in full retreat

conference  #3

we are called to flourish
this word was used by elizabeth anscombe
by jacques maritain by Alasdair MacIntyre
it is a concept which weaves itself through the thinking of charles taylor

fr.  timothy OP  says unabashedly
this is what it is all about in case you've been wondering

we are meant to flourish
god gives every indication of wanting us to flourish
nature flourishes people flourish
not all of them thank god or religion would be
completely out of business
the  miracle of the mind having  awe and wonder with life is a response to the perception that being has a way of flourising



the 20th century has witnessed a philosophical return
to the emotional life the life of these intricate indicators
in the human mind these anxiety flag wavers these love noticers
these delight seekers these thought causers these tear causers these
laughter inciters these fear messages these anguish sounders these
illness riders these prayer motivators the anger wrilers of the
wild west feelings rodeo known in these parts as the emotions

(    of course you've gathered by now that words in italics are essentially commentary   )



the prophet clothed in white habit and black belt
this british character donning a mood of happiness
he's a jokester really
there's something to be said about telling good jokes

as a church .......and this may or may not be good to know ....
as a church it seems we've come to the closing times
of the COUNTER REFORMATION era an era marked by some impressive
church developments the JESUITS the CAPUCHINS  the many many
orders of religious women huge surges in theology in making theology available to the common reader huge efforts in education and health care
but all this under a discipline which somehow made professional religious
men and women into  SEXLESS creatures
or it created the social atmosphere of what was
to be a professional religious ideal  ....sort of stiff   sort of sexless ...
holy perhaps but difficult to recognize the human there



so much was focussed on finding a means of working the mind
beyond the distractions of natural desire
......well it's a good question to ask ....is it so?....
positing the ideal of chastity during the counter-reformation
was a way of being   supra-practical...a way of freeing people
a way of guiding the energies of many people
to the ideal of christ
even if today we see it all as rather stiff
i would maintain that the extensive good of the schools
the hospitals the orphanages the places of retreat
all this attests to a positive apprehension of humanity

knowing by general consensus that the sexual drive
is the most overwhelming of all drives known to reflective humanity
more effort is placed upon it more deliberate waking attention given to it by more people than any other human activity other than perhaps eating or perhaps sleep
 but of course that is not a waking activity.... or is it?
but what i'm thinking here is there was this intense christian drive to sublimate to redirect the energies of physical desire toward higher goals like spiritual writing -advances in prayer -modes of creative variations on prayer the 17th  18th and 19th century produced more variations in the spiritual path in catholic circles than in any other time...really it is fascinating when one relates this fact to the development of human persons in all aspects of life...  anyway  i digress....or do i




it is evident from the texts of the middle ages
that
there was very little by way of social reaction to the fact
that people were human and they all desired sexual solace
most directives were focussed on people being discrete
find ways not to bring gossip around
there was ample room for delicate secrecy
and everyone the priests the monks the nuns
the pilgrims saw it as a way of life and it was
parodied endlessly in festivals
this    laissez faire   general attitude was challenged
by the reformers in the 16th century
to the effect that we've yet to assess the ideas of social sexual shame
as an impetus to alter the church
the reformers saw themselves as purifiers and discipliners
the catholic response was to become intensely IDEALISTIC
which created an imbalance
we lost sight of the realism REALISM of the middle ages

woven within the thought of thomas aquinas is a principle known as
the LOGIC OF DESIRE
THOMAS'   assessment of the passions is that they are good
they were made by god they reflect the very image of god
.....if put to good purpose....
they can be destructive as well
and thus we give awareness to the great rise in christendom
to the MORAL SCIENCES
moralists began doing intense involved moral manuals
in order to outdo the shoolmen of the middle ages it would seem
but actually as a way of delineating the intense psychological awareness
of the human propensity to fail and devise a means that is more charitabel yet
in allowing humans to rebound from failure
this is now sort of perceived as an exercise in distraction from the natural wonder
of the human body the human being in all his  comic  ( yes comic) glory
they took as their foundation the 10 commandments
these are  SIGNPOSTS OF DESIRE   (well of course they are)
it was a form of reaction to social discipline in the protestant world order
a way of articulating methods of interior discipline


the monologue upon which i was truly rivetted
moved on seamlessly to a discussion about
priorities weights and measures when it comes to desire
the destructiveness of sin is most noted in the
hang-up of petty desire



GREAT DESIRE IS WHAT THE CHRISTIAN NEEDS
PASSION THAT BRINGS ON FLOURISHING
books music poems dance paintings buildings
crafts things of beauty friendship ardently pursued
great passion putting all petty passion aside
it is good to be PASSIONATE about something
bring on the passion

then without so much as a bat of an eye
he looks us all straight in the face  (s)
and says
WE ALL NEED SOME GOOD TEACHING ON HOW TO FALL IN LOVE

(  well i was as alert as a mouse in church when the bells are rung
all my senses were attuned to the words his words and the emotions in my body
and it was no surprise no surprise at all for i felt as though
perhaps i may be the only one in the room who is almost quite literally
head over heels as it were  )

love is a joyous thing

our retreat director then commenced upon a tale of love
he related the story of woman coming into his life
just before he was to be ordained to the priesthood
a most disturbing affair by any accounts
but there was to be no doubt in his mind it was true and truly LOVE
and it is love to this day and it involved a woman becoming catholic
and it finally involved her recognition that her love for him
was partly her love for the Dominicans as she had come to know them
and this made all the difference
fr timothy's humility was his offering of this woman
to the rest of his brothers
his love would always be particular
but it would be conducted in transparent relationship to
the reality of his Dominican life

and there was another woman
....a story for another day

we are to be willing to undergo
SPIRITUAL    HEART     SURGERY
it is in the way of CRISIS to help us to do it

the CHURCH is wrestling squirming as in a straightjacket
in a state of a petty PUBERTY CRISIS
the crisis of the church is a crisis of maldirected  weakened LOVE
a sort of constricted love a close-minded love
and it expresses itself in immature sexual ways
and everywhere is seen this greater desire to be more mature
more truly charitable more likened in all things to christ

(  i'd never quite thought of it this way but it began to make perfect sense  )


i found myself thinking that society in general is highstrung strung-out on
very adolescent exaggerations about what sex is about
and this is reflected somehow into the way the CHURCH is thinking about sex

the writings of late on the body and on love and on virtue by recent popes notably
pope john paul II (s) prophetic statement on  THE THEOLOGY OF THE BODY
it appears however
 that there is a catholic response that wishes to recognize the connection
between CHRIST'S PASSION and normal human passion
something we can assess was in great awareness in -say- the 14th century

to read DANTE to read the DECAMERON to read medieval commentaries on the SONG OF SONGS is to become aware that erotic life was an accepted dimension of what it means to be gloriously human




HAVE A GOOD CRISIS
  ( a slogan on a t-shirt  )

the mystery of god's love for us is entwined in the mystery of our efforts to love
we are known intimately by an all loving god who calls us whose call is always there
and he tends to speak clearest in CRISIS

to dare to love is to dare to dance in a crisis

can we envision a WIDE OPEN church where god's love is expressed in a flourishing way

in our differences we are called to love universally   (  katolikos  )
attend to the brilliant variety of life



we are here to learn the art of loving others...

what the others are here for
GOD only knows  ....            W H Auden




is it possible to love without fomenting disaster
this is at the heart of christ's admontion to everyone
our eyes must learn to see chastely our minds think chastely

it is a failure of    CHASTITY    to have
fear or anxiety about the body or sex     ....     Thomas Aquinas   OP





any love worth the name
takes a long time





our life much like the life of the israelites
is a struggle of return of failure of loss of dejection
of darkness
and of RETURN of glorious and continual return

o then a  footnote comment in closing elucidates the person of Peter in
Mark's gospel     -    it could be read as a shameless display of failure
and return

we are called to be WIDE OPEN in our friendship
with the LORD


St Anthony of the desert became a living symbol
of Christ's Charity and the people knew it
they proclaimed the astounding fact of this man's
unbound charity for all who came to visit him
and he flourished he lived to the age of  105




after some good lolling
let us try some flourishing











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