June 2020 - Cassian's Feather and Racism

 

You may have wondered why this column frequently includes a feather quill. Yes, I do have mixed feelings about modern technology. But more importantly, feathers are a key symbol for me. Years ago I read The Institutes by John Cassian, a 5^th century Christian who wanted to be alone in the desert with God, but many went out to find him, leading Cassian to build monasteries (a symbolic desert) and write on the spiritual life. In The Institutes he compares the soul to a “very fine feather” and writes that if it is not weighed down by moisture it is “borne aloft almost naturally to the heights of heaven by the lightness of its nature, and the aid of the slightest breath.”

I was reminded of this as I reflected on my mixed feelings about our nation today. Our ideals and potential have made the United States the envy of the world in many ways. It isn’t hard to imagine this very fine feather of a country ascending with the aid of the slightest breath to do great good in the world.

And yet we are weighed down, not by the moisture of racism, but because we are drenched in it. We have been so wet with it for so long that we can hardly notice it. And this fine feather, with so much potential to fly, is instead grounded.

It isn’t that we can’t and don’t do good in the world. It is that we are capable of so much more good, and so much less injustice. We are like Moses looking across the Jordan, seeing a Promised Land that we cannot enter.

Except we can, and every day we can get one step closer. It won’t be easy, and it won’t come without some cost. But if people  ̶  especially people of color  ̶  can risk  ̶  or lose  ̶  their lives for those ideals, defending our country, surely we who have benefited can pay the price of looking in the mirror. And beyond seeing where we have fallen short, we can make amends to set things right.

I recently encountered the old-fashioned phrase, “in fine feather.” It was used originally to describe a bird with clean and bright feathers. Later it was used to describe a person’s state of well-being.

It’s not hard to imagine what it would mean for this country to be “in fine feather.” We describe it with phrases like “all people are created equal,” “with liberty and justice for all,” and “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

As Americans, we know the promise, and what it means. As Christians, we know God made all of us, and God made us good. The challenge may be hard, but as the community of God all things are possible.

One feather can only float as the breeze blows. As a wing we can fly.

Thus says the Lord, “I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4). God has borne us. And God will bring us.