You are not a fist

In the mailbox this Saturday morning…

Millions of have left “church” (however broadly or specifically defined) behind. Probably many more have left emotionally, and countless others are wondering if they should. The organizatonal bureacracy of these institutions has failed them, wounded them, betrayed them, or maybe just bored them—and they do not want to have much to do with it any longer. --Diana Butler Bass, adapted and edited from Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, 26 May 2022.

Aided, perhaps, by the isolation of the pandemic, many have begun to realize that the promise of “wherever two or more are gathered” – even if the “two” is only you and your cat—can be fulfilled outside of any building or required, external ritual. Turns out, what some call “spirit” is present in bread that regular people bake and break at homemade altars, however metaphoric, such as family tables. The experience – abandoned and ignored by the institutions doing lip-service to the terms “love” and “spirit” – is being encountered in now-opening neighborhood bars and restaurants between friends acquaintances and even online at blogs like this one (as contradicted as that may be with the observation that follows):

Mystics for thousands of years have recognized in their individual and collective insight that The Way cannot be contained by buildings, nor words – only by receiving and letting go with an open heart.

You are not a fist. Open your hand, place it over your heart. Be willing to grieve for our world. Then, give compassion to yourself for the necessity and your willingness to grieve. God knows we have reason to do so.