Father Richard reflects on the shared hope that characterized the first community he founded in the late 1970s:
I will always cherish my early years among the youth of the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati, Ohio. If nothing else, we were enthusiastic! With the help of the Holy Spirit, there was belief, there was trust, there was hope, there was positive energy. We didn’t immediately critique or analyze everything. We didn’t call everything into question right away.
I believe we must be free to say “yes” before we say “no,” but most of us aren’t that free. Our first response is normally dualistic, negative, and probably even fear based. We often respond initially with something like: “I don’t trust that. I don’t like that. I don’t want that.” The word “yes” before “no” allows for some enthusiasm (en-theos in Greek), which means “filled with God.” I’m encouraging an enthusiasm that is based on intelligence, wisdom, and the great gift of hope.
Hope is a participation in the very life of God. It has nothing to do with circumstances or events going well. It can even thrive in the midst of adversity and trial. True faith, which always includes hope and love, is a predisposition to “yes.” I would go so far as to say that a foundational “yes” is the most distinguishing element between an ego- and fear-based agenda and a Spirit-guided one. As Paul writes of Jesus, “With him it was always ‘yes,’ and however many the promises God made, the ‘yes’ to them all is in him” (2 Corinthians 1:19–20).
Deconstruction comes naturally to most of us, but deconstruction is rather useless without reconstruction and a positive vision. It’s the easiest thing in the world to stand on a pedestal of superiority and point out who and what is wrong—without doing anything positive or becoming a positive answer ourselves. After we criticize and deconstruct, what are we actually for? An awful lot of activists on the left and reactionaries on the right have no positive vision, nothing they believe in, no one they are in love with. They are just overwhelmed with what’s wrong and think that by eliminating the so-called “contaminating element,” the world will be just, peaceful, and right again.
The book of Proverbs says that without a positive vision the people will perish (see 29:18). What the gospel, true religion, and true mythology give us is a cosmic and positive vision, inside of which the soul can live safely. That’s the only place from which lasting change ever comes. Jesus’s term for that totally positive vision—not against anybody or expelling anything—is the reign of God.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order/Disorder/Reorder (Franciscan Media, 2020), 62–63, 64.
Image credit and inspiration: Dyu Ha, untitled (detail), 2019, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. We reach out with a deep desire to connect to hope and a sense of timing beyond our own.
Story from Our Community:
As I reflect on the scene in the Book of Acts—freely giving to those in need and expressing love as an intimate core community—this appears both unbelievable and extremely desirable. It is such a contrast to the tone of the world today. Scarcity versus abundance. Peace, hope, and love versus more military spending. Both action and contemplation are helping me to learn and experience a Spirit-filled life.
— Sean K.
