Marcus Borg

Marcus Borg has died.   Actually, he died on January 21 about four months ago at the age of 72 and from pulmonary fibrosis.  I’ve long been an admirer of Marcus who was a prominent theologian, biblical scholar, and an Episcopalian.  He wrote more than 20 books, and I’ve read most of them.  Perhaps he had the greatest influence on me to become a Catholic and then a deacon.   He helped me understand the best path to follow Jesus today.

I highlight here a quote from his latest book “Convictions: How I learned What Matters Most” (2014):  “Imagine that Christianity is about loving God.  Imagine that it’s not about the self and its concerns, about ‘what’s in it for me,’ whether that be a blessed afterlife or prosperity in this life.  Imagine that loving God is about being attentive to the one in whom we live and move and have our being.  Imagine that it is about becoming more and more deeply centered in God.  Imagine that it is about loving what God loves.  How would that change our lives?”   

Now I imagine that Marcus is no longer with us.   Still, he lives on through what he wrote helping us all to better understand such things as: “Centering in God transforms us.  It changes us.  It produces what Paul called ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ and ‘the gifts of the Spirit.’ It is what Jesus meant when he said, ‘You will know them by their fruits.’  The fruits of centering in God are many and intertwined, but the most important are compassion, freedom, and courage and gratitude. Sequencing them is thus not about their relative importance; they all go together.”

Imagine.

Deacon David Pierce