Falling Upward: A Spirituality For The Two Halves Of Life

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Understanding the spiritual aspects of aging is as important as appreciating the systems and biological processes that age us. Richard Rohr has given us a perfect guide to what he calls the "further journey," a voyage into the mystery and beauty of healthy spiritual maturity. - Mehmet Oz, M.D., host of the 'Dr. Oz Show' A second place is Rohr's proposal that "heaven" and "hell" have to do with our consciousness, rather than ultimate destinies. Certainly, our consciousness can be "heavenly" or "hellish." Views like this have become popular of late, perhaps as alternatives to ugly forms of "hell fire preachers". Yet I wonder if the grace Rohr speaks of can be meaningful without there being a real judgment. But we can’t know what the right filling for our container is until we’ve had the wrong one. The container must be filled in the first task first before it can be filled in the second. The Way Down is the Way Up

According to Richard Rohr, our spiritual lives are just like the hero myths. He even takes us through the typical pattern of the heroic journey and compares them to our stages of life. Thomas Merton, the American monk, pointed out that we may spend our whole life climbing the ladder of success, only to find when we get to the top that our ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.” Pop Christianity really missed the boat on that one, for us moderns. And when my Mom died of an aggressive cancer, sequestered in my angst as I was, I somehow could not get wishful thinking out of my fevered brain. He writes that Jesus praised faith and trust more than love. Really? Where in the Bible did he find that?He posits that if the first half of life is about achievement and accomplishment, as well as learning from our mistakes and falls from grace, the passage into maturity (elderhood perhaps) allows us to shed the ego needs of the constructed false self, and embrace the uniqueness of the true self -- the soul -- with all its battle scars as well as beauty. This new personal freedom with its deepening consciousness can place us at odds with the familiar, including institutions (the church perhaps), and even family. We no longer measure ourselves by titles, or public images, roles or our place in the dominant culture. Rohr offers Jesus as an example of the mature, free person, citing the scene when Jesus is told that his mother and family are distressed by his itinerant lifestyle and teaching. And Jesus’ response is to pointedly ask, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers and sisters?” The author’s gloss on this passage from Mark (3:21) is that Jesus in his maturity was in touch with his soul and was not following the “expected and mainline script for his culture or his religion.” On the one hand, there are some great one-liners and helpful perspectives for those who are too wedded to an obedience-blessing theology. Or those who feel that sin in shameful and have a perfection mentality. I happen to believe that sin is part of God’s plan and that God has a much more positive view of our mistakes and striving (and failure) to become like him than some teach. I also appreciate his perspective about encountering challenges that we can’t overcome, and how that can be the catalyst for entering our second half of life. I have some personal experience with that, and can witness the truth of Rohr’s insights. When you get your,’Who am I?’, question right, all of your,’What should I do?’ questions tend to take care of themselves” I am a Christian. But I certainly wouldn't say the next world will be a Disneyland, for I know better in my bones. Much more to the point, I think, is Kierkegaard's enduring image, in Either/Or, of a spirit world where the rewards go to the the saddest human beings.

Franciscan priest Rohr is a big–picture kind of thinker when it comes to characterizing the human journey. This small, provocative book will make a particularly good gift for a thoughtful, spiritually open man. - Publishers Weekly He writes, "People who know how to creatively break the rules also know why the rules were there in the first place." Excuse me? Catholics need to be converted to giving the Scriptures some actual authority in their lives. Luther wasn’t wrong when he said that most Catholics did not read the Bible. Most Catholics are still not that interested in the Bible. (Historically they did not have the printing press, nor could most people read, so you can’t blame them entirely.) I have been a priest for 42 years now, and I would sadly say that most Catholics would rather hear quotes from saints, Popes, and bishops, the current news, or funny stories, if they are to pay attention. If I quote strongly from the Sermon on the Mount, they are almost throwaway lines. I can see Catholics glaze over because they have never read the New Testament, much less studied it, or been guided by it. I am very sad to have to admit this. It is the Achilles heel of much of the Catholic world, priests included. (The only good thing about it is that they never fight you like Protestants do about Scripture. They are easily duped, and the hierarchy has been able to take advantage of this.)What is the terminal velocity? As you have seen above, the free-fall acceleration is constant, which means that the gravitational force acting on an object is constant, too. However, the force of air resistance increases with increasing free fall speed. At some point, the two forces become equal in magnitude. According to Newton's first law, at that point, the falling body stops accelerating and moves at a constant speed. This speed is the terminal velocity. Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest who is also an incredibly popular author and speaker. He has been a priest for several decades, and is therefore heavily immersed in spirituality. In reference to Paul's "It is when I am weak that I am strong", he writes, "he was merely building on what he called the 'folly' of the crucifixion on Jesus." Merely? Maybe being a grandparent and seeing parents in their later years gives me pause to ask "where do I fit in? What will yield the fruit I am to produce?" I have been doing some Falling Upwards work through Alanon and my new franciscan based church community where Rohr's "everything belongs" is a motto. His "Both/And" inclusionary philosophy is biblically referenced which strengthens my love for the pursuit of that spirit which is within us all. Being a fan of biographies, I want to read Merton, Dali Lama, Helen Keller, and others who lived a full second half life.