America’s favorite Franciscan dropped a doozie of a daily meditation the other day, one too relevant not to pass on. It is drawn from his book Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
The spirituality of the Twelve Steps is another important part of my wisdom lineage. Although I have never formally belonged to a Twelve Step group, I have learned much from people who are in recovery. I truly believe that the Twelve Step program (also known as Alcoholics Anonymous or A.A.) will go down in history as America’s greatest and unique contribution to the history of spirituality. It represents what is good about American pragmatism…
My first eight years in Albuquerque, beginning in the late 1980s, I lived downtown, next door to a little church where Twelve Step meetings were held. As the members gathered right outside my back door almost every other evening, we became friends. They invited me to join them in their closed meetings. I felt very privileged. It was like being welcomed into a sacred sanctuary of people who weren’t afraid to openly admit they were “sinners.” I’d go home afterward thinking this felt more like church than the liturgy on Sunday morning. It was as if each person was a priest, and they were all healing one another. The God-talk was honest… There was no hesitancy for each person to describe their history of failure and recovery–or death and resurrection, if you prefer Christian vocabulary.
Opening with “Hi, I’m Joe, and I’m an alcoholic” is a humble and honest admission of deep need, which is what the Catholic penitential rite, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy,” is supposed to be… The entrance requirement for an A.A. meeting is not worthiness, but unworthiness, not capacity, but deep need–just as it should be…
Let’s resolve this once and for all: You’re not worthy! None of us are. Don’t even go down that worthiness road. It’s a game of denial and pretend. We’re all saved by grace. We’re all being loved in spite of ourselves. A.A. had the courage to recognize that you don’t come to God by doing it right; you come to God by doing it wrong, and then falling into an infinite mercy. The Twelve Steps wisely call such mercy “Your Higher Power.”
I also want to add what only the Gospel is fully prepared to proclaim: You’re absolutely worthy of love! Yet this has nothing to do with any earned worthiness on your part. God does not love you because you are good. God loves you because God is good!…
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COMMENTS
5 responses to “Richard Rohr Goes to an AA Meeting in Albuquerque”
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Really, really good.
I need help with the statement “I have learned much from people who are in recovery.” Can’t quite put my finger on it, but does that sound right? (I’m “better” at their expense??)
I think the author means, Phillip, that people who are in recovery bring unique insights and perspectives that others (who have never been in recovery) might never have noticed. Hence, the ‘non-recovered’ learn something new from the ‘in-recovery’.
Another way to think about it: I know more than a few people who have survived cancer who say it was the best thing that ever happened to them. Wait, what?! I think they mean that it has totally radically changed their life *for the better* by giving a different outlook or making them appreciate things differently.
So if we can learn from others who have had these types of experiences (addiction, cancer), and we can live our lives better, how awesome is that!
it really bothers me when someone changes the words of the steps ( substituteing “God” for ” Him” …. the Al Anon preamble to the steps says “Because of their proven power and worth, A.A.’s Twelve Steps have been adopted almost word for word by Al-Anon. ey represent a way of life appealing to all people of good- will, of any religious faith or of none. Note the power of the very words!”….. don’t change them.
It is a sad and very dangerous trend in aa. The very words that have saved someone´s life is suddenly unacceptable after a few years sobriety when the ego begins to show its ugly head. Suddenly these words are offensive. Suddenly these alcoholics along with some well-intentioned supporters decide they have a better way. From 87% to 92% AA has slipped to between 8% to 4% success rates after recovery centers, psychologists and the world at large began to meddle around this beautiful, sacred program feeling they could improve it.