Richard Rohr, a contemporary Franciscan  ¢â‚¬Ëœprophet ¢â‚¬â„¢,   writes a book a year, produces CDs/DVDs of his teachings on spirituality, and is a communicator par excellence. Two recent books  ¢â‚¬“ Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality  and The Naked Now  are good summaries of his approach to Spirituality and Contemplation.

Falling Upward  is, in my view, his  ¢â‚¬Ëœbest yet ¢â‚¬â„¢  ¢â‚¬“ with more quotable quotes than any of his previous writings.

His basic question: how do we progress from an immature  ¢â‚¬Ëœfirst half of life ¢â‚¬â„¢ to a more mature  ¢â‚¬Ëœsecond half of life ¢â‚¬â„¢? What are the universal principles at work here?

The  ¢â‚¬Ëœwisdom of the ages ¢â‚¬â„¢ is that law, tradition, custom, authority, and boundaries are a necessary platform from which to launch into a good life. We are not meant, in the early years, to follow a nebulous  ¢â‚¬Ëœdo it yourself ¢â‚¬â„¢ agenda. Healthily conservative people tend to grow up feeling more secure about themselves and the world.

The constraints of law and tradition are meant to curb our innate egocentricity, otherwise we ¢â‚¬â„¢ll define ourselves in terms of various criteria by which we judge our self-importance (climbing the ladder of success, but realizing at mid-life it ¢â‚¬â„¢s leaning against the wrong wall!).   Jesus said that unless we become like a little child, we will not enter the Kingdom of God (Matthew 18:3). He says this in response to the egotistic and ambitious question of the apostles, who were asking him  ¢â‚¬ËœWho is the greatest? ¢â‚¬â„¢

The problem is that we need  ¢â‚¬Ëœeldering ¢â‚¬â„¢ or  ¢â‚¬Ëœmentoring ¢â‚¬â„¢ so that we don ¢â‚¬â„¢t stay stuck on a childish/too secure path: a rare gift in our modern world, as there are not too many  ¢â‚¬Ëœwise and willing elders ¢â‚¬â„¢ around.

How do we progress from an unhealthy  ¢â‚¬Ëœchildishness ¢â‚¬â„¢ to a Christ-like  ¢â‚¬Ëœchildlikeness ¢â‚¬â„¢?Well, for one thing, we stop whining about our bad parenting or stupid authority-structures (such whining leads to narcissism), and with the help of wise-others take charge of our life. We must let our ego-structure go and move beyond them.  ¢â‚¬ËœThe death of the false self is often the birth of the soul. ¢â‚¬â„¢

We also develop a healthy distrust of formulaic doctrines and rituals as ends-in-themselves, learning to live with a healthy ambiguity about many things, and distrusting legalistic institutions (which  ¢â‚¬Ëœare mostly first-half-of-life structures ¢â‚¬â„¢).

Now this doesn ¢â‚¬â„¢t mean we can live without these entities: Jesus the Jew criticizes his own religion the most, but never leaves it. Torah precedes prophecy. But having a foundation and nothing built on it is somewhat futile!

 ¢â‚¬ËœYou will and must  ¢â‚¬Å“lose ¢â‚¬  at something. This is the only way Life-Fate-God-Grace-Mystery can get you to change, let go of your egocentric preoccupations, and go on the further and larger journey. I wish I could say this was not true, but it is darn near absolute in the spiritual literature of the world. Three of the parables of Jesus are about losing something, searching for it anew with some effort, finding it, and in each case throwing a big party afterwards. ¢â‚¬â„¢

Beyond rational and critical thinking, we need to be called again. This can lead to the discovery of a  ¢â‚¬Ëœsecond naivete, ¢â‚¬â„¢ which is a return to the joy of our first naivete, but now totally new  ¢â‚¬“ inclusive/mature thinking   as Paul Ricoeur put it. So we progress from  ¢â‚¬Ëœsimplicity this side of complexity, through complexity, to simplicity on the other side of complexity ¢â‚¬â„¢.

First we fall, and then we recover from the fall, and both reveal the mercy of God (Dame Julian).   The human ego prefers just about anything to falling or changing or dying. It is not love but death that makes the world go round (Ernest Becker).

In terms of our ideological journey the opposite of rational is not irrational but trans-rational  ¢â‚¬“ bigger than the human mind can process (eg. love, death, suffering, God, infinity).  ¢â‚¬ËœPeople are so afraid of being considered pre-rational that they avoid and deny the very possibility of the trans-rational. Others substitute mere pre-rational emotions for authentic religious experience, which is always trans-rational ¢â‚¬â„¢ (Ken Wilber). It ¢â‚¬â„¢s often when the ego is most deconstructed that we can hear things anew and begin some honest reconstruction. The saint is precisely one who has no  ¢â‚¬ËœI ¢â‚¬â„¢ to protect or project. His or her  ¢â‚¬ËœI ¢â‚¬â„¢ is in conscious union with the  ¢â‚¬ËœI AM ¢â‚¬â„¢ of God.

Well, that ¢â‚¬â„¢s the essence of it. And in between all this wisdom are sayings and quotes which are gems. Like these:

• Democracy is not the best form of government, just the safest (Plato, Jefferson). But a truly wise monarch might be better at getting things done ( ¢â‚¬Ëœno hate letters please ¢â‚¬â„¢).
• Religious people tend to love the past rather than the future or the present.
• Prophets don ¢â‚¬â„¢t care whether you ¢â‚¬â„¢re ready to hear their message. They say it because it has to be said and is true.
• In the  ¢â‚¬Ëœmuddled middle ¢â‚¬â„¢  ¢â‚¬Å“the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity ¢â‚¬  (W B Yeats).
• Both God ¢â‚¬â„¢s conditional love and also God ¢â‚¬â„¢s unconditional love are found in the same Scriptures, like Deuteronomy and John ¢â‚¬â„¢s Gospel. The only real biblical promise is that unconditional love will have the last word.  Jesus is never upset with sinners (check it out!); he is only upset with people who do not think they are sinners! Organized religion has not been known for its inclusiveness or for being very comfortable with diversity.
• The only consistent pattern I can find is that all the books of the Bible seem to agree that  somehow God is with us and we are not alone.
• The classic spiritual journey always begins elitist and ends egalitarian (Ken Wilber). The ego clearly prefers an economy of merit, where we can divide the world into winners and losers, to any economy of grace, where merit or worthiness lose all meaning.
• Either God is for everybody and the divine DNA is somehow in all of creation, or this God is not God by any common definition, or even much of a god at all.

Disclosure: I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve read 8-10 of Richard Rohr ¢â‚¬â„¢s books, been listening to him on cassette tapes then CDs and at conferences for nearly 30 years, attended his week-long retreat for men in Arizona, lunched with him on the day John Paul II was buried, and entertained him as a friend in our home.

Rowland Croucher

September 1,   2011