Yesterday I shared with you what I felt was an important observation about humans getting over our action-reaction, reptilian response to one another, moving beyond dualisms and therefore beyond war. How do we do that?
I shared the story from my brother and sister-in-law in Iceland where, as they put it, the current volcanic crisis was ending “the normal bickering of all about anything…and all are pulling for all.”
Normal bickering. Stopped. All are pulling for all.
Is this what Jesus meant when he said, “love your neighbor as yourself”? And “forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us”? And “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God”? Is this the path to peace?
What gets humans to put aside our agendas for a bit and the bickering that goes with them and to work together on a common project? That is the etymological meaning of “community” after all—to work on a common project. Cum-munio in Latin. Can humanity become a single community?
Is Climate Change calling us beyond wars to saving the planet as we know it and putting all our warrior energy and resources into that project?
I am reminded of a lesson I learned my first semester of college. At 17, I was attending Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, which sits on the Mississippi River and that Fall, 1958, there was a huge storm, the river rose several feet and an emergency ensued. All were called to stop everything and go to the river to fill and lay sandbags.
Students from a nearby Presbyterian seminary, Lutheran seminary, Catholic seminaries and people of all ages were working shoulder to shoulder on one project: Resisting the floods for the sake of saving the city. Community, Cum-munio, a common task indeed. Enough to stop the bickering. Survival trumps bickering. It trumps war.
To be continued.
See Matthew Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion.
Banner Image: Community members prepare sandbags against an impending flood in Quincy, IL, 2008. Photo by WBEZ-91.5 on Flickr
Queries for Contemplation
What are some of your experiences of cum-munio, community building based on sharing a common task? What lessons reside there for moving beyond war and bickering?
Recommended Reading

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
3 thoughts on “From Bickering & War to Common Work & Common Survival”
Even though Covid interrupted our biweekly community spiritual support group, there has been an increase in webinar spiritual support groups across the country (and probably internationally). I have become a member of a few of these that resonate with my deeper contemplative spiritual needs. I hope to begin a new community spiritual support group locally that also meet the needs of spiritual companionship/communion in person starting in January 2024. I’ve suggested through emails for those interested in joining that we read Matthew’s “One River, Many Wells.”
In the 90’s I watched a video on the Mayan Prophecies. I still remember a couple. One was that wars would stop due to natural disasters. There was no money for war! The other was that all those governing would have to resign, and thus be replaced. These two thoughts give me hope.
Back in the day, when I was in college and lived near the campus, cars routinely got stuck in slushy snow on winter mornings. Students walking by often went over to help push the unlucky winter traveler’s car out of its predicament. They stopped everything to help a total stranger because they all knew what it was like to be in that kind of mess. That’s the gift of empathy, when we stop thinking of people as “other” and instead put ourselves in their shoes, or we remember being in similar awful situations. It’s also a lesson in noticing what’s going on around us, paying attention to the pain of other people and figuring out how we can help. It’s not just during “Big Things” that we can make a difference, such as helping during natural disasters. It’s about being present, wherever you are, and noticing when and how other people are hurting and then doing your best to make your corner of the world better. Every little act of kindness and empathy makes a difference.