Building on the metaphor of the tricycle of faith, Father Richard names that spiritual growth occurs as we pay attention to and learn from our own experiences:
The two wheels of sacred Scripture and Tradition can be seen as sources of outer authority, while only our personal experience leads to our inner authority. I am convinced we need and can have both. Only when inner and outer authority come together do we have true spiritual wisdom. Christianity in most of its history has largely relied upon official or outer authority, but we must now be honest about the value of inner experience. It was, of course, at work all the time but was not given much credence.
Information from outer authority does not necessarily lead to transformation, and we need genuinely transformed people today, not just people with answers. I don’t want the words in my books or these meditations to separate anyone from their own astonishment or to provide them with a substitute for their own inner experience. Theology (and authority figures) have done that for too many people and for too long. Instead, I hope my words simply invite readers on their own inner journey rather than become a replacement for it.
I am increasingly convinced that the word “prayer,” which has become a functional and pious thing for believers to do, was meant to be a descriptor and an invitation to inner experience. When wise spiritual teachers invite us to “pray,” they are in effect saying, “Go inside and know for yourself!” For too long we’ve insisted on outer authority alone, without any teaching of prayer, inner journey, and maturing consciousness. The results for the world and for religion have been disastrous. [1]
In our tricycle, experience is constantly balanced and critiqued by Scripture and Tradition. When all three “wheels” work together, we have a very wise person. That’s the easiest way to say it. At the CAC, that’s what we’re interested in doing: raising up not argumentative or righteous people, but compassionate and wise people. That’s our goal. [2]
Brian McLaren points to the ways that experience created both Scripture and Tradition:
If we have Scripture, experience, and Tradition around the table, it’s really all experience. Scripture is the experience of a group of people far, far in the past in a very different setting. Tradition is the experience of another group of people who, for a long time, have been interpreting what that first group of people said. Then I come along and with my own experience and a community, which bring all its experience, too. It’s a reminder that we have to be careful if any one person or group tries to edit out anybody else’s experience, because they don’t like it or they find it inconvenient.
I don’t want to be stuck simply in my own experience. It’s too limited. I need the experience that comes to me from Scripture and from Tradition. At the end of the day, we’re dealing with people’s experiences and interpretations of experience, and we need all the help we can get. [3]
References:
[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, rev. ed. (Franciscan Media, 2022), xv, 1, xvi.
[2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Good Theology Creates Good Politics with Richard Rohr,” CONSPIRE 2021, YouTube video, 1:09:22.
[3] Adapted from Brian McLaren, “Expanding Our Understanding of Scripture Q & R,” CAC’s Living School: Essentials of Engaged Contemplation, Center for Action and Contemplation, February 2024.
Image credit and inspiration: Taylor Heery, untitled (detail), 2021, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Dynamic movement requires balance and respect, guided by ever-shifting balance points—like riding a tricycle—through a process of constant learning and continual growth.
Story from Our Community:
The Daily Meditations have been a constant presence in my life as I walk through the crumbling of my 30-year marriage. I’ve felt consoled in my anger and sadness at the loss of my past, present, and future life. I am beginning to embrace that I am more than my marriage, and I have so much to give others and myself. The anger and sadness still lurk in the shadows of my life, but acceptance and grace continue to sustain me.
—Tom C.
