God's Will? Really, can this be? Part 1

Greetings readers,

Today's blog entry is a perfect example of one of my situations where I do a "what if we thought about it like this?" The standard use of God's call language is that God has a perfect plan for everyone that everyone should accept in their lives for the most happiness for themselves. That vocation is something which is given and not fully chosen (because if it is to draw one to the most happiness when one is discerning God then one by this model is going to find their vocation because one will not often make themselves miserable. (unless it's for the sake of some other good which in this model there is no higher good than God, so of course in the people who promote this ideology have no real outs for not following one's vocation because nothing can be higher than God.)
While this is true, this makes God a robot master and a puppeteer at best. Plus it always serves one image of God, which is a introverted image of God. It always serves the prayerful person in monastery or seminary image of God who can live alone. It does not serve the extroverted person who wants to love and be available for other people necessarily because by exposing oneself to real community, we find as people that we need real community of those like us. In the above model, this means that a perceived need is placed before God, other people.
Of course, we are not perfect people, we screw things up, so there are times when we might not be real community for other people and cause a negative image of love (of hurt). And psychology tells us that hurts are powerful, negative images tend to stay in our minds more than positive ones, at least without training. Now keep in mind, this is where the above model gets power from people. If an institution/person/vocational director can show how community relationships cause suffering because humans are imperfect, then one can make a certain kind of religious life more appealing because it isolates the person from real relationships. It seeks to take the vulnerability out of relationships by establishing an ordered argument for creation. When one takes out the relationship in humanity; however, we are not contributing to the growth of real people, rather on the contrary, we are contributing to brainwashing and harming the overall Church.
A New Statesman article I read recently ("The Pope, the people and the paedophiles") touched on two different models of priesthood which are present in the Church with one having more influence (because it's initiated by the Pope, e.g. the introverted model of God.) and one which was favored by John Henry Newman (which I'll call an extroverted model because he focuses on the priest having good relationships with people (male and female) drinking fine wine, and overall living life (paraphrase) www.newstatesman.com/print/201004010012. This extroverted model of priesthood is tucked under the back burner now because it is not a popular response to the sex abuse crisis in the "more traditional" (I use this label as an identifier, but it really doesn't do it justice) sect of the Catholic Church. The popular response to the sex abuse crisis is asceticism, that priests (and I'm going to include religious as well, for this argument.) Priests and religious in this light should be more separated from people because they are higher than normal people and since they are following a call from God, it gives them a different life purpose, which all in all stands against the human community because it focuses exclusively on the community of God.
However, an extroverted model of priesthood is going to examine life as an experience. When one sees life as an experience, it means there is an examination of people's choices and interests. It takes into account real people. God is important because God is a guiding source for each person, but it is not for a specific end (e.g. there is no one way which favors God's light, because the goal of a life is to live an authentic Christian life, however each individual person experiences that reality. This needs to become a feasible option for priesthood and religious life because until this happens, God's will language will be used to manipulate people away from community and into extreme religious practice. When this happens, even people who find love are told of the horrors of love and a life with someone or any real community, and then as such get slowly taken to an introverted life where they are told they will find communion with God. The extroverted model then replies, it is in the experience of other people that we see signs of God. People/friends/family can bring us God's healing or the devil's hurts, and it's bull shit to believe that God wills suffering for people. God is not like, hey look this person gets cancer, or this person gets into a car wreck which isn't their fault. God's control is not that explicit. Where the power of God reigns is in the individual response to their situation to live an authentic Christian life in every moment of every day.
This entry is complete for now, however, there needs to be more discussion of this, because this affects so many issues. Til next issue, love deeply, be vulnerable, and seek the face of God. Amen.

Aristocrates.