"We are fired into life with a madness that comes from the gods and which would have us believe that we can have a great love, perpetuate our own seed, and contemplate the divine."

That sounds like the sort of thing someone such as Plato might say, and you will be glad to know that it was exactly he that said it; perhaps not in these exact words. The point is that he is probably right; we are all possessed, primordially, with a kind of madness, a driving force that is never really quite satisfied or cured in all our life. In simple terms, what we do with this "madness" is our spirituality. Every living person has to have a spirituality. Now, I don't go around thinking up this sort of thing, or at least I don't have the courage to assert such as fact when I chance to think this way. These observations are based on my partial reading of a book by a wonderful Roman Catholic theologian named Ronald Rolheiser. The name of the book is: The Holy Longing. What I have done is read the first chapter of the book, and now I am going to try and determine how it all comes out before I finish it. I am intrigued by Rolheiser's position, but there are all sorts of big words in it such as ecclesial and existentially, and there seems to be a need to consider this in terms that do not require biggish words.
We think and talk about spirituality all the time in and around the church. In this context, there may be a danger in confining our search for an improved spirituality solely to things pertaining to the church (things ecclesial). This madness we are talking of could be "original sin." However, we believe that through Christ we have made slim picking of original sin. The madness in question requires, in addition to grace, some luck and hard work in order that it can be fashioned into a spirituality that is a constructive force in our lives and the lives of those around us. At St. Paul's we have Spiritual Journey groups. The program does not seem to flourish as it once did, and the reason could be simple. Some of us have become disenchanted with our group because members have been known to use it as a forum for all, or most of, their personal and family triumphs and tragedies, periodically bringing to the group things that might not be considered ecclesial. Here we could be guilty of not "getting it," much the same as those who considered Jesus a pretty neat guy, but condemned him for being down in the slums dealing with "sinners." It is an honor to be trusted with someone's garbage as well as his or her treasure. The benefits of helping someone get rid of garbage cannot be over-estimated. One never knows what odd bit of another person's life will be helpful in dealing with compulsion, fear, misunderstanding, anxiety . . . madness; our holy longing for peace. If we corporately or individually set too narrow standards for what constitutes a spiritual journey, we surely will lose our way.

Just as there are folks who find it difficult to consider that a monkey might be an ancestor, there are those who will balk at the possibility that they are even a tiny bit mad. Don't be concerned; it is a perfectly honorable estate, instituted of God, presumably for our own good. I'm not sure this is where Ron Rolheiser wanted to go. I'll finish the book and let you know.
 

"Noah" aka Jim Wilson