Richard Rohr, A Lever and a Place to Stand: The Contemplative Stance, the Active Prayer (2011: The World Community of Christian Meditation).

My friends tell me that one of the memories they take away from my Leadership Seminars  ¢â‚¬“ and sometimes my preaching – is a few of  ¢â‚¬ËœCroucher ¢â‚¬â„¢s Global Statements ¢â‚¬â„¢. OK, (give a dog a bad name…:-) here ¢â‚¬â„¢s another:

In my humble opinion Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr is the English-speaking world ¢â‚¬â„¢s #1 contemporary Christian prophet .

There, now that that ¢â‚¬â„¢s off my chest, let ¢â‚¬â„¢s have a quick glance at his latest book.

Richard is  ¢â‚¬Ëœwith-it ¢â‚¬â„¢ (he ¢â‚¬â„¢s au fait with Emerging Church thinking, a la Phyllis Tickle, Brian McLaren et al), ecumenical (I love his sometimes oblique but devastating critiques of church hierarchies), erudite (he ¢â‚¬â„¢s a voracious reader and, these days, author), irenical (but the conservatives and liberals each regularly  ¢â‚¬Ëœcop a serve ¢â‚¬â„¢) and very  ¢â‚¬Ëœgrounded ¢â‚¬â„¢ and friendly (we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve been privileged to have him stay with us in Melbourne).

The thesis of A Lever and a Place to Stand is simple, but not-so-simple: Without a genuine contemplative stance, we ¢â‚¬â„¢ll never adequately challenge the oppressions, materialism and sectarianism of our modern world. But activism without contemplation/meditation is mostly the preferred short-cut moderns take to  ¢â‚¬Ëœattack ¢â‚¬â„¢ the world ¢â‚¬â„¢s problems, hence, for example, imperialistic disasters like Aghanistan, the incarceration of more people in U.S. prisons for drug-related offences than were in Russian gulags a generation or two ago, the selfishness of  ¢â‚¬Ëœborn again/right wing ¢â‚¬â„¢ Christianity in the U.S. and elsewhere which attacks issues like gay relationships, for example, with conservative hermeneutics and bigotry rather than empathy… the list goes on. Our better-educated political and religious leaders know more and miss the point more.  ¢â‚¬ËœInformation is not the same as transformation ¢â‚¬â„¢. Complexity the other side of simplicity is just as bad as simplicity this side of complexity (again, both liberals and conservatives tend not to  ¢â‚¬Ëœget it ¢â‚¬â„¢). The contemplative stance journeys us to simplicity the other side of complexity, the land Jesus and the saints and mystics inhabited.

Following his two key mentors,  ¢â‚¬ËœFather ¢â‚¬â„¢ Francis and Thomas Merton, Richard says the  ¢â‚¬Ëœfixed point ¢â‚¬â„¢ in the analogy  ¢â‚¬“ the place to stand – is a contemplative stance.  ¢â‚¬ËœDon ¢â‚¬â„¢t just do something, sit there! ¢â‚¬â„¢ Inner authority/integrity is what people are looking for, not  ¢â‚¬Ëœordination ¢â‚¬â„¢ and/or ecclesial status. There ¢â‚¬â„¢s a great danger in  ¢â‚¬Ëœouter authorities ¢â‚¬â„¢ taking the place of inner  ¢â‚¬Ëœcontemplative seeing ¢â‚¬â„¢. To practise what he preaches, Richard spends every other Lent in a hermitage, communing with God in stillness, silence, solitariness, and scripture (and nature).

Every paragraph has  ¢â‚¬Ëœquotable quotes ¢â‚¬â„¢ in it. Let me conclude with just one:

 ¢â‚¬ËœSince 9/11 it seems that church has frequently become one more place for frightened people to hide… to give ourselves a quick fix of surety and of  ¢â‚¬Å“God is on our side, ¢â‚¬  so that we would not have to look at this issue with any subtlety or repentance whatsoever. What if the president had called a worldwide convocation of Islamic peoples to ask them:  ¢â‚¬Å“Why do you hate us so much? What are we doing wrong? What could we do better to show you that we are your friends? ¢â‚¬  Unthinkable isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t it? It ¢â‚¬â„¢s even unthinkable to people who go to church each Sunday. Why? I believe it is because most organized religion is still a  ¢â‚¬Å“first half of life ¢â‚¬  religion ¢â‚¬â„¢ (p. 32). [1]

[1] Richard Rohr Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life   http://victoriaconcordiacrescit.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/richard-rohr-falling-upward.html

Rowland Croucher jmm.aaa.net.au

April 2012