Journey From Attachments
Abraham Joshua Heschel, Jewish Theologian (d. 1972), wrote, “God is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance.” Heschel’s daughter explains, “Our lives, he concludes, are gifts from God, and the deepest wisdom is to repay that gift with service to other human beings.” Heschel served human beings by marching with MLK and demonstrating against the Vietnam War. Additionally, he actively promoted interreligious dialogue, and frequently wrote and spoke against discrimination, racism, and violence.
Heschel writes about the importance of having awe and wonder of God and creation combined with wisdom, but without action faith won’t come to the potential of fruition. The faith that refuses to soar high, risking everything, is a faith that resides in waveless lukewarm waters that places the human soul in the doldrums where nothing moves, and little is accomplished.
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
A wealthy young man approaches Jesus and asks him what he should do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to follow the commandments, in which the man replies that he has indeed kept all of these commandments, asking Jesus is there is anything else he should do to enter into heaven. The young man has wealth and status and is spiritually residing in a safe comfort zone. Jesus immediately discerning the young man’s attachment to comfort and property, tells him to sell all that he has and give to the poor, and if he truly wants to be “perfect” (other translations state “complete”) to leave everything behind to follow Jesus. The man leaves in sadness refusing to give away his property.
Jesus meets other prospective disciples who want to follow him, but the first man responds that he needs to go home and bury his father, and another said, ‘let me first go and say goodbye to my family.’ “Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” This is an admonishment to let go of their attachments so that they may have full commitment for the purpose of God.
Jesus teaches that the most important commandments are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and the second is similar, love your neighbor as you love yourself. However, what does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? In a parable Jesus tells the story of a man who has been robbed and beaten lying on the side of the road. A Jewish Priest going down the same road sees the man and hears his moaning and moves to the other side of the road as does a Levite (of the Priestly class). The Priest and the Levite are accomplished scholars of the Hebrew Bible and the Torah, but yet refuse to help. The Hebrew Bible considers helping others a divine command; “You shall open your hands…” and “You shall support the stranger and the resident…”.
A Samaritan, who is considered unclean by the Jews, sees the man and has compassion. He bandages his wounds, places the man on his own donkey and takes him to an inn, pays the innkeeper to take care of the man so that he may recover, and promises to reimburse the innkeeper for any additional expenses when he returns. The “unclean” Samaritan is the one who reveals his righteousness by the action of kindness which required effort, time, and money. Which characters in the parable were truly unclean?
Oftentimes, the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, is simply interpreted to be kind to your neighbor. As characterized by Jesus’ parable, it is significantly more than just being kind; it is taking action in meeting a neighbor’s need as we would hope someone would do for us. Are there attachments that prevent a believer from taking action? Harsh judgement against another frequently prevents action. For example, the Protestant work ethic frequently interferes with direct generosity towards someone a believer personally knows — the person must have been irresponsible, right? They will need to help themselves and not expect others to help. Oftentimes, the right questions are not asked to obtain deeper understanding that promotes empathy and compassion. Oftentimes, the believer perceives the person as less than themselves and doesn’t want to be bothered with taking the time, effort, or financial output to assist. Oftentimes, then the response will be, “I will pray for you.” Prayer in place of compassionate action, is a dead prayer. And a dead prayer is a prayer that comes from a person endlessly floating in a dead sea where nothing moves which eventually causes death.
The Sikh writer, Valerie Kaur, writing in her book, See No Stranger: A memoir and manifesto of revolutionary love, asks “Are we on the brink of mass suffering and extinction — or will we marshal the vision, skill, and solidarity to deliver a sustainable future? Is this the darkness of the tomb, or the darkness of the womb?..Revolutionary love is the call of our times!” It is humanity’s choice whether we want to continue in places of comfort to pretend like we don’t see as in the darkness of the tomb, or whether humanity chooses to turn this darkness into a struggle through a dark tunnel to reach the light. The darkness of the womb entails action and pain to birth a different world. Kaur frequently uses the metaphor of birthing a baby, “breath and push, breath and push” — take action, struggle, risk, don’t look back — push!
Loving your neighbor is certainly taking action, but now our neighbors are all of humanity around the globe. As the world became a global community, we now fully recognize what one country does, either productive or destructive, affects other countries.