There were a number of good essays in Simpler Living, Compassionate Life. I particularly enjoyed the essays: ‘Contemplation and Ministry’ by Henri Nouwen, ‘The Pleasures of Eating’ by Wendell Berry, ‘Epilogue from The Simple Life by David Shi, and ‘Simplicity Among the Saints’ by Richard J. Foster.
Nouwen talks about the complimentary aspects of a life of contemplation and ministry. This is a recurring theme for me which I have encountered in various authors including Dorothee Solle. This is a particularly personal theme for me as I’ve been exploring contemplative thinkers like Thomas Merton and Thomas Keating as well as liberationist and social justice oriented thinkers such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Leonardo Boff. Nouwen highlights how “the contemplative life is a life with a vision and the life of ministry is the life in which this vision is revealed to others” (52). I think it is essential to hold the two arms of the Christian life (Worship and Service) together. It is a tendency of course for some to emphasize on arm (contemplation) or the other (ministry).
What Nouwen does is paint a picture of the way these two aspects of the Christian life interact. Contemplation gives birth to service. But also service gives birth to contemplation. It is not a mechanistic relationship, but one of organic communion with God and with the neighbor. Another way of articulating this theme is to describe it as “simplicity and obedience” (57). This is the radical way that Christians are called to live and be in the world. “The absurd life is the opposite of the obedient life” (57).
Wendell Berry’s essay ‘The Pleasures of Eating’ does a wonderful job of showing in vivid language how we are inextricably bound together in the ecosystem of our earth simply through the act of eating. “Eating is an agricultural act” (105) he asserts again and again. Berry reiterates the thesis of Albert Howard emphasizing the web of cause and effect and interconnectedness of the earth’s systems: “we should understand ‘the whole problem of health in soil, plant, animal, and man as one great subject’” (108).
Philosophically Berry argues that only by doing can we know. “Only by growing some food for yourself can you become acquainted with the beautiful energy cycle that revolves from soil to seed to flower to fruit to food to offal to decay, and around again” (108). Knowledge only comes by participation, through involvement. As he states further, “A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one’s accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes” (109). This ‘consciousness’ can only come from experience.
Reading David Shi’s essay ‘Epilogue from The Simple Life’ I was struck by an assertion that he mentions almost offhandedly: “All notions of moral excellence and spiritual commitment are by their very nature elitist, since few can live up to their dictates for long…the simple life [is]…destined to be a minority ethic” (144-145, 147). I have been struggling with this very question for a while now: Is the Christian life (truly lived) by it’s nature elitist? In other words, Will there always only be a small minority that truly live according to Jesus’ teachings and have a vital living relationship with God? The answer that I’ve had as my working hypothesis is: Yes. There will always only be a minority of people in the Church and in the world who will live truly virtuously.
But is this not being too pessimistic? The downside of the ‘elitism’ (bad choice of language) is that people can transform this insight into a badge of personal pride. A moral aristocracy can be created. But, I think properly understood it is a teaching that Jesus himself teaches when he describes the human predicament within God’s economy/ecology. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7: 13-14).
The problem is that we have emphasized Jesus’ great welcome to all while downplaying the level of commitment and dedication that Jesus demands of those who choose to be his disciples. It is a paradox of sorts: All are welcome, all must radically change.
