In the Garden of Spirituality: James C. Howell

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“We are not on earth to guard a museum,
but to cultivate a flowering garden of life.”

- Pope John XXIII

The Wild Reed’s series of reflections on spirituality continues with an excerpt from the book, The Beatitudes for Today by James C. Howell.

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Jesus had crumpled up the mental map of the known world, and nobody in Galilee or Jerusalem seemed to appreciate having their traditional view of the world refolded and then redrawn, as if by some spiritual origami. And so, those who followed Jesus fanned out all over the Mediterranean, and in every place, they were greeted with puzzled grimaces and clenched fists. “These people who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” (Acts 17:6)

How odd this may seem to us! Christianity is something many nice people do, and it seems pleasant enough, so innocuous to onlookers that the potential for a riot is nonexistent. Churches do not turn our world upside down; by our architecture, dress, and behavior we fit snugly into our surroundings. . . . How did the Jesus who got his followers into constant trouble in the ancient world come to fit in so comfortably, and even successfully, in our world today? . . . Have we missed something? Everything?

How could it possibly matter if we followed Jesus? . . . Is it even imaginable that offense would be taken by our sadly broken and steamily decadent world? Could cities be thrown into turmoil? What does Jesus want for me? And from me? If we look into the Beatitudes of Jesus, what will we find? And might a few things, or even everything, look different because of what he said? And might they actually be different, better, more true, more beautiful, more faithful? Will onlookers ever again say of us, “These people who have turned the world upside down have come here also”?

- Excerpted from The Beatitudes for Today by James C. Howell.


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
In the Garden of Spirituality: Zainab Salbi
In the Garden of Spirituality: Daniel Helminiak
In the Garden of Spirituality: Rod Cameron
In the Garden of Spirituality: Paul Collins
In the Garden of Spirituality: Joan Chittister
In the Garden of Spirituality: Toby Johnson
In the Garden of Spirituality: Joan Timmerman
In the Garden of Spirituality: Uta Ranke-Heinemanm
In the Garden of Spirituality: Caroline Jones
In the Garden of Spirituality: Ron Rolheiser

Image: Michael J. Bayly.