"Second half of life" wisdom requires prayer and discernment more than knee-jerk responses toward either conservative or liberal ends of the spectrum. You have a spectrum of responses now, and they are not all predictable, as is too often the case with most knee-jerk responses. Law is still necessary, of course, but it is not your guiding star, or even close. It has been wrong and cruel too many times.
The Eight Beatitudes speak to you much more than the Ten Commandments as you grow older. Life is much more spacious now. The boundaries of the container have been enlarged. You are like an expandable suitcase, and you became so almost without your noticing. Now you are just here, and here holds more than enough.
I'm very much into the "Second half of life" both in age and also in experience and outlook to life. I know what Richard means when he talks about knee-jerk responses to life's questions - it's so easy to react in an automatic manner , using the trite responses that we've been taught - but I agree that we need more time to reflect, pray and think through our preconceived and ready-made answers.
I've found that the longer I've been on this planet the less I see things in black and white, but there's a lot more grey areas. I like Rohr's metaphor of the 'boundaries of the container have been enlarged' - maybe it's not so much 'grey areas' but a life that's played out in 'Technicolor' - or a container that's enlarged - less narrow but more ready to 'hold on to' the ambiguities and the uncertainties - and to see God in the here, in the midst of it all, in all of life... I believe our 'container' needs to enlarge in order to embrace the great big omnipresent God...
He's so much bigger than our finite minds could ever imagine!
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