A New Threesome...
Richard Rohr's OFM framework, Order, Disorder, Reorder, incorporates the See, Judge, Act method of Joseph Cardijn.
Suppose you have yet to listen to or read Richard Rohr's works. I recommend you do so to discover the insights and parallels between the two visionaries.
"The transition from eternity to time
It is full of suffering, fears, and little deaths.
But, in the transition from death
To eternal life,
The silence of pre-existence
Bursts into boundless joy."
~Thomas Keating, The Secret Embrace
Thomas Keating, the Trappist monk who often spoke about the value of contemplative prayer, wrote those words as he neared his death. In those words, we see the meaning of Order, Disorder, and Reorder and discover through seeing, judging, and acting.
Keating reminds us that the human journey is inevitably full of suffering, fears, and little deaths. In the act of seeing, judging, and acting, we experience disorder and reorder because the action we take that brings about reorder is a sign and symbol marked by the overwhelming and boundless joy we experience by committing ourselves to connect with the silence of ourselves and the experience of humanity.
"The human journey is inevitably full of sufferings, fears, and little deaths."
Now, think of these threesomes as a process all woven together as a seamless garment.
Sufferings, Fears, and Little Deaths.
See, Judge, Act
Order, Disorder, Reorder
"To hope for something better in the future is not the theological virtue of hope. Theological hope is based on God alone, who is both infinitely merciful and infinitely powerful right now. Here is a formula to deepen and further the theological virtue of hope with its unbounded confidence in God. Let whatever is happening happen and go on happening. Welcome, whatever it is. Let go into the present moment by surrendering to its content…The divine energies are rushing past us at every nanosecond of time. Why not reach out and catch them by continuing acts of self-surrender and trust in God?" ~Thomas Keating, Reflections on the Unknowable
Keating suggests a fundamental principle in Joseph Cardijn's teachings, the Vatican II documents, and the encyclicals of the Catholic Social Teachings.
We understand that through the method we are to grow toward love, union, salvation, and enlightenment, we will then be moved from Order to Disorder and ultimately to Reorder. Grasp the message in the Sermon on the Mount and the lives of those early followers of Jesus who had first-hand experience of what the message was all about and, most importantly, the why; when we grasp the WHY, we ACT.
Think of Reoder as the Kingdom of God here and now.
What is Contemplative Prayer and Why is it so Needed? with Fr. Richard Rohr