WEEDS OR FLOWERS IN THE SPIRITUAL GARDEN?

Transcription

1 WEEDS OR FLOWERS IN THE SPIRITUAL GARDEN? From a flowerpot on a city balcony to a large farm garden this is the season for weeding. Someone, I can't remember who, said that a weed was simply a plant growing in the wrong place. If we have invested a lot of energy and dreams in a row of heirloom tomatoes then a weed is anything that frustrates our plans. I've been told that in South Asia when Buddhist monks finish their long retreat during the monsoon season the most important practice is to make sure that they do not step on any new growing thing. Whatever it is. August 7, 2015

2 That impresses me. I ll share an event from the very early history of Starcross. It involves sister Marti, who has been the visionary with her feet always on the ground who has held us together since we started almost 50 years ago. Several years before we moved, in 1976, from San Francisco, to our present location in Sonoma County a young woman in her 20s came to see Marti. She wanted to marry a young man on Death Row in nearby San Quentin prison. She had been to a number of ministers who refused to consider participating. Marti had serious reservations about the situation herself and tried to point out some ramifications for the future. But the young woman persisted and kept coming back. Finally Marti agreed. There were several meetings with the man and the woman at San Quentin to plan the ceremony. There was a very tender atmosphere at the wedding gathering. A number of Death Row prisoners were among those present. After the vows were exchanged Marti started to cry. This had a profound effect on the people there who probably thought she was responding to a romantic sense of the event. But she wasn't. She was sad for the young woman very sad. With that event and other actions, Marti helped implant in the ethical DNA of our little community a concept that the young must often be allowed to live out their visions no matter how much concern we might have about the situation. Here were two young people attempting to fly above the prison walls for a freedom and a relationship they knew they would never have except for this one moment.

3 40 years ago I wrote, "You are running in a relay. This is the moment you have been chosen to hold the torch. You cannot refuse to run. Whatever you do is part of your page in the story of life." I was in my 40s then. I have just recently begun to understand there is another important stage in that relay we must know when to hand over the torch. There are so many things I do not comprehend about the visions of those who are in the process of inheriting the earth. Some attitudes like greed, and violence, and struggling for power are, to me, just eternally wrong. But all around me is a world that has new visions of human relationships, of spirituality, and many many other issues that are important in my life. Years ago I was very pleased when the theologian Hans Küng (1928 -) said that something I had written leads to new forms of spiritual life and social involvement. Now I realize that I must be very careful not to hinder other new forms of spiritual life and social involvement simply because I do not understand or I am not comfortable with the culture in which they arise. In every relationship, family, community, there are tentative new responses to age-old spiritual questions. Some things arise with people who have shared a strong religious background. Post- Mormons meet together in little restaurants on Sundays to explore life. College students raised Catholic come together for Eucharistic experiences without priests. There are hundreds and hundreds of alternatives for those who have experienced the many fountains of Buddhism as they seek to blend what they value in life and in their training. Sometimes with little encouragement from anywhere peo-

4 ple who value the core teachings of Islam come together and seek new paths. As has been going on for centuries, small groups of people have been meeting together to explore simple means of following the Way of Jesus of Nazareth. Recently Pope Francis ( ) went to a small Waldensian church and apologized for the Roman Catholic Church having burned at the stake so many of their spiritual ancestors. They were weeds that interfered with the planned landscape of the official church. This list could go on forever. Have we learned anything about spiritual weeds over the centuries? Sometimes challenging situations spring up very close to home. When I was young and living in the South it had to do with things like mixed-race marriages or being in schools or playgrounds or movies with kids of a different complexion. More recently it has to do with same-sex marriages. And also many couples who simply want to forget the marriage" part of a relationship. Can there be a spiritual core? Can there be a sense of family? Yes, but it may be hard for some of us to recognize. It is a stretch we should make. There's no need to go on and on. Every person reading this has experienced examples of these new forms of spiritual life and occasionally been at a loss to know how to respond. And what if I am absolutely convinced that some dream is going to turn into a nightmare and even bring pain to the person who is trying something new? I think my task then is to bring whatever comfort I can after the train-wreck and, most important, to try to make sure that the person does not lose the courage to get up and try again. Someplace in that process is my hope for the future. Does

5 this seem unrealistic? Perhaps. Or it could it be an example of what the prophet Joel wrote (3:1), I will pour out my Spirit on all humankind. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men and women shall dream dreams. Ok, does the conundrum of contemporary existence that surrounds all of us contain a cohort of prophesying young visionaries? Well I sure hope so. And that is the dream of at least one 84-year-old guy. Brother Toby