[Oe List ...] Our lucid and caring colleague

[John Cock]

I met John Montgomery in Milwaukee when recruiting him to Academy. Later,
what a gift he and Judy were for our sons (John was a youth and Jeremiah a
pre-schooler) as our chosen guardians at Kemper while we were assigned to a
year in India. The last time we saw John was around Judy's death, but we
have stayed in touch by the list, e-mails, and his blog. I just looked at it
and found this typically lucid entry by John: 
 
...it seems to me that in the context of SK's model, the grace event might
be somewhat different depending on the stage of despair. 

...it seems to me that immediacy is transformed by expanding the context -
putting the basics in perspective. I am struck that given the current trend
of mission trips, when folks return in one way or another they report that
while they went to serve, they discovered that in reality they had been
served. Given a new perspective, a new sense of unity was at hand.

The shattering of the illusions undergirding circumspection is transformed
not by expanding the context, but by "rubbing one's face in the fact of
innocent suffering." You've got it bad and you just want to sit and feel
sorry for yourself.

One of my favorite stories of late is the witness of a man who was dutifully
but reluctantly serving in a soup kitchen because his wife pushed him to do
it. Suddenly, standing in the line, he finds one of his friends from work
looking to get a box of food to help his family to make it through the next
couple of weeks.

In such a shocking encounter, he witnesses that his arrogant charity
suddenly became compassionate solidarity.

Finally, it seems to me that defiance is not transformed by attention to a
larger context or a deeper identity with that context. Defiant despair is a
lucid response and is not transformed by new information. Such despair is
only transformed when one grasps how silly defiance is.

We will surely miss your direct presence, John. 

Journey on at the heart of grace and peace.

John

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