We need an update on the Assembly of the Great Swirly, the LCWR annual confab at the Hyatt Regency in Houston.
They had a speech by one Fr. Stephen Bevans, SVD. No, he’s a priest. He couldn’t be bothered to dress like one to talk to the sisters, however. He’s from CTU, after all.
These neck-tie priests… how pretentious! If you are not going to wear a Roman collar, why wear a tie? Why not just wear a polo shirt? Because you are… what… a professional? You are… German?
He has the Great Swirly before him but he has Katsushika Hokusai’s Wave behind him. It’s watery there.
What is it with nuns and water?
Isn’t water a 60’s and 70’s thing?
No, really… what’s this all about?
Anyway, the LCWR site says the assembly is reflecting on a theme:
The assembly theme, “Springs of the Great Deep Burst Forth: Meeting the Thirsts of the World,” comes in part from the account of the creation of the world in Genesis 7:11. As the Israelites named the enormous reservoir of water that they believed was beneath the surface of the earth “The Great Deep,” so we use the same name for the reservoir of wisdom that we believe can be accessed through living a life of contemplation.
Genesis 7….? They want to access… the “great deep” which they say is “wisdom” (which is really thinly-disguised Gnostic “Sophia“. Some Christian Gnostics (there was zillions of variations) juxtaposed antithetical figures Christ and Sophia, male and female. She was, for them – and perhaps for the sisters – the world-soul, spiritual principle which sank down into the primal chaos. You know.. the usual Gnostic B as in B, S as in S.
What is Genesis 7 about? Noah goes into the ark with his family and the flood overflows the earth and kills everything. A distinction is also made between clean and unclean animals. Here is some of the chapter in the Douay version:
[9] Two and two went in to Noe into the ark, male and female, as the Lord had commanded Noe. [How sexist of the Lord to make discriminate against the other sexed and transexual animals which He left outside to die!] [10] And after the seven days were passed, the waters of the flood overflowed the earth.
[11] In the six hundredth year of the life of Noe, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood gates of heaven were opened: [12] And the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. [13] In the selfsame day Noe, and Sem, and Cham, and Japheth his sons: his wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark: [14] They and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle in their kind, and every thing that moveth upon the earth according to its kind, and every fowl according to its kind, all birds, and all that fly, [15] Went in to Noe into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein was the breath of life.
[16] And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in on the outside. [17] And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased, and lifted up the ark on high from the earth. [18] For they overflowed exceedingly: and filled all on the face of the earth: and the ark was carried upon the waters. [19] And the waters prevailed beyond measure upon the earth: and all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. [20] The water was fifteen cubits higher than the mountains which it covered.
[21] And all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beasts, and of all creeping things that creep upon the earth: and all men. [22] And all things wherein there is the breath of life on the earth, died. [23] And he destroyed all the substance that was upon the earth, from man even to beast, and the creeping things and fowls of the air: and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noe only remained, and they that were with him in the ark. [24] And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.
This is an odd thing to celebrate and contemplate… the forces of nature through which God destroyed every living thing but Noah and his own.
Back to Bevans… what does Fishwrap think important? A sample with my emphases:
Divine Word Fr. Stephen Bevans told approximately 800 members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious gathered here for the group’s annual assembly that only by focusing on the Holy Spirit can they quench the thirsts of the world.
To live God’s mission, Bevans said, the church must live in what he called “prophetic dialogue” — “an openness in contemplation to discover the thirsts of the world and a determination in humility to work for the slaking of those thirsts.”
Bevans said the world longs for the water of integrity, the wine of hope, the nectar of justice and the elixir of beauty, adding that the spirit’s awakening of those longings requires us to try to meet them.
He talked of those leading the charge in integrity, such as Malala Yousafzai[young female Pakistani activist] and Nelson Mandela, and hailed as prophets Immaculate Heart of Mary Sr. Sandra Schneiders [who on occasions writes as if she believes that Christ had a human intellect that wasn’t illuminated by His divine nature. Rather, we Christians believe that Christ’s human intellect was never not illuminated by His divine intellect.] and Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister. [who suggested not long ago – when the CDF was watching – that the LCWR be disbanded]
The thirst for justice, [and apparently thirst for global death by flood] he said, is why people are part of Call to Action or protest annually at the School of Americas, now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, in Fort Benning, Georgia. And the thirst for beauty is great because of the violence in the world, he said.
One of the sisters was moved to say of Bevan’s reflections:
“We can’t meet [the world’s needs] personally, but we can in spirit,” she said. “If we keep operating out of that spirit and we share that spirit, then there can be that hope.”
That sounds like a sin against the Holy Spirit.
Another said:
“We can’t meet [the world’s needs] personally, but we can in spirit,” she said. “If we keep operating out of that spirit and we share that spirit, then there can be that hope.”
Hope for what? More water? Maybe she’s from California.
This reminds me of what Peter Kreeft has his demonic character suggest as a way to distract people from true godliness. The demon wants their “patients” to be concerned about “poverty”, in the abstract, rather than actual poor people.
In any event, they are quenching and slaking there in Houston these days, as they ponder the life-annihilating global-killer Flood of Genesis 7.
QUESTION:
Did the nuns choose this Genesis 7 Flood theme because of the new movie about Noah?
Coincidence?
