{"id":2600,"date":"2018-03-12T09:30:44","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T13:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2600"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:45:38","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:45:38","slug":"march-12-laughter-from-the-14th-century-meister-eckhart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2018\/03\/12\/march-12-laughter-from-the-14th-century-meister-eckhart\/","title":{"rendered":"March 12 — laughter from the 14th century -Meister Eckhart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, March 12, 2018<\/p>\n

\u201claughter begets liking,
\nand liking begets joy, and joy begets love\u201d<\/p>\n

Meister Eckhart, a German Dominican, theologian, philosopher and mystic, was known for\u00a0his scholarly writings and for sermons addressed to ordinary people as well as to women and men\u00a0more visibly active in Church life. \u00a0 Eckhart died just twenty years before the peak of the European pandemic known as The Black Death which killed 30% to 60% of Europe\u2019s people. \u00a0One might be inclined to set his intuition about the identity of God as embodied in laughter and affection as an antidote, before the fact, to address the\u00a0terrified and violent fears that convulsed Europe in the mid-14th century; \u00a0the living worked to bury the corpses of some 100 to 200 million of those who died around them. \u00a0A grim time badly in need of the rebirth of Europe\u2019s sense of humor and playfulness.<\/p>\n

How, in the midst of 2018\u2019s blaming and anger and fear, does a university challenge its students to risk the terrors of self-discovery and of attention to the whole fabric of human behavior while encouraging in those same students a resilient sense of humor about that same human condition? \u00a0 It is a teacher\u2019s great challenge and one of the graces that strong mentors offer their students and students, with their resilient capacity for surprise, offer their faculty and one another.<\/p>\n

This saying of Meister Eckhart might make a good short text to read out loud in front of your mirror as winter grows overlong and stirs one\u2019s less attractive sides when under pressure. \u00a0A university\u2019s life grows from daring hope that all of its citizens \u2014 faculty and students and staff alike and, yes, one\u2019s neighbors too \u2014 carry in themselves the inner stuff to find their voice and engage the real world. \u00a0 Meister Eckhart reminds me of a 20th century mystic, Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 \u2013 December 10, 1968) \u00a0 who wrote in one of his contemplative works a brave statement of wonder for hard times: \u00a0\u201cThere is no way of telling strangers they are all walking around shining like the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have a blest day,<\/p>\n

john st sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post \u2014\u00a0<\/strong>This saying is attributed to Meister Eckhart.<\/p>\n

Indeed I say, the soul will bring forth Person
\nif God laughs to her and she laughs back to him.
\nTo speak in parable, the Father laughs to the Son
\nand the Son laughs back to the Father;<\/p>\n

And this laughter begets liking,
\nand liking begets joy, and joy begets love,
\nand love begets Person,
\nand Person begets the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMeister Eckhart \u00a0(c. 1260 – c. 1327)
\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Meister_Eckhart<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThomas Merton (1915-1968)
\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thomas_Merton<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, March 12, 2018 \u201claughter begets liking, and liking begets joy, and joy begets love\u201d Meister Eckhart, a German Dominican, theologian, philosopher and mystic, was known for\u00a0his scholarly writings and for sermons addressed to ordinary people as well as to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2600"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2605,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions\/2605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}