According to Joseph Campbell
supernatural guides can take many forms:
– in fairy tales: a hermit/elf/shepherd/wizard
– in mythology: a Baboon god
– in classical literature: Virgil and Beatrice
in Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Scientists have been our guides for centuries
but Isaac Newton’s mechanistic universe
eventually had no need or place for God
and no definition or place for humans.
We used to be supernaturally defined
as the image of God.
In the new quantum science and quantum theology
God is not a passive/detached/external ruler –
God is a passionate/relational/internal Presence
embodied in the process of creative evolution.
“God’s providence/compassion/mercy
were there right from the moment of my birth –
for you gave my mother breasts and milk
to feed me, you gave me the desire
for this milk and gave my mother
the desire to share it.” – Augustine
In contemplation we are like a child
sucking on our mother’s breasts – all our faculties:
memory/reason/imagination are suspended
only our will, the will to drink sweet nectar remains.
In the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius
the foundational theme is: our will
and all our faculties of memory/reason/imagination
are gifts from God to be given back to God
and used at God’s discretion.
All we need is the grace to love God above all.
Faith is a gift from God too
since it gives us new eyes –
so you see through God’s eyes.
Faith is self-fulfilling prophecy –
it creates the good world it sees.
Whether we can see Jesus or Buddha or not
depends on our awareness –
a man rushed to see Buddha
and ignored a woman in dire need.
When he got to the monastery
he was incapable of seeing the Buddha
who was in the woman he passed by –
the Good Samaritan knows that
as you do unto the least you do unto God.
Hindus can call on Jesus with faith and devotion –
Mahatma Gandhi wept when he saw the Pieta –
the sculpture of Mary holding her dead son –
and in his tiny room in New Delhi
he had only one picture: Jesus
the Universal Christ who is everywhere.
God unconditionally loves everyone:
after the Resurrection Christ’s love
did not become exclusive or conditional –
he gave his Shalom peace and his breath
to his disciples who had betrayed him.
The community of faith, the Beloved Community
is a community of sinners –
good and evil run through all hearts.
We must acknowledge our sin
since the more we think we are righteous
the less we see our shadow
and the more we project our shadow onto others
causing untold suffering.
Rather than asking “How can I find happiness?”
we could ask “How can I sit with suffering,
yours and mine, and not try to make it go away?
How can I let the pain/loss/dishonor open me up?”
Once you have opened up and experienced
nondual reality, you can return to dualistic reasoning
but in a freer way as you realize
there are greater truths than reason:
“Oh God, I am so glad you revealed your plan
not to the learned and wise
but to the simple and childlike.”
– Jesus (Matthew 11:25).
Intelligent Christian Spirituality 