CAMP Spirit

Empowering our spirituality in today’s world entails separating ourselves from the fear that pervades contemporary life. In the 1950s and 60s, this fear was manifested in anti-communism. (Re-member the basement pantries of canned goods and bottled water set aside in case of an invasion? Or the air-raid drills that had schoolchildren huddling under our desks for shelter?) In the first decade of the twenty-first century, this fear is represented in anti-terrorist sloganeering and public mistrust of those who seem suspicious, as well as an almost zombie-like trust in the disinformation we are fed daily through media propaganda.

What many of us don’t realize, however, is that this fear takes our focus off of the important things in life—love, justice, and solidarity with others, to name a few. An early Christian author phrased this concept succinctly: "There is no fear in love; rather, perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18). But it is so difficult to love perfectly that human persons would often rather give in to fear. After all, it’s so much easier to be in bondage to fear than to face life unencumbered and free; that’s why contemporary men and women turn to addictions and conspicuous consumption as a way of deadening the pain they feel at being unfree and unfulfilled.

The pioneering gay theologian John McNeill, a psychotherapist and former priest, puts it this way: "The fear that we should seek to be liberated from is that kind of paranoid fear that impoverishes our conscience and cripples our response to those around us, numbing us to their needs, blinding us in such a way that we fail to recognize those around us as our sisters and brothers." (Taking a Chance on God, Beacon Press, 1989, p. 47) He relates his experience in a POW camp in World War II as a time of great fear and spiritual darkness during which he could not see beyond his own malnourishment and physical infirmity. Because of the starvation diet his Nazi jailers enforced, McNeill had dwindled to just 80 pounds and had trouble walking and seeing, let alone performing his assigned work. He remembers an impoverished German servant sharing with him some carrots and potatoes that he was supposed to have fed to the Nazis’ attack dogs. This servant risked punishment in order to meet someone else’s need; somehow Spirit allowed him to overcome his fear and recognize another as a fellow human in need. McNeill traces the lessening of his despair and a restoration of his hope to this incident.

I share this story because I believe that each of us in our individual lives has the choice to empower the fear that is all around us seeking to suck us into its power, or to embrace Spirit, the love that knows no fear, the peace that passes all understanding. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen master, calls this "mindfulness training"—an actual conscious daily regimen through which we access our inner joy by consciously shutting out what he calls the "five harmful desires" of money, sex, fame, overeating, and oversleeping.

(Teachings on Love, Parallax Press, 1998, p. 58) Each of these harmful desires, when taken to extremes, exerts a control upon us that results in fear when we feel deprived of them. How much better to cultivate Spirit in the form of generosity, passionate eroticism, humility and self-control, healthful nutrition, and serene rest!

As we enter the last month of summer, let’s truly revitalize and refresh ourselves by setting aside our fears and taking a chance on love, a chance on fulfillment, a chance on God.