Sister Constance FitzGerald:
From Impasse to Prophetic Hope
Sister Constance Fitzgerald, OCD, is a contemplative Carmelite and an influential and esteemed theologian. Her 2005 article, From Impasse to Prophetic Hope: A Crisis of Memory, offers fabulous practical ideas - well worth the work of understanding some theological terms.
She notes that "currently impasse seems centered in great part in memory and imagination, in the conflict between the past and the future." She reflects "on the central importance of memory as well as the limiting and destructive power that memories hold," and offers a path through which the memory is purified and a new self is born - "a dispossessed self truly capable of living and loving." This new, dispossessed self transcends "the polarization, suspicion, denouncement, investigation, silencing, alienation, anger, cynicism and sadness" that poison many relationships in the church, in society, and with creation. We become free, more able "to see God coming to us from the future."
In the purification of memory, we don't forget; but our memories lose their old meanings. We stop making memory-stories that hurt our authentic personhood. But in the process we also feel disoriented; we lose "the beacons by which we have set our course."
Why should we do the painful work of emptying "the great caverns of [our] mind, heart, memory and imagination"? Because "memories can lead us to either healing and empathy or hostility and destruction." By purifying our memories we create a new story of ourselves. We shatter the memories that block "the coming of God in love toward us." Very gradually, "hope hollows out a place for the power of the future."
This dark passage leads to a deep, undefinable sense of relatedness, creativity, and freedom for the limitless possibilities of God. "This freedom, this posture of hope, is really prophecy, for it enables a person [to] show the way; to stand on the horizon so that all can see this future, God’s future." Here we pray a wordless "prayer-of-no-experience" that deepens our openness, our harmony, and our hope.
This is the barest, most preliminary glimpse of an article that gives instant insights into one's own memories and stories. We recognize ourselves in her examples - and that invites us into the contemplative work of transformation that leads to prophetic hope.
She notes that "currently impasse seems centered in great part in memory and imagination, in the conflict between the past and the future." She reflects "on the central importance of memory as well as the limiting and destructive power that memories hold," and offers a path through which the memory is purified and a new self is born - "a dispossessed self truly capable of living and loving." This new, dispossessed self transcends "the polarization, suspicion, denouncement, investigation, silencing, alienation, anger, cynicism and sadness" that poison many relationships in the church, in society, and with creation. We become free, more able "to see God coming to us from the future."
In the purification of memory, we don't forget; but our memories lose their old meanings. We stop making memory-stories that hurt our authentic personhood. But in the process we also feel disoriented; we lose "the beacons by which we have set our course."
Why should we do the painful work of emptying "the great caverns of [our] mind, heart, memory and imagination"? Because "memories can lead us to either healing and empathy or hostility and destruction." By purifying our memories we create a new story of ourselves. We shatter the memories that block "the coming of God in love toward us." Very gradually, "hope hollows out a place for the power of the future."
This dark passage leads to a deep, undefinable sense of relatedness, creativity, and freedom for the limitless possibilities of God. "This freedom, this posture of hope, is really prophecy, for it enables a person [to] show the way; to stand on the horizon so that all can see this future, God’s future." Here we pray a wordless "prayer-of-no-experience" that deepens our openness, our harmony, and our hope.
This is the barest, most preliminary glimpse of an article that gives instant insights into one's own memories and stories. We recognize ourselves in her examples - and that invites us into the contemplative work of transformation that leads to prophetic hope.