbors. For an individualistic, “bootstrap” society (in the nonsensical sense of the term), many of these are astonishingly selfless acts. Acts that move me as much as they frighten me on my better days. But what is also emerging, maybe for the first time in many decades, is the restoration of an image of economy, not essentially in terms of abstractions like money and markets, but as the interdependent work of actual people. We are remembering that our common life really is like a great household in which members contribute all kinds of necessary gifts. We’re seeing an economy for what it is, as we worry about how long it can survive if we all cease to do our work. These could be the seeds of a spiritual transformation.
The hermits taught that it was an act of mercy to pull someone climbing by his own will toward heaven back down to life on earth. Back down to life in community. Back down into a world in which God has made us deeply dependent on one another. The present crisis will come to an end. My hope is that when it does, you and I will be among the many who will have been pulled mercifully out of the illusion of the independent will, and back down into life with other people.
It seems strange to be taught about the need for community by Christian hermits. But is it? Could it be that the ones who best understand our need for others have always been those who’ve learned to spend a little time very much alone?
How about you? Has solitude ever brought a deepened sense of human interdependence for you?
How about you? Has solitude ever brought a deepened sense of human interdependence for you?
Dear Calvary clergy--All these thoughts have been incisive and inspiring. Thank you for sharing them. You know that Calvary is my "home away from home," and I miss seeing you and being with you for special events and Evensongs. I'm praying for all of you. God bless you. Ray
ReplyDeleteWe miss you, Ray! Glad you're reading along with us.
DeleteIt is during times like this that I am reminded about how the early church reached out to each other and checked on them. It is also important to take this time to do some self-cleaning and think about what is really important to each of us. Is it how large our 401K is or is it how we move toward grace and prepare ourselves for heaven?
ReplyDelete