April – June 2006
On the Edge of the Inside:
Prophets Then, Prophets Now

From Contemplation to Justice

By Joan Chittister, OSB

There is one question that emerges over and over again in the spiritual life. What’s holier: to pray or to work, to be involved in the world with all its pains and troubles or to withdraw from it to meditate on the next one? The desert monastics of the second century had a very clear and cogent answer to that question: Once upon a time, they said, “A disciple went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, ‘Abba Joseph, as far as I am able I say my little office, I keep my little fasts, I pray my little prayers, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do to be holy?’ Then Abba Joseph stood up. He stretched his hands toward heaven. His fingers became like ten torches of flame and he said to him, ‘Why not be turned completely into fire?’”

The meaning is clear: The danger in the contemplative life is that it may become only one-half of the spiritual life. The danger is that prayer, contemplation, will be used to justify distance from the great questions of life. That contemplation will become an excuse to let the world go to rot.

That is a sad definition of the spiritual life, and, at best, a bogus one.

Contemplation is not for its own sake. To live a contemplative life, to be spiritual, does not mean that we spend life in some kind of sacred spa designed to save us from having to deal with the down and dirty parts of life. The contemplative life is not spiritual escapism. Contemplation is immersion in the God who created the world for all of us.

The mystics of every major religious tradition remind us of that always:

“Within the cave of the heart, God dwells,” Hinduism tells us.

“Buddha is omnipresent, in all places, in all beings, in all things, in all lands,” the Buddhist master says.

“Where can I go to flee from your presence?” the Jewish psalmist prays.

“Withersoever you turn, there is the Face of God,” Islam teaches.

And Christianity reminds us always, “Ever since the creation of the world, God’s invisible nature has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.”

But that’s the point: if all things are of God, then all things demand, deserve justice.

Indeed, the teachings are traditional and the teachings are clear: God is not contained in any one people, in any one tradition. And that’s why the contemplative responds to the Divine in everyone.

God wills the care of the poor as well as the reward of the rich. So, therefore, must the true contemplative. God wills the end of oppressors who stand with a heel in the neck of the weak. So does the real contemplative. God wills the liberation of human beings. So will the true contemplative. God desires the dignity and full development of all human beings. Thus God takes the side of the defenseless. Thus must the genuine contemplative. Otherwise, the contemplation is not real, cannot be real, will never be real because to contemplate the God of Justice is to be committed to justice. The true contemplative, the truly spiritual person, then, must do justice, must speak justice, must insist on justice.

Originally given in October 2005 as a reflection for the weekly television show, 30 Good Minutes, produced by the Chicago Sunday Evening Club.

Joan D. Chittister, OSB, a Benedictine Sister, has been a leading voice in contemporary spirituality and church and world issues for over 25 years. A best-selling author and well-known international lecturer, she is the founder and currently the executive director of Benetvision, a resource and research center for contemporary spirituality. Sister Joan, a social psychologist and communications theorist, is a regular columnist for the National Catholic Reporter.

If you would like to read more, please consider joining the growing community of CAC friends and supporters by making a financial contribution. In return, you will receive a year’s worth (four quarterly issues) of Radical Grace.