CHICAGO NEXUS QUARTER IIIIV
Research Centrum
THE RECOMMENDATION
In order to intensify Memorial #22 from the Global Priors Council
pertaining to Symbolic Life Structures, we recommend that for
Quarter IIIIV, 197576 all Daily Office Witnesses shall
be on the Daily Office Liturgy. These witnesses may be on a phrase
from the liturgy itself, major motifs or themes that run through
the Office, the dramaturgy of the liturgy, the dynamics of an
act, or some other aspect of the Daily Office.
THE CONTEXT:
This recommendation is designed as an experiment in recovery of
the objectivity of the Word in history and the power of the liturgy
in expressing and dramatizing that Word. An Orthodox monk, having
recently visited Chicago Nexus reported to his superior that they
need no longer worry about the decline of their orders because
the liturgy was being held in history by the Order Ecumenical.
The understanding of liturgy as that which holds history in being
is able to be grasped in a new way in the midst of our intensified
social engagement.
Caring for the self involves being present to the objective realities
that do not fluctuate with one's state of being or his emotional
or social relations. The liturgy is a treasure of truth about
the way life is in the Word. The time of radical engagement is
a time for turning to Worship.
The time of engagement is a time for turning from individual to
corporate emphasis. The liturgy is a corporate, objective social
act that portrays and speaks of corporate, objective social realities.
Ours is a time in which intensified engagementin the objective
situation--motivates and sustains people.
ADDENDA:
Enclosed are two sample witnesses reflecting two of the many possible
approaches to witnesses on the liturgy.
It is likely that during the quarter many classical statements will be made throughout the Order. When these occur, they may be typed and sent to Global Research Centrum: Chicago for compilation and distribution.
SAMPLE DAILY OFFICE WITNESS
"ALL THE EARTH DOTH WORSHIP THEE, THE FATHER EVERLASTING"
This line from the Daily Office is astounding to me. How can it be true that all the earth doth worship Thee...? I would expect it to say "All the earth could worship or will worship Thee when x or y or z happens." The liturgy says, "All the earth worships Thee."
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Perhaps that might be paraphrased "All that is, dramatizes
or recognizes or submits to Mystery or Glory."
That's preposterous. Yet I've seen that very fact in the mudholes
of Kawangware, when residents and visitors recognized Mystery
by just walking around in their actual situation. I've seen this
act of worship in the happening we call Community Forum when people
explore, stand before, and embrace the details of their "mudholes"
in naming the issues and challenges and proposals from their actual
situation. Mystery is disclosed there.
Perhaps it is really true then. "All the earth doth worship
Thee, the Father everlasting."
The liturgy is an act of reconciliation between God and His people.
It is a happening: it is the happening of humanness that reenacts
the wholeness that is in the midst of the violently separated
relationship inherent between the Mystery and humankind.
The liturgy is pure symbol. It is man's rehearsal of how he finds
life to be. The acts of confession, praise and dedication are
man's decisions about his relationship to his trappedness. It
is his decision to embrace his finitude. It is this act of embracing
one's finitude whereby man acknowledges that God is God. God is
in charge. This is no intellectual set of abstractions. "We
have done little to forward they Kingdom in this world."
Who would propose that he had done much? If one of us were to
be so pridefilled, perhaps some among our number could remind
him of the scope of the task.
Second, the liturgy is the rehearsal of the faithful. The "Our
Father" is a series of radical claims made by those who have
abdicated their own paltry strength in favor of the supporting
and sustaining strength of the Mystery. The faithful are those
who have established in their being the conviction that life itself
is complete support to maintain human fulfillment. Life itself
tells us all we need to know about how to expend our energy. "Thy
Kingdom come." The single task in which we are all engaged
is the social act of reconciliation: it is the deed of engaging
the separated peoples in the healing act of working together to
build the earth. The Kingdom of God is not reversing or even equalizing
the positions of the "haves" and havenots"
of this world. It is realized in the act of the faithful, who
throw their lives into the objective sociological gap between
established society and the outcasts, to construct the bridge
that allows each to participate consciously in the destiny of
the other for the sake of rebuilding a human society. This act
of the faithful is the demonstration of the power set loose among
men when people determine to live for their neighbor rather than
for themselves.
Third, the liturgy is a rehearsal of trust. All of us here are
bright enough not to trust the particulars of human finitude,
either our colleagues, our spouse or our children. Our colleagues,
our spouses or our children always disappoint us. It is the Mystery
that never disappoints. The Mystery can always be relied on to
be surprising. Of course, the surprising turn of the Mystery is
always manifest in colleagues, spouses, children, and our daytoday
working situation. Righteous indignation which is the first response
to the surprising character of the Mystery finally has no place
in the life of one who trusts the Mystery: surrender is
the only adequate response. A servant does not have the luxury
of cherishing his anger against his master. He only serves. The
liturgy celebrates the decision to serve the Mystery through serving
the neighbor.