Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Twenty-three: "Creativity"
"An Anticipatory Universe"Thursday, June 7, 2018
I believe that the core of the Judeo-Christian revelation is that we are created in the image of God. We lose that and we lose the foundation. Clearly, God is endlessly imaginative and creative. Those who are intensely curious, open, and creative are probably deeply in touch with the One who continues to generate all the “ten thousand things” that surround us.
The Jesuit priest, mystic, and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was just such a person. His insights have much to teach us about the importance of human creativity and ingenuity. Theologian John Haught reflects on Teilhard’s contributions to Christianity:
Throughout Teilhard’s lifetime, Catholicism still adhered to the picture of an essentially static and unchanging cosmos. During the last century, however, Teilhard became one of the very few Christian thinkers to acknowledge that the Darwinian revolution and contemporary cosmology . . . [have] important implications for theology. In the first place, . . . the sciences have shown beyond any doubt that the universe could not literally have come into being in a state of finished perfection. Second, the figure of Christ and the meaning of redemption must now be understood as having something to do with the fulfillment of the earth and the whole universe, and not just the healing of persons or the harvesting of souls from the material world. And third, after Darwin, Christian hope gets a whole new horizon, not one of expiating [atoning for] an ancestral sin and nostalgically returning to an imagined paradisal past, but one of supporting the adventure of life, of expanding the domain of consciousness, of building the earth, and of participating in the ongoing creation of the universe in whatever small ways are available to each of us. . . .
Our action in the world matters, therefore, because it contributes both to the deeper incarnation of God and to the redemptive gathering of the whole world, and not just human souls, into the body of Christ. The exhilarating Pauline intuition of a universe summed up in Christ (Colossians 1:13-20; Ephesians 1:9-10) matches our scientific understanding of a world struggling to become more. [1] Our spiritual hope, our “resting on the future,” therefore, is simply the flowering and prolongation in human consciousness of what has always been an anticipatory universe. . . .
Finally, [this also has] a bearing on the meaning of worship. As Teilhard writes, “To worship was formerly to prefer God to things, relating them to him [sic] and sacrificing them for him. To worship is now becoming to devote oneself body and soul to the creative act, associating oneself with that act in order to fulfill the world by hard work and intellectual exploration.” [2]
Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.
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[1] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy, trans. J. M. Cohen (Harvest Books/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: 1962), 82-102.[2 ] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Christianity and Evolution, trans. René Hague (Harcourt Brace & Co.: 1969), 92-93.
John F. Haught, Resting on the Future: Catholic Theology for an Unfinished Universe (Bloomsbury: 2015), 41, 52-53.
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- Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations
- Joy Unspeakable: Joy Unspeakable is not silent, it moans, hums, and bends to the rhythm of a dancing universe. It is a fractal of transcendent hope, a hologram of God's heart, a black hole of unknowing. —Barbara Holmes
- Perplexed into Contemplation: The imagination offers revelation. We find ourselves engaged in its questions and possibilities. —John O'Donohue
- Swallowed by a Whale: How much dissolving and shaking of ego we must endure before we discover our deep identity—the true self within every human being that is the seed of authentic vocation. —Parker Palmer
- Let Your Life Speak: Your life is not about you. You are about a larger thing called Life. You are not your own. You are an instance of a universal and eternal pattern.(Richard Rohr)
The Richard Rohr Meditation: "Creative Leaders" for Wednesday, 6 June 2018 from The Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Twenty-three: "Creativity"
"Creative Leaders"Wednesday, June 6, 2018
I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control. —Margaret Wheatley (b. 1944), researcher of organizational behavior [1]
There is no greater training for true leadership than living in the naked now. There, we can set aside our own mental constructs, receive input and ideas from all directions, and lead even more creatively and imaginatively—with the clearer vision of one who lives beyond himself or herself. This is surely why some of Christianity’s great mystics, such as Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), and Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), were also first-rate leaders, motivators of others, and creative reformers of institutions.
Here are some insights into what every good, servant-hearted, nondual leader knows and practices, whether in community, in the workplace, or in the classroom. Creative leaders:
- are seers of alternatives.
- move forward by influencing events and inspiring people more than by ordering or demanding.
- know that every one-sided solution is doomed to failure. It is never a lasting solution but only a postponement of the problem.
- learn to study, discern, and search together with others for solutions.
- know that total dilemmas are very few. We create many dilemmas because we are internally stuck, attached, fearful, over-identified with our position, needy of winning the case, or unable to entertain even the partial truth that the other opinion might be offering.
- know that wisdom is “the art of the possible.” The key question is no longer “How can I problem solve now and get this off my plate?” It is “How can this situation achieve good for the largest number and for future generations?”
- continue finding and sharing new data and possibilities until they can work toward consensus from all sides.
- want to increase both freedom and ownership among the group—not subservience, which will ultimately sabotage the work anyway.
- emphasize the why of a decision and show how it is consistent with the group’s values.
Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.
***
[1] Margaret Wheatley, “How Is Your Leadership Changing,” 2005, http://www.margaretwheatley.com/articles/howisyourleadership.html.Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See(The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2009), 156-158.
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"Image and Likeness"
2018 Daily Meditations Theme
God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
Richard Rohr explores places in which God’s presence has often been ignored or assumed absent. God’s “image” is our inherent identity in and union with God, an eternal essence that cannot be destroyed. “Likeness” is our personal embodiment of that inner divine image that we have the freedom to develop—or not—throughout our lives. Though we differ in likeness, the imago Dei persists and shines through all created things.
Over the course of this year’s Daily Meditations, discover opportunities to incarnate love in your unique context by unveiling the Image and Likeness of God in all that you see and do.
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