Learning the prayer of resistance: father nurtures newborn 'apprentice,' fostering love, freedom and holy disobedience through meditation

Catholic New Times, June 20, 2004 by Len Desroches

There is nothing more urgent that I can teach my newborn son than the meaning of holy disobedience. As I play with bebe Luc in my arms, his squeals of delight are interrupted by the radio's reports of illicit and licit terrorism; of abduction and torture; of deceit and abuse of power. The baby's laughter grows so loud it drowns out the harsh news of a world he does not even know exists. Soon enough he will encounter this world. What spiritual resources will he need?

Luc will be taught holy obedience as diligently as a monk. But just as diligently will he be taught the dangerously neglected discipline of holy disobedience to injustice and evil--the refusal to cooperate and the capacity to resist.

Not only are children not an excuse to forsake resistance; they render resistance more urgent. Children do not lessen resistance; they transform and deepen it. They break you apart, purifying your deepest, most intimate motives. A baby's needs are literally endless. Therefore a child offers parents the most intense apprenticeship in attentive listening. Listening is the heart of obedience. Holy obedience is the deepest possible listening to God. Only out of obedience--this capacity to listen--can come authentic resistance.

Occasionally God calls us to acts of resistance. But the prayer of resistance needs to be constant. In faith all action is grounded in prayer. The prayer of resistance is prayer that keeps us awake to the t power of God deep inside us; awake to the corruption and abuse of power by a culture of empire; awake to fear, greed and hatred and the consequent outward violence. Without the prayer of resistance we can never be fully available to God and to the demands of holy disobedience. I believe Anna and I will be able to teach our child holy disobedience to the extent that we ourselves remain faithful to the prayer of resistance.

Living simply

The prayer of resistance is essential to any healthy spiritual life, including a parent's--especially a parent's. Living simply is a necessary discipline for sustaining the prayer of resistance which keeps us awake. In a consumerist culture, parenting can quickly become an excuse for purchasing more and thereby letting go of living simply. Disciplined refusal to give in to the distractions of the consumerist culture is itself an act of resistance to empire.

Resistance has its own re-occurring seasons: careful preparation of the soil; measured planting; persistent weeding; grateful harvesting; contemplative fallow time. In my temporary contemplative season, I gaze each morning at my baby's sheer glow as he greets me with his gleeful grin. Luc is completely at home in his body and feelings right now. He is also beginning to use his mind to distinguish between what he likes and what he dislikes. Bebe Luc will come to know that he is created not only with body, mind and heart, but with soul as well. Though I cherish this newborn period and his babyhood, I have no desire for Luc to remain a baby. Along with the maturing of his body, mind and heart, I want to nurture his maturing soul so that he can discover the fullness of freedom.

Freedom implies choice. Choice is the scary part of freedom. Faith matures our understanding of freedom and instructs our choices. When freedom encounters faith a liberating obedience to Love becomes possible. From such genuine obedience comes liberating disobedience to all that is unjust and evil.

As bebe Luc slowly discovers the little spiritual muscles of his own soul, he will be told of the soul force of gospel nonviolence. Luc will know the history of holy disobedience, the story of the tremendous cloud of witnesses, well-known and lesser-known, that is his real spiritual inheritance: Andre and Magda Trocme of Le Chambon, France, who did not ask "Should we resist the legally-elected government of the Nazis?" But rather, "How should we resist?" and then led their parish in holy disobedience to the occupiers; Francis of Assisi who refused to participate in the 'holy' wars of his church even though Pope Innocent III's encyclical, "Quia Maior," called on each and every Christian to support the Fourth Crusade against the Muslims; General Jacques de Bollardiere, who after thirty years of active warfare (WWII, Vietnam and Algeria) completely renounced the very institution of war and committed his life to the practical application of gospel nonviolence; J. S. Woodsworth, prophet in Canadian politics who, like General Bollardiere called for a true defence department based on active nonviolence; Jean Donovan, who even in the midst of military brutality in El Salvador, made a clear choice for nonviolence; Dorothy Day, who denounced the poverty spawned by the perpetual war economy; Muriel Lester who traveled the globe as an ambassador of gospel nonviolence for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation; Adolphe Proulx, prophetic bishop of Hull, Que., who dared make the connection between war and poverty, between the gospel and active nonviolence; Oscar Romero, assassinated because as bishop he cared enough about the poor to confront the ruling families' military violence; Martin Luther King, also assassinated when he went beyond the issue of racism to confront his country's militarism and abusive neglect of the poor.