Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation - Jesus Lived Contemplation, More Than Formally Teaching It

Image: The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (detail), c. 1601-1602, by Caravaggio

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

Seven Themes of an Alternative Orthodoxy
Seventh Theme: Reality is paradoxical and complementary. Non-dual thinking is the highest level of consciousness. Divine union, not private perfection, is the goal of all religion (Goal).

Jesus Lived Contemplation, More Than Formally Teaching It

Meditation 47 of 52

The non-dual paradox and mystery was for Christians a living person, an icon we could gaze upon and fall in love with. Jesus became “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2), “the Mediator,” “very God and very human” at the same time, who consistently said, “Follow me.” He is the living paradox, calling us to imitate him, as we realize that “[he] and the Father are one” (John 10:30). In him, the great gaps are all overcome; all cosmic opposites are reconciled in him, as the author of Colossians (1:15-20) so poetically says in an early Christian hymn.

The dualistic mind gives us sanity and safety, and that is good enough. But to address our religious and social problems in any creative or finally helpful way, we also need something more, something bigger, and something much better. We need “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Jesus in his life and ministry modeled and exemplified the non-dual or contemplative mind, more than academically teaching it. The very fact that the disciples had to ask him for a prayer like the disciples of the Baptist had (Luke 11:1), probably reveals that spoken or recited prayer was not his practice. Why else would he go apart and alone for such long periods, except that his prayer was the prayer of quiet more than synagogue or temple services?

Adapted from The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See, pp. 154, 133

The Daily Meditations for 2013 are now available
in Fr. Richard’s new book Yes, And . . .