Wisdom in an Age of Outrage

Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations

Saturday, July 26, 2025

Week Thirty Summary

July 20 – July 25, 2025

Wisdom in an Age of Outrage

Sunday

All things cry for forgiveness in their imperfection, their incompleteness, their woundedness, their constant movement toward death. Mere rage or resentment will not change any of these realities. —Richard Rohr

Monday

Do we retreat into our despair, into the smallest parts of our hearts, or do we dare to lift our gaze and reach out through the dark, holding fast to one another and standing in love? —Valarie Kaur

Tuesday

Rage, when consciously harnessed, is a force that connects us with our power to fight for others, and for ourselves. —Valarie Kaur

Wednesday

If we believe God is angry in the way that humans are, then it’s too easy for us to end up being angry “without limit.” Isn’t this, in fact, much of our experience today?

—Richard Rohr

Thursday

If we move the way rage wants us to move, we will cause harm to ourselves and others. So when we go to take action, we must first intentionally return to love. Rage informs us about what we love, and love moves us to act in ways only love knows.

—Meggan Watterson

Friday

For Abraham Joshua Heschel, marching for voting rights was a holy act, an embodied devotional response to God’s ongoing call for dignity and equality. Rather than turn away in rage or despair from engagement with non-Jews, Heschel became a champion of racial justice and interreligious cooperation. —Or Rose

Week Thirty Practice

A Blessing for Our Anger

As we seek to learn from the wisdom our anger has to teach us, Brian McLaren offers this prayer of blessing:

May you be blessed to see in your anger, not just a danger, but an opportunity. May you be blessed to see in your anger a window into what you love. May you be blessed to see in your anger a pathway into sadness. And may your sadness sweeten your anger until it is transformed into the energy of love.

May you come to see indifference, complacency, apathy, and self-centeredness within you as signs—not of your lack of anger, but of your lack of love.

May you welcome anger as a source of information about what you love, about what needs protection and repair, and about the courage and strength needed to make this world a more joyful and peaceful place.

May your anger lead you to sadness, and may your sadness lead you to love, so that you meet the tears of things with a heart of bottomless compassion.

May you be angry about what deserves anger, and may you experience such a transformation of your own anger that you become an agent of loving transformation in our world.

May the deep wisdom of God guide you deep into your anger so that you may join with Jesus in weeping for the world, and so that you groan with the creative Spirit in the loving labor pains of a better tomorrow.

Week Thirty: Wisdom in an Age of Outrage

Friday, July 25, 2025

A Model of Faith and Justice

Rabbi Or Rose tells of the prophetic witness and spiritual audacity of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972), one of the great religious leaders of the 20th century.

Heschel came to the United States in 1940 under great duress, narrowly escaping the brutal Nazi onslaught in Europe…. Tragically, many of Heschel’s family members—including his mother and three of his sisters—were murdered by the Nazis in the following months and years…. After acculturating to life in the United States and establishing himself as a respected academic and gifted religious writer, Heschel became increasingly involved in public affairs….

Heschel gave his first major address on civil rights in March 1963 at the National Conference on Religion and Race in Chicago. In his remarks, he compared the plight of African Americans in the United States to the ancient Israelite slaves in Egypt. In one particularly dramatic moment, he stated, “It was easier for the children of Israel to cross the Red Sea than for a Negro to cross certain university campuses.” [1] He went on to challenge listeners—including many Jewish audience members—to choose between the legacies of Pharoah or Moses.

Heschel embodied the wisdom of the Hebrew prophets at a critical time in history. His Jewish faith inspired his commitment to justice for those on the margins:

In fine prophetic fashion, Heschel rails against ritual observance divorced from social responsibility…. He wrote, “Prayer is no panacea, no substitute for action.” [2] While Heschel was an eloquent spokesperson for a life of disciplined religious praxis—including prayer and other traditional observances—he was steadfast in his call for a holistic approach to spirituality and ethics….

Heschel joined Dr. King and other civil rights leaders in the famous Selma to Montgomery March. Upon returning from that protest, he wrote the following words:

For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips, and marching is not kneeling, and yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship.

I felt my legs were praying. [3]

For Heschel, marching for voting rights was a holy act, an embodied devotional response to God’s ongoing call for dignity and equality…. Rather than turn away in rage or despair from engagement with non-Jews, Heschel became a champion of racial justice and interreligious cooperation. He used his own experiences as a victim of bigotry and hatred to work to stamp out these destructive phenomena in his new homeland and throughout the world….

[Heschel] played a vital role in healing racial, religious, and political wounds in America and beyond…. Rather than retreating and insulating himself from the aches and pains of the world, he cultivated relationships with a diverse set of colleagues and organizations and set out to help transform it.

May Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s memory continue to serve as a source of inspiration and challenge to all those who seek to participate in the healing of our shared civilization.