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Cope with your limits. For more information, contact: Gary Schouborg, PhD (925) 932-1982 |
Schouborg, Gary
(2002). "The Discerning Future of Jesuits". The Discerning Future of
Jesuits Gary Schouborg A possible future for Jesuits would be as spiritual guides.
They could deepen their understanding of discernment and apply its healing
clarity to our contemporary frenetic culture, replacing dogmatic conviction
with profound understanding and rabid passion with deep commitment. Discernment is our ability to be engaged in the world
without being overly caught up in what we are doing. It is an experiential
rather than a theoretical skill. It gives practical meaning to the Jesuit
slogan to be in the world but not of it. Or, to paraphrase another Jesuit
slogan, discernment is the ability to experience God’s presence in all things
— to feel God’s presence rather than merely to believe in it
theoretically. More like riding a bike than knowing our catechism, discernment
can be learned only by doing (and feeling). We cannot develop it by
memorizing, or even believing in, the most profound truths. Spiritual guides
can point us in its general direction; they can identify our mistaken
understandings of it and our unskillful practices in trying to achieve it;
but in the final analysis we must each develop discernment for ourselves. To date, both the Jesuit order and its admirers have failed
to grasp the radical nature of discernment. It is inherently experiential; it
is personal; it transcends any institutional authority. No formula, no belief
is sufficient to give us discernment, no more than the best instruction
manual possible is sufficient for us to ride a bike. Nor can anyone else,
however skilled, ride the bike for us. Only we, within our innermost
experience, can discern when we are possessed by what we are doing and when
we are the free initiator of our action. Only we can acknowledge that we are
obsessed and then let go. Just as being overly involved in what we are doing
closes us off from our deepest resources and from others, so letting go opens
us to both. This unconditional opening up has been labeled differently by
various religious traditions: enlightenment, liberation, realizing Brahman,
being one with God or Allah, union with Jesus, being born again. The labels
are unimportant. We need to let go of them as well as of everything else.
Then we can engage in our world according to its requirements, not our
narrowly perceived needs. Then we can enjoy the world as a precious gift
without being possessed by it. The gigantism called the Roman Catholic Church is a bloated
bureaucracy whose canonical structures once served legitimate public purposes
that are now better addressed by secular institutions. Any religious
institution with authoritarian pretensions misdirects spiritual energy by
trying to harness it with authoritative pronouncements and policies. As an
official Catholic organization, the Jesuit order only plays into this
misdirection. Spiritual goals such as discernment require strategies more
like the communicational methods of fan clubs than the authoritarian methods
of totalitarian governments. An enthusiastic but non-rabid fan club of
Humphrey Bogart does not insist that he is the best actor ever, that the club
is the true interpreter of his films and his public comments, that those
outside the club cannot possibly understand what films are really all about.
Such a club merely expresses its joy in the acting and personality of Bogie
and makes his films, photographs, and writings easily available to those who
would enjoy them. Similarly, Christianity should be a Jesus fan club that
makes him available to those whom he might inspire, knowing all the while
that other historical figures will similarly inspire others. It is beside the point to argue that my parallel between
Bogie and Jesus is trivial because of the significant differences between
them. The important parallel is this: just as knowing all the facts about
Bogie’s life cannot produce an appreciative experience of his acting and
personality, so all the religious beliefs about Jesus are insufficient to
produce the unconditioned openness that is at the heart of all the great
religious traditions. At best, a system of beliefs can only draw our attention
to Jesus as a person whose life and teachings have led many to a spiritual
liberation. At worst, the system entombs an untouched heart in a hard
cognitive shell. A religious institution that fosters such a system only
simulates spirituality. The Jesuits can rediscover the experiential practice of
discernment, instead of remaining bound to
the dead letter of Catholic law, if they follow the example of many
contemporaries who are seeking to discover discernment in themselves. There
is nothing here for Jesuits to contribute any better than others. But it is
something worthwhile, something that would restore them to their own
spiritual legacy and to the deepest impulse in every religious tradition. Gary Schouborg, PhD Walnut Creek, CA I am grateful to Frank Briganti and Ken Ireland for their
immense help in improving earlier drafts of this article. |
