All in the Same Boat by Bro. David Steindl-Rast O.S.B.

I would say, in general, that our religious experience tends to be domesticated by the churches, and that’s not exactly what one wishes would happen to one’s religious experience.

[Cont. from page 5] ... What about the story that Jesus told of the father who asked his sons to go work in the fields? One son said that he would, but then he changed his mind. The second son said he didn’t want to, but then he felt guilty and he went back and worked in the fields.

That’s a good story. Jesus asks, “Who of the two was doing his father’s will?” And who today is doing what Jesus would have done? The ones who say they are doing religious work, or the ones who are actually doing it, living it? Would Jesus find most faithful followers inside the church or outside? It’s a very open question – I don’t know! Because you see, the ones inside the churches somehow find that this channeling of their religious experience makes it too easy for them; they think. “Well, it’s all there” and it sort of pacifies their religious urges. Those outside have this religious experience which every human being has, but doesn’t have such ready channels to put it into, such ready ways to express it. They are more challenged to find out for themselves what to do with it. In the church, “Love your neighbor” is neatly packaged: you give some money in the next collection and you don’t look where it goes. The person outside the church doesn’t have a collection or anything of that sort, so he or she has to look for “What can I do?” Very often these people really stumble into wonderful social action which the people in the churches would also like to do, but their interest is sidetracked or domesticated. I would say, in general, that our religious experience tends to be domesticated by the churches, and that’s not exactly what one wishes would happen to one’s religious experience.

Yet today we see the seeds of a growing movement of more social action within the Christian churches.

Yes, the church has handed out very high social ideals, and now there are more radical movements within the church: liberation theology, the statement that the American bishops made regarding nuclear arms, and their appeal to the President to stop sending military aid to El Salvador. This is a clearly political question, and the bishops stuck their necks out. But I think that as long as the churches have some weight to throw around, they might as well use it, because very soon we won’t have any more weight to throw around. As soon as the world and the government catch on to what we Christians are about, we will be repressed in the United States just as the churches were in El Salvador and Guatemala. Right now the church has a certain amount of prestige, so let’s throw it around while we have it. 

What makes you think that prestige is going to be taken away, as it has been in South America?

Let me give you an example. Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was eventually assassinated in El Salvador, was appointed bishop because he was quite a middle-of-the-roader. He never stuck his neck out. He was not a particularly politically alert person. But he was a good, conscientious person, so when he took over this office, his vision broadened. He saw the responsibility to inform himself, and he came to see more things. The moment he saw what things were like, he started to speak out, and the moment he spoke out, the government cut him off and tried to discredit him. Finally, when even this was impossible, the government apparently hired somebody to shoot him. It has not been proven. The government blames it on the leftists. But the leftists had no interest in shooting him.

Anyway, this is sort of a typical development. Many Catholic bishops and priests have been called Communists in Latin America, and it’s even beginning in this country.

At the same time, there is a strong Christian momentum behind the anti-Communist movement in this country. So it gets very fuzzy in terms of who’s really doing the Father’s work, or who’s a good Christian and who’s not. It gets very confusing for people: Does Jerry Falwell represent Christianity, or is Archbishop Romero closer to true Christianity?

I understand the confusion, and I think if I were to find myself outside of the Christian churches I don’t see offhand how I could become a Christian under these circumstances. But there’s always grace, and people’s eyes are open for what Jesus really stands for.

I happen to find myself standing within the church, and within that tradition I’m willing to take a stand against the negative aspects that are also there in that tradition. But there is no question of my  getting out, because it is this very tradition which has given me the insights and has channeled to me the life-giving word and insights of Jesus. So I must speak for that, for those positive aspects. If somebody outside the church were to ask, “Why should I bother with the church?” I would say, “Why don’t you just bother with what is really urgent and obvious right now? Then, when everything has settled down, Jesus will say to you, ‘Well done, faithful servant’ – though you may not know Him.”

This is one of Jesus’ most important stories. In the end, he said, he will return to separate the sheep from the goats (this is the judgment scene) and he will say to those on the right side, “I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was imprisoned and you came to visit me. I was naked and you gave me clothes,” and so forth. And they will say to him: “When were you hungry and we gave you to eat? We did not know you.” Jesus will say, “Whatever you did to the least human being, to my brothers and sisters, you have done to me.”

It’s like what Mother Teresa means when she refers to the sick and down-trodden as “Jesus in his distressing disguise.”

Yes. And she is one of those symbols that you spoke about before – one of those witness figures who give us a model to follow.

There seem to be so few Christians who act like Christ.

You say, “act like Christ,” but how do you know who acts like Christ? I’m not questioning it – I know you know. But how do we know? We are basing all these judgments on our own real religious experiences, on those peak moments, whether they are striking and flashy or just small and sort of imperceptibly seeping in. It doesn’t make any difference whether spring comes, as it does some years, with one big bang and there’s a sunny day and everything blooms and all the birds sing, or whether it comes very, very slowly as it does sometimes, so that you hardly notice it, but sooner or later there are the sounds and sights and smells of spring. As long as spring comes, it doesn’t make any difference how it comes; it comes to all of us, and so we all know what it means.

Reprinted from New Age, September 1983, Vol. 9, #2, pp. 36-40 and 62-64.