Wednesday, April 8, 2015

From the Malcontent - The Sprout


Jesus, the seed, leads us to jettison our sober conclusions about the world, about what is possible and can be hoped for on this sphere, in this mortal coil. He leads us to a new principle, that he is breaking the logic of self and luring us through his love to a logic of love. Through him we are led to act, not through a miserly calculation of our energies and materials, but according to a surplus of love that flows from the Father. From this fountain a new world of imagination springs. The world is still finite, and we are still human, but our imaginations have been converted. Instead of building walls to protect ourselves, we are led to welcome our neighbors. We taste and see that it is better to give than to receive. Through this conversion death ceases to be a curse. We come to understand that we were created in scarcity with scarce time and scarce understanding so that we might be prepared for the weight of the abundance of the Kingdom of God. We must learn to restrain the self, to not take everything for granted. We learn that we are not here to act as cornered animals as death creeps ever closer. We learn that we are immortal souls being prepared for communion.

The land becomes the testament of our confession. If we are driven by the logic of self, the land will cry out. If we rape for the pleasure of the moment, the scars will show. If we are driven by the logic of love, the land will bear milk and honey. If we husband for the providence of generations, peace will abide. We are embodied and we must consume. What will be the manner of our consumption?

"read 'Damage' by Wendell Berry" - Aaron
"read 'Damage' by Wendell Berry" - Aaron

The ego will deny that there could ever be peace. The ego knows that there is nothing after death, concentrating all values into his lifetime. Yes, the ego takes, but that's all anybody ever does. One cannot have his cake and eat it too. But, one can have his cake and eat somebody else's. The ego denies the seed. If we accept the seed, then we are hoping in peace. We know that there is life beyond death, and that we can share God's life by loving and valuing as he does. The anxiety of the present moment (quick! what can be done to gain advantage for myself while I can?) is diluted by the infinite possibilities of the joys of self-giving (peace. let us play at love.).

And so, the next step is to recognize that there is a transition in center from the self as individual to the loving community. Love is not fulfilled in self-love. Love is fulfilled in communion. A body of bodies, giving gifts and hailing each member "Beloved, beloved!". What could be the testament of their confession, what mark does the land bear of the burden of their consumption?

Krameterhof, AustriaKrameterhof, Austria

This is an open question, and I think our attitude toward answering it should be the play of love. This is why I hesitate to provide a specific blueprint even as I want to posit a vision: I am not in myself the community and cannot birth the blueprint. I am trying to act as a midwife and am hoping to be a part of the body that can play at naming the land in love. I am weak and in a constant vacillation between dreaming of the lonely homestead and agitating for the business of the loving community. My self knows that community is a burden; my self is quite confident in calling my heart out for being a utopian bullshit artist. All that I know at the end of these vacillations is that I am not at peace in the current order. I feel like an amputated limb, remembering his body and its fullness and function, longing for reunion, to continue the life that it can only remember in dreams. I know that the ego is a deception, and once you know this, you can't go back.

"Ignorance is bliss" - Ego"Ignorance is bliss" - Ego

And so, community sprouts from the land. From the land we can economy, which is nothing but the play of naming, of giving others values. What a blessed economy of gifts could sprout from a land husbanded in love.

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