Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

Week Seventeen: Apocalyptic Hope

A Time of Unveiling

I believe this past year has been an apocalyptic time, though not necessarily in the way we might think. When the CAC staff first started speaking with me in the fall of 2020 about potential themes for the 2021 Daily Meditations, we were about seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing and staying home were the norm. The presidential campaign, with all its ugly rhetoric, was in full swing. Only half-joking, I suggested “apocalypse” as a theme! But the Daily Meditations editorial team took my idea seriously and transformed it into something broader, deeper, and much more accessible. We called this year’s theme “A Time of Unveiling.” For many of us, the word “apocalypse” conjures thoughts of the rapture, fear, a vengeful God, and violent and exclusive religion. It is an overwhelming judgment on Western Christianity that it is drawn to such beliefs. But despite its misuse, I’m convinced the biblical meaning of apocalypse is a helpful and ultimately hopeful framework.

A quick etymology of the word will help: kaluptein is the Greek word for “to cover” and apo means “un,” so apokaluptein means to uncover or unveil. While we primarily use the word “apocalypse” to mean to destroy or threaten, in its original context, apocalypsesimplymeant to reveal something new. The key is that in order to reveal something new, we have to get the old out of the way.

I begin my book Eager to Love with these poetic words from Neale Donald Walsch that put this quite nicely.

Yearning for a new way will not produce it. Only ending the old way can do that. You cannot hold onto the old all the while declaring that you want something new. The old will defy the new; the old will deny the new; the old will decry the new. There is only one way to bring in the new. You must make room for it. [1]

That’s what apocalyptic literature does. It helps us make room for something new by clearing out the old—old ideas, old stories, old ways of thinking—especially if we’ve become overly attached to them. The goal of apocalyptic language, as used in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, is to shake people out of their reliance on conventional wisdom and undercut where we all operate on cruise control.

The most common mistake is to confuse apocalyptic literature with prophetic literature.  They serve very different functions. Apocalyptic writing deconstructs the “taken-for-granted world” by presenting a completely different universe, similar to what a good novel or even a science fiction movie does for us. As the Buddhist heart sutra says it, “Gone, gone, utterly gone, all has passed over to the other side.” It makes room for the reconstruction of a new vision of peace and justice, which is the job of the prophets. Yes, prophets do plenty of deconstruction too, but it is always to make room inside the mind and soul for vision, expansion, hope, and a future inhabited by God and not by fear.

[1] Neale Donald Walsch, Facebook post, July 22, 2014.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014), xiii; and

“A Time of Unveiling,” Four Steps to the Second Coming, Day 1, presentation to Franciscan friars, November 25, 2020, video. Unpublished talk; used with permission

Image credit: Belinda Rain, Frost - Touched Grass (detail), 1972 photograph, public domain, National Archives. 

Image inspiration: This image may not present itself clearly upon first glance. With a closer look shape, color, recognition and new understanding fall into place.

Prayer For Our Community

Loving God, you fill all things with a fullness and hope that we can never comprehend. Thank you for leading us into a time where more of reality is being unveiled for us all to see. We pray that you will take away our natural temptation for cynicism, denial, fear and despair. Help us have the courage to awaken to greater truth, greater humility, and greater care for one another. May we place our hope in what matters and what lasts, trusting in your eternal presence and love. Listen to our hearts’ longings for the healing of our suffering world. Please add your own intentions . . . Knowing, good God, you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers in all the holy names of God. Amen.
Listen to Father Richard pray this prayer aloud.

Story From Our Community

In these times there are so many ways to get “off track” in deed, word, or thought. The real and sustaining light for me has been Richard Rohr and the daily devotions from CAC! These times of unveiling demand a calm, steady, and accepting voice to remind me we are merely experiencing the natural evolution of growth. It can be quite challenging and painful. A true, trusted, insightful guide is appreciated more than words can express.
—Jimmy W.   
Share your own story with us.

News from the CAC

New edition of ONEING now available

This past year many across the world have suffered, and this new issue of ONEING invites readers to participate in our collective healing. ONEING: Trauma explores how “great love and great suffering bring us back to God” through a thoughtfully curated collection of essays, poetry, and critical responses from Fr. Richard Rohr, Matthew Fox, Joan Halifax, Kaitlin Curtice and more. ONEING: Trauma is available now in print or a downloadable PDF.

The Divine Exchange

How can your exchanges and interactions be more united with the divine? Cynthia Bourgeault leads you on a path of discovery in The Divine Exchange, a 14-week online course for intermediate and advanced students of the path. Teaching on the power of exchange, learn to give and receive in a framework that embraces everything.

Explore Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations archive at cac.org. 

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