Christian Worldview (CWV 101)

Please read through the quote below from Henri Nouwen. Nouwen encourages us to lean into compassion as a way of approaching the other, using the example of the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the 4th-5th century A.D. After you read, please share your reflections, insights, comments, or questions. I look forward to what you have to say! Free to Be Compassionate "If you would ask the Desert Fathers why solitude gives birth to compassion, they would say, “Because it makes us die to our neighbor.” At first this answer seems quite disturbing to a modern mind. But when we give it a closer look we can see that in order to be of service to others we have to die to them; that is, we have to give up measuring our meaning and value with the yardstick of others. To die to our neighbors means to stop judging them, to stop evaluating them, and thus to become free to be compassionate. Compassion can never coexist with judgment because judgment creates the distance, the distinction, that prevents us from really being with the other."

"There is an obscure passage in the First Letter of Peter where the old saint writes that after the crucifixion, Jesus went and preached to "the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey" (3:19-20), and it's not altogether clear just what spirits he had in mind. Later on, however, he is not obscure at all. "The gospel was preached even to the dead," he says, "that though judged in the flesh like men, they might live in the spirit like God" (4:5-6). "'He descended into hell,' is the way the Apostles' Creed puts it, of course. It has an almost blasphemous thud to it, sandwiched there between the muffled drums of "was crucified, dead, and buried" and the trumpet blast of "the third day he rose again from the dead." Christ of all people, in hell of all places! It strains the imagination to picture it, the Light of the World making his way through the terrible dark to save whatever ones he can. Yet in view of what he'd seen of the world during his last few days in the thick of it, maybe the transition wasn't as hard as you might think. "The fancifulness of the picture gives way to what seems, the more you turn it over in your mind, the inevitability of it. Of course that is where he would have gone. Of course that is what he would have done. Christ is always descending and redescending into hell. "'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden' is spoken to all, whatever they've done or left undone, whichever side of the grave their hell happens to be on." how might we make sense of whom we consider good and whom we consider evil? How might Christ's victory over death and sin provide a template for our hope?

please share your reflections, insights, comments, or questions If you would ask the Desert Fathers why solitude gives birth to compassion, they would say, “Because it makes us die to our neighbor.” At first this answer seems quite disturbing to a modern mind. But when we give it a closer look we can see that in order to be of service to others we have to die to them; that is, we have to give up measuring our meaning and value with the yardstick of others. To die to our neighbors means to stop judging them, to stop evaluating them, and thus to become free to be compassionate. Compassion can never coexist with judgment because judgment creates the distance, the distinction, that prevents us from really being with the other." -- Henri Nouwen, You Are the Beloved, June 19 Entry

What is the most important tip you could provide to someone about avoiding debt?

In what two ways does an understanding of Financial Literacy impact the goal of affording human value and dignity to all people?

2. In what ways do charitable giving and volunteer service have the same importance as savings, investing in retirement, and avoiding debt?