Whispers in the Loggia has a posting today about the decision of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to light up in red the still under construction One World Trade Center building, in honor of Timothy Dolan's elevation to the Cardinalate. This tribute will continue throughout the week, at who knows what cost. Such are the ways of the world and the mystique of power, proving once again that institutional religion is as much a hindrance as a help in enlightening the souls of human beings and leading them to a true understanding of the divine. But as Jeshu said so eloquently (through his scriptural interpreters), My Kingdom is not of this World. But the Cardinal is very much of this world and moves serenely and adroitly through the halls of power, while occasionally making a dramatic photo-op foyer into the neighborhoods of the poor, as he did this Ash Wednesday.
I don't wish to judge the Cardinal's sincerity in this photo, but I just wished he hadn't worn his pectoral cross so ostentatiously. What are we Catholics and catholics to make of all this. Well, for myself, I simply remember that such it has always been - ever since this elite little club of men came into existence in the 12th century. Judging by the reactions of ordinary Catholics in the pews these days, however, not to mention the many Catholic feet walking out the door, the allure of the Cardinalate is waning, all efforts of the Port Authority notwithstanding. While such it has always been, such it need not always be. We are witnessing the demise of a particular institutional form of Christianity, and though it seems to be taking a long time dying, dying indeed it is, with signs of light and life springing up elsewhere - though not on the scaffolding of the soon to be tallest building in Manhattan, the 1776 foot high new One World Trade Center (even it's title is chilling, a reminder of the One World Order of the Neo Cons). How fitting that a monument to hubris and economic world domination should honor the hubris of Roman Christianity. Here we have the perfect poetic metaphor for the symbiotic relationship between mammon and religious power, as the bishops' turn to the right in the US so amply demonstrates. Yet such it has always been - so much so that it really is a fundamental archetype of human existence, the regally clad religious prelate hobnobbing with princes and kings, while the saints suffer and labor in the gutters and byways of the poor.
But the Lord wishes us to have faith in his living, abiding presence amidst these signs of contradiction. Indeed, the sign of contradiction that the hierarchy has become today should only comfort us with the assurance that the Lord is near, hiding in the shadows of our trials and sorrows, but closer to us than the beating of our own heart. Trials of faith are meant to lead us to a deeper understanding of the living presence of the Spirit among us and within us, a living stream of gentle, live giving water that flourishes in the dark pools of suffering and oppression, and a Presence that recoils from the garish lights of human aggrandizement and folly.
But the Lord wishes us to have faith in his living, abiding presence amidst these signs of contradiction. Indeed, the sign of contradiction that the hierarchy has become today should only comfort us with the assurance that the Lord is near, hiding in the shadows of our trials and sorrows, but closer to us than the beating of our own heart. Trials of faith are meant to lead us to a deeper understanding of the living presence of the Spirit among us and within us, a living stream of gentle, live giving water that flourishes in the dark pools of suffering and oppression, and a Presence that recoils from the garish lights of human aggrandizement and folly.
In light of these reflections, I was just reading last night from Bishop Carlton Pearson's wonderful, inspiring book, God is Not a Christian, Nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu:
The purpose of the organized, institutional church is not to save anyone. The purpose of any organization, from churches to governments, is to perpetuate its own existence. It runs counter to the interests of any Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or any other formal faith tradition to declare that you can be free simply by adopting the Christ Principle, because then you will not need the church, and it will have no reason to exist....
George Orwell wrote in 1984, "The object of power is power." That is the idea that the Christ principal threatens. Christ was never about religion: He did not come here to found one. He was about personal awareness and self-discovery, the church that lies and lives within each of us. Organized religion is designed to compel its adherents to become addicted to the church, not God or Christ. Religion is a drug, and its most intolerant proponents are drug dealers who push ignorance. The addiction that millions have to religion has caused many destructive and abusive habits and criminality within human culture. Instead of the church being a spiritual rehab center for drug-free living, it has become the crack house where addicts get their hits.
Religion cannot and will not survive true Christ consciousness. That is why it cannot tolerate Inclusion. The less religious you are, the more radically inclusive you become.
Very provocative words indeed. But I'm reminded of the humble figure of Dorothy Day, living day by day in the Bowery of New York, very much a Catholic living in her tiny niche, hidden in the deep inner bosom of mother church - and then vigorously picketing the then Cardinal Spellman when he would commit some egregious shameful folly. The Christ principal exists within Holy Mother Church, but you have to look hard to find it and it will not be illuminated or celebrated by the garish red lights of the One World Trade Center. Such it has always been, but will such it always be?
