Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

 

I got my weeks mixed up, I should have written about my trip to Taipei last weekend, when I was away from the parish, rather than planning to tell you about it this weekend, after I will already be back for weekend Masses. But this way I can give you a little progress report.

 

Bishop Robert Barron in his “Mystery of God” series speaks about the music group U2’s song “Where the Streets Have No Name.”  The Catholic lead singer and songwriter, Bono, is referring to the mystical life, when you let go enough to enter into the Mystery of God without your internal GPS. There comes a point when you are no longer in control of the spiritual life (actually, you never were, but never wanted to admit it). Like the time after which the disciples had fished all night without catching anything, and Jesus instructed them not to fear, to put out into the deep. Despite their knowing that it wouldn’t do any good, they followed his instruction—and caught so many fish that they were overcome with the reality of Jesus. Peter reacted, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”  And they left their nets behind and followed him.

 

They weren’t in control anymore. As I write this, I arrived in Taipei night before last, Saturday night, with a delayed landing at 11:15 at night. I had been en route 25 ½ hours. Then baggage claim, then one additional hour’s ride from the airport. My driver, a very nice man, spoke no English. He had a paper with my name on it, I got in his car, what else could I do? Taiwan is very different. They turn off lights at night, there are basically not streetlights or exterior building lights, just the occasional night owl whose window light was still on up in some high rise. It was surreal, I couldn’t tell from any signs where we were going (everything is, of course, in Chinese), except for the infrequent sign that said “Taipei.”  I could make out silhouettes of dense residential and industrial development most of the way, but it was like everyone was gone, building ghosts in the dark. We just kept driving.

 

I was thinking about that song. Here I was where the streets literally had no name for me, not knowing any Chinese at all. Allowing yourself to go into personally uncharted territory is such a strong metaphor for the spiritual life.

Finally we arrived, I guessed, because the car stopped and the driver took my bags out of the trunk. We were in front of a Catholic parish. I was trying to explain to him that I knew our destination was a hotel... although it might be possible that a priest might take in a priest who shows up at his door in the dead of night?  Uncertain. The man had no idea what I was saying, but could tell I was confused. He showed the address to me, 20 something something. I looked at the sign of the church, it was the same address. I pulled up the address of the hotel on my phone where we were to stay that night, it was the same. He shrugged, then walked around to the back of the church, and came back, took my hand and led be back to the entrance of a hotel. It was tucked in behind the church. Maybe there was a sign there somewhere that identified it, I don’t know. But we got where we were going.

 

He had a GPS. I had trust. Both were necessary.

 

We had a wonderful day of dialogue today. The theme is “Buddhists and Christians Walking Together on the Path of Nonviolence,” and religious leaders and theologians from 22 countries are present. There are four of us from the USA. Today a cardinal, several bishops and theologians as well as dharma masters and Buddhist monks defined the problem of violence and where it is found. We began imagining how to rebuild a world where violence is not the cause of an endless cycle of suffering. Tomorrow I will give a paper on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his philosophy and practice of nonviolence. The hospitality I have found here is amazing. When we arrived at the temple there was an army of people waiting at the door with umbrellas so that not a drop of rain fell on us. We felt like very special guests. I think we will order a bunch of umbrellas with the Saint Bernadette logo on them so that we can build an even better greeters ministry to make anyone who comes feel like we are there for them!  The food has been great, but I haven’t turned into a vegetarian yet.

 

I had hoped to share photos but the first powerpoint slide this morning at the conference said we could take photos for personal use, but could not use them for public purposes. I’ll have to do a travelogue when I get home.

 

God bless you.