Involvement

Many of the books I read in the contemplative tradition - whether of east or west - emphasise withdrawal. The author of The Cloud of Unknowing, to take only one example, makes a great deal of the story of Mary and Martha in Luke's Gospel chapter 10, and of Jesus' assertion that Mary, who sat at his feet "contemplative" while Martha was rushing around "active", had chosen the "good part" (in the Cloud author's version, the "best part").

I am not, myself, temperamentally suited to a life of constant prayer, and although tempted to withdraw myself from human life occasionally, know enough to resist the temptation. God's work, though it is often through individuals, is always in the context of community - the whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, shows this so clearly on every page that I am at a loss for particular texts to quote.

I go out to work. I live in a society in which I vote, pay taxes, observe and participate in cultural phenomena and activities - in short, am a citizen. My need is for a spirituality which works for citizens, and I find hints of it in Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul, where in direct contradiction to Zen Buddhist teaching he writes, "We know we are well on the way toward soul when we feel attachment to the world and the people around us..." (p. 304).

The Outward Journey is the journey of involvement. Involvement, paradoxically, can involve - can require - solitude. But solitude, to be healthy, also requires involvement. The subtle or unsubtle opposition to involvement which we find in spiritual authors since Augustine (who contrasted citizenship in the city of God with citizenship in the city of man) has its roots more in Greek dualism than in the Hebrew worldview, where the prophet Jeremiah could say (shockingly, to be sure):

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters... Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

(Jeremiah Chapter 29, verses 4-7, New International Version.)

The dark side to involvement is contamination, which requires a discussion of purity and holiness.

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