On this second Monday of October we Americans have a controversial federal holiday about the founding of our nation. With that in mind Father Richard Rohr had some interesting thoughts to share last week in one of his daily meditations.
“After touring Indian Territory in 1887, Senator Henry Dawes described the Cherokees in this way:
The head chief told us that there was not a family in the whole nation that had not a home of its own. There is not a pauper in that nation, and the nation does not owe a dollar. It built its own capitol … and built its schools and hospitals. Yet the defect of the system was apparent. They have got as far as they can go, because they hold their land in common…. There is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of civilization. Till these people will consent to give up their lands, and divide them among their citizens so that each can own the land he cultivates, they will not make much progress.”
“Progress,” according to Senator Dawes, meant individualism, materialism, and even selfishness. None of these ideals are Cherokee values, nor do they represent the values of other Native Americans….”
Compare and contrast those values of “individualism, materialism, and even selfishness” with these from Jesus and Christian Scripture:
Jesus tells a rich young man, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21)
Luke 6:20, Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”
Jesus’ mother Mary offers her prayer known as the Magnificat immediately after the birth of Jesus: “
“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:52-53)
And then in the Book of Acts we have this description of the early church: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:42-43)
There is no sign of any “individualism, materialism, or selfishness” in any of these descriptions of God’s kingdom. The Christian view of a beloved community sounds a whole lot more like the societies of the indigenous people who lived in the Americas for thousands of years before 1492 than the consumer culture that destroyed who and what was here before the Europeans arrived.
Let’s pray on these things today no matter what we choose to call the second Monday in October.
Peacefully Harsh 