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Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm., feminist mentor: rightly did the maidens love him
Biblical Theology Bulletin, Fall, 2003 by Carole R. Fontaine
One of the things I most treasured in Roland's availability to me as a budding theologian were his great philosophical "diagnostic skills." Not only did we actually have personal conversations about where I found God in my life (imagine doing that in some graduate programs!), I talked over my bizarre denominational history as a woman from poverty who left the Southern Baptist church over civil rights and never looked back.
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You could voice an unformed thought, a question, a crux to Roland, and before you had even finished speaking, he would know what you meant and where the trouble was. I always walked about after such events, saying, "How did he know?" especially in circumstances where I did not really know myself what I was asking for, only that I felt a theological lack, a break in the thread of my thinking. Later, consulting the references he would give me on all of these ancillary theological questions, I was always struck by how his recommendations were so en pointe, and just what I needed when I needed it. I asked once why he was so able and willing to engage me as an equal partner in theological discussions. "Well," he replied, "this is one of the advantages of spending your whole adult life as a male in a religious order: when someone special walks into your room, you usually have the sense to receive it for what it is--God's gift--and not be bothered by the status questions." Even when I began teaching, Roland still consented to play that diagnostic role with me, becoming my Spiritual Director--well, how could he not, when I had quite literally had John of the Cross' LIVING FLAME OF LOVE fall on my head from a high book shelf during a sale at Episcopal Divinity School? As I was coping with the implications of what turned out to be an eternal headache, Carmelite writings proved to be just what the doctor ordered. I pelted Roland with questions about John, his headaches, his run-ins with the Inquisition, his relationship to Theresa, her headaches, and the role of female-male theological friendships as divine blessing. "They were so different in temperament," I wrote to him once, "it seems strange that they could be so much to each other when they were so different!" "Ah," he replied, "different, yes. But how she loved him!" As I struggled with neurological symptoms and diagnoses during a long-ish dark night, Roland was my spiritual touchstone. We decided that while suddenly smelling roses was a documented event for those engaging in contemplative prayer, a trip to the neurologist wouldn't be out of place, either! "After all," he commented, "even if what you are experiencing is organically based, God is using that to get to you, and you'll need to deal with it anyway. But you are your own best interpreter; we do not need to be afraid of this thing. It all belongs to God." When people wonder how I survived my encounters with the Boston medical establishment (somewhat) intact, I always laugh and tell them I subscribe to "industrial-strength spirituality"--I've been "carmelized"!
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