“A little bit of unity and communion today”

On this day when many of us are remembering a day of violence eight years ago, Richard Rohr (after the jump) offers a beautiful image of what it means to be agents of the peace of Christ today … including something as simple as sharing “benevolent smiles” (literal and figurative) with everyone we meet. More after the jump …

From Richard Rohr – with whom I’ll be speaking in Dallas November 13-14 … maybe you should come?

As long as we think that we alone have to save the world, we become arrogant in our methods, impatient in our attitudes and quick in our solutions. Instead, we must seek the patience and peace of God. The man and woman of God are content to let God work through their lives for some little bit of unity. Wherever you are, let God create a little bit of unity and communion today. I believe that’s what God’s doing on earth. I know one religious sister who sees her primary call as bestowing “benevolent smiles” on everybody she meets. What a threat she must be to disunity!
If Jesus is to be risen among us, we must each individually and collectively surrender to a love and mystery that is greater than our hearts. We must humbly admit that we really don’t know much at all. We have few perfectly right answers it seems to me, and even fewer conclusions that are always true. All we can be is what Jesus was: present and enfleshed. In the end it seems to me there’s only one gospel: Jesus incarnate, Jesus crucified, Jesus resurrected. Solidarity in suffering and in ecstasy is God’s gift to the world. To be in the Church is to be willing to be part of that cosmic rhythm and cooperate with God to create little bits of unity wherever we can.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Spiritual Family and the Natural Family
(out of print)