Any faith in God must always face the challenge of why an all-powerful and all-loving God permits human suffering. No single answer to this conundrum has been found to be adequate, but one avenue worth exploring is the fact that grace can be experienced as present even—perhaps especially—in the most difficult of times. The articles gathered in this issue of The Way bear witness to this, in situations ranging from environmental destruction to civil war, from the struggle to live a contemplative life to coping with the polarisation of views within the Church.
Séverine Deneulin, ‘Ecological Conversion and Discernment in the Socio-Economic Sphere’, 7–21
The Christian Churches are increasingly aware of the need for what Pope John Paul II called an ‘ecological conversion’. Here, using case studies from Chile and Madagascar, Séverine Deneulin and Yvonne Orengo, who both work in international development, use this idea to address the needs of those who most suffer the consequences of environmental and social degradation.
Iain Matthew, ‘Being Connected: Laudato si’ and the Spiritual Canticle’, 23–35
Towards the end of his ecological encyclical Laudato si’, Pope Francis quotes from the Spiritual Canticle of the Spanish Carmelite St John of the Cross. Iain Matthew shows how this work emphasizes the connectedness of the whole of creation, and the responsibility of human beings both to live in harmony with this interdependence, and to safeguard it.
Magdalena Randal, ‘Mary’s Crucifixion’, 36–40
The Gospels picture his mother, Mary, being one of the few to stand alongside Jesus as he dies on the cross. Empathy suggests how she must have shared in his suffering. Magdalena Randal moves from a mural in Campion Hall in Oxford to the scene of a massacre of indigenous people in Canada, in order to develop this aspect of an adequate contemporary Marian theology.
Ambrose Mong, ‘The Crucified People: Óscar Romero and Martyrdom’, 41–56
During his lifetime, and particularly in his years as archbishop of San Salvador, Óscar Romero became the voice of the ordinary people of El Salvador, a country torn by a bloody civil war. Ambrose Mong shows how Romero’s violent death set a seal on his teaching and witness, in a way that can powerfully guide others caught up in situations of conflict.
Karen Eliasen, ‘Miriamic Presence in Pandemic Times’, 57–61
It is unsurprising that those for whom the Bible is an important tool for interpreting the world have been led by the current pandemic to read scripture stories with fresh eyes. In an article reprinted from Thinking Faith, Karen Eliasen presents the story of Miriam that unfolds in chapter 12 of the Book of Numbers, finding in it a hopeful message in the midst of ‘crisis, emotional upheaval, disease and isolation’.
Eric Jensen, ‘How Did Jesus Do It?’, 63–64
In the fourth chapter of his Gospel Luke tells an odd story of how Jesus, having enraged the people of his home town by his preaching, simply slips through the crowd who have set out to attack him. In a short contribution to The Way’s ‘Spirituality and Living’ strand, Eric Jensen learns from two dogs in a Canadian retreat house something of how this situation might have been resolved.
Robert E. Doud, ‘Thomas Merton: Seeds and Fruits of Contemplation’, 65–75
More than fifty years after his death, the US Trappist Thomas Merton remains one of the most influential spiritual writers of our time. For Robert Doud, Merton combines ‘the silence of the monk and the volubility of the literary celebrity’. In this article Doud considers some of Merton’s poetry, focusing particularly on what it reveals about his contemplative experience.
Riyako Hikota, ‘Humour as a Concrete Expression of the Principle of Analogia entis’, 77–84
Hans Urs von Balthasar once suggested that maintaining a sense of humour was the best antidote to deal with polarised positions within the Church, since it made for a flexible and pliable approach to faith, marked by an appropriate humility. Here Riyako H
Jakub Walczak, ‘The Conditions of Christian Hospitality’, 85–97
The Christian scriptures present an understanding of hospitality that is far richer than current ideas focused solely on table-fellowship or philanthropy. Kuba Walczak sketches the complex web of benefits and responsibilities connecting guests and their hosts, concluding that these provide fruitful topics for discernment in answering the question put to Jesus: ‘And who is my neighbour?’
Gerald O’Collins, ‘The Nativity in View of the Cross and Resurrection’, 98–110
In his presentation of the story of Jesus’ birth in the Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius stresses the poverty that the new-born Christ endures. Recent scripture scholarship links this with both the circumstances of Jesus’s death on the cross, and those of his resurrection. Gerald O’Collins traces these links, suggesting that together they can enrich a retreatant’s appreciation of the nativity account.