Reading Phil Berrigan, awaiting springtime

October is a time of harvest, the yield of hard work gathered from the fields for use in the coming winter. In the north, winter is a long season drained of color, a season of barren trees and icy earth, a temporary death of the land. As we approach what seems a dark and cold season in this world with its wars and nuclear winters, we are fortunate to gain sustenance from the yield of those who worked so hard before us.

“The seed is the word of God,” according to the Gospel of Luke. Thomas Merton elaborated by writing, “Every expression of the will of God is in some sense a ‘word’ of God and therefore a seed of new life.” To those who tilled the fields and planted the seeds, we give thanks. We harvest their bounty and gain new life.

October 5th, 2023, marks the Centenary of the birth of Philip Francis Berrigan.

Phil’s expression of the will of God came in the form of asking himself the most daunting—and for Phil the most haunting— of questions: What does Christ ask of me?  

“The bounty of these words, the hard truth of them, their gravitational pull, may just be our best hope as autumn takes hold and we prepare for what feels an ominous time in the history of this world.”

The answer was learned slowly and with sacrifice. Phil expressed it in actions and with these words: To stand in the breach with the victims. To resist the culture of death. To grasp that Christianity and revolution are synonymous. To understand that the true nature of Christian witness means being faithful enough to suffer and daring enough to serve. To accept that through our actions we will constitute the church in chains. To embrace a ministry of risk.

The bounty of these words, the hard truth of them, their gravitational pull, may just be our best hope as autumn takes hold and we prepare for what feels an ominous time in the history of this world. A friend recently said to me, “Think of it: You plant seeds and food comes up from the ground. Year after year, relentless growth, new life.”  We are thankful for the seeds, for those who planted them. The harvest is rich. Phil’s work yields in abundance.

 Philip Berrigan was both physical and intellectual. A field hand who saw behind the curtain. “If they do these things in the green wood, what will they do in the dry?” (Luke 23:21). Phil quoted this passage from prison in 1999. If they executed Christ in the green, what will they do in the dry? His conclusion: “If we wake up and live out the nonviolent resistance exemplified by Christ, we can discard the biblical metaphors of green and dry wood. Jesus Christ will live, now and forever. And so will we.”

Long may we labor. Long may we love. Winter will end. A new spring awaits.