Many of you saw my last Blog posting as a reflection on a personal awakening, a discovery of something that had been there all along: my true self. I’ve always believed that the ultimate purpose of a life is to discover who one is and to live out that unique self. The challenges are obvious – the pressures from society, parents, etc. to live this way or that – and many never make this most important discovery of their lives. And the world is less as a result, for the greatest gift any of us has to give the world is the gift of living out our true self.
The second thought in your responses was about the need today for spiritual guides – priests who would be beacons, lighthouses – to help us discover our true selves, as individuals certainly, but also as organizations and communities. Such priests should be people who have understanding born of experience, skills born of practice, and compassion born of relationships: teachers who can speak about these things in the language of the present times; guides whose task is simply to help us understand our place in the universe.
A third thought related these first two by saying that this particular role of priest is not simply a function given by an institution but an ‘archetype’ or calling present from the beginning that shapes and guides a life. Many of you were generous enough to say that I have been such a priest from the beginning (at least for you), and that I have also learned the language of today in order to be a priest in ways that can help people live this essential spirituality of discovering and celebrating their true selves. Certainly we all need such help in order to reclaim our humanity in a world that is increasingly soul-less on the one hand, and increasingly hungry for this soul on the other; increasingly connected on the surface and increasingly isolated inside. That priesthood also extends beyond our own species, for all beings and all things have their unique gift to give to the mystery of the unfolding universe.
Finally, one of you said that something big is happening in my life and the end of that happening is not yet visible. That statement probably captures where I am right now and that the Spanish poet, Antonio Machado described so perfectly:
Wayfarer, the only way
is your footsteps, there is no other….
You also mentioned courage, suggesting that I had passed the courage part many years ago, referring probably to my decision to leave the institution of priesthood. In fact, I’m now looking for courage of a different kind, for it is one thing to step away from a role or function – or a relationship for that matter – that is no longer serving, but another to claim who you are especially in a way that might suggest that you know better than a two thousand year old institution.
I can take comfort however from someone whose feast we celebrate in Ireland in these first days of February: Brigid whose challenge was about claiming an archetype that clearly impelled her life – priesthood – even though this might have implied arrogance or even madness. According to an old tradition, during the rite when Bishop Mel of Ardagh was professing Brigid as a nun, “a mysterious manifestation of the Holy Spirit” (sic) caused him to inadvertently read over her the episcopal consecration, thereby ordaining her a bishop. Against the protests of the other bishops, Mel was convinced that this had happened according to the will of God and insisted that the consecration should stand. Now the story may be simply apocryphal and one of the ways that traditions use to highlight the importance of a person like Brigid who was undoubtedly perceived by the people as a spiritual leader in every sense. At the same time, Brigid was clearly a priest of a new order at that time: one that maintained traditions – she and her sisters were the keepers of the ‘eternal flame’ like the vestal virgins of ancient times; but she was also the formal leader of a ‘co-ed’ (monks and nuns) Christian monastery in the sixth century, something completely unheard of at that time (or since for that matter).
In a conversation the other day, a colleague was emphasizing the importance of knowing one’s tradition: I agreed but suggested that this did not mean simply maintaining traditional ways and knowledge and certainly not literally imposing these on today’s world in a fundamentalist way. Another colleague reflected that surely we should be able to figure out for ourselves how to live in the world today. He certainly wasn’t dismissing the wisdom of the past but rather the need for us to take responsibility for our lives and our world the way the people who handed on the wisdom of these traditions did. I think that spiritual practices, forms and even beliefs – all elements of religion – need to be experienced, discovered and affirmed by each generation just the way justice and freedom has to be affirmed for each new age. In fact, to be truly faithful is to do precisely this which inevitably involves questioning and examining our assumptions, both individual and collective. To do anything less is actually to be unfaithful to the spirit of our traditions.
Brigid is celebrated on what is also the first day of Spring in Ireland and is seen, therefore, as a symbol of hope and new life. We could all do with a little of the hope she reflects. She is also a symbol of courage in the way that she claimed priesthood as her calling in a world that was changing (that is always changing). I could do with a little of that courage myself right now.
Danny– In preparation for a parish viewing of “The Journey of the Universe”, I reread Teilhard’s “Christianity and Evolution”. It occured to me as I read his ground breaking essays on orginal sin from the 1920s and 1930s that he was an archetypal priest breaking beyond the bounds of the institution . You are most certainly in his tradition. Hopefully you will not find yourself banished to the Gobi Desert, but the leader at the forefront of a new Christian Universalism.
Best wishes in your venture.
Skip Vilas
Ah, Danny,
Reading your last three blog postings has been a journey in itself, watching your thinking unfold in directions as clear as any GPS device could map, were it encoded with spiritual dimensions! The path from “new elders” to “coming out” to the “new priesthood” reads like a completely linear evolution, thanks in part to your gift for collecting, reflecting, and sifting through the confusion of this age in which we live, where it is so hard to find a straight line in any experience.
As others suggest, you are already this new kind of priest to many, and long have been. (I smile at the posting which suggests that this may have been the case even before you entered the seminary.) Your own path has perhaps seemed more linear to some of us — despite, or even because of the fact that every observer’s lens is different — than it has to you in the actual living of the life we observe.
Be that as may be, there is still great reason to celebrate your formal declaration (or is it a reaffirmation?) that your priesthood is open for spiritual business! Those who know you well enough should light beacons, bang our pots and pans, and share the good news with neighbors near and far when you declare:
“I am formally offering my services from here on as a spiritual advisor and religious consultant (other definitions will no doubt emerge) to individuals and organizations and even communities (like municipalities) who want to address this essential spiritual dimension in their lives and work.”
The Dalai Lama’s sense that the “time has come to find a new way of thinking about spirituality and ethics that is beyond religion” begs the question of where to look for the leadership to help us find that way and sustain it. You are, and have been, one of the guides, not so much pointing the way as helping others to discover it.
With thanks and joy,
JAC