Category: sexuality

The Cosmic Christ: Love as the Universe’s Creative Force

“Passion is the true stuff of the universe –

erotic attraction is the primary creative force in the universe –

the universe itself is erotic” – Teilhard de Chardin

the reason for the Incarnation was love not sin –

the primacy of Christ comes before the primacy of sin –

“All things have been created through and for the Cosmic Christ –

he is before all things and in him all things hold together” – Col. 1:16-17

– particularly in Eastern Orthodoxy

many theologians disagree with Anselm’s notion 

that sin is the primary reason for the Incarnation

“Jesus, the Cosmic Christ incarnate

is our only source of information about divinity –

if anyone wants to know what God is like

or what God might do, they can look at Jesus 

this is what it means to accept Jesus as our God” – Albert Nolan

love and wisdom are gifts of the Spirit of God –

the love of God is poured into us by the Holy Spirit

and love leads to wisdom

which transcends reason –

“The heart has reasons of its own” – Blaise Pascal

the spiritual journey means moving

from unconscious to conscious loving –

the Christian ‘Way’ (Tao) as Christ showed us

is loving others in our daily lives

and to the degree that we love

God makes us whole/healed/holy

Rumi said “Make friends with your emotions”

this simply means give negative emotions 

your whole-hearted attention

rather than being ignorant of them

denying or struggling against them 

feeling guilty or ashamed of them

which gives them power –

once you give them your full attention

you discover their insubstantial nature

and dissolve their power over you –

you are free to fully love the Whole Creation.

REVOLUTIONARY WORLDVIEWS

Copernicus (1473-1543) upset two worldviews:

the Earth was not fixed in place but rotated

and the Sun was the center of the cosmos not Earth

Duns Scotus, Franciscan theologian, upset another two:

“Our predestination to glory precedes by nature

our tendency to sin” – we are original blessings

not original sinners – and “The goal of perfect love

is the perfection of love, therefore Christ 

would have come to Earth even if there was no sin

and therefore no need of redemption” 

Meister Eckhart upset a fifth worldview:

God is not “out there,” but rather

“The soul is the deepest/truest part of being human

and the place where we are united with God

who creates us in every moment”

the spiritual and physical are united –

the Father/Son/Holy Spirit are in our heads/hearts/guts

Jacques Ellul’s theology upset both the capitalist and Marxist

world-views: “Christian social action must put the emphasis

on individual humans not the collective masses

nor on the technological means of production –

a human being is not a cog in mass machinery

nor a tool to be used by the professional politician”

another upset of the modern worldview: sex is healthy not “dirty” 

“Evolution continues through humans only to the extent

that we are conscious of the integral wholeness of love

which includes healthy sexuality. In other words

healthy sexuality is a key to evolution’s progress”

– Teilhard de Chardin

but there is a major problem with males and females:

we can see our shadow and the shadow of others

much more easily in our own sex than in the opposite sex

we overlook the shadow of the opposite sex

which means that men see their own shadow

in other men, fight them, and create wars

and women are jealous of other women

overlook the flaws of men

and make seriously bad choices 

in whom they fall in love with and marry.

EROS RISING

Creation and Incarnation must go together

if we are going to have an Infinite God

who can communicate in a Finite Way

so God took on a human body

with all its bodily desires

including sexual desires –

all this is part of the humanness of Jesus

so sex is not just “continuation of the species”

it is the “energy of love” by which the whole universe

is becoming more personalized/spiritualized/conscious

sexuality and its erotic creativity

long seen as a source of sin

emerges now as a key dimension

of authentic spirituality.

THE ZEN OF SEXUALITY

One of the major obstacles to Enlightenment

is resentment about who/what/where you are

therefore it is crucial to be a friend to yourself

 

the delusions underlying both

the life-wish (kama/pleasure/desire)

and the death wish (mara/hostility/destruction)

can be dispelled by psychological analysis

 

thru the passion for union/Oneness an isolated individual

emerges more personalized than before –

because the way God created sexuality is that

healthy sex is integral

to a personalizing universe –

but evil tries to pervert this –

good is always foundational (and sex is very good)

but evil is always secondary/always a perversion

of what was originally good

into adultery/pornography/trafficking

 

accountability is a universal theme in feminist theology –

feminist theologians want us accountable

to communities of the oppressed

particularly half the human race – women whose bodies

are used as objects of self-gratification by men –

feminist theology promotes anti-imperial/post-colonial/

anti-conquest of women’s bodies

and action on this not just speculation

 

when asked where the One comes from

the Zen master Joshu said

“I made a beautiful robe out of hemp”

this seemingly nonsensical Zen answer

was a warning to westerners

to stop trying to understand Zen

as “neo-platonic monism”/“pantheism”/whatever –

although Zen masters believe all things are One

Zen is unclassifiable because the Zen master’s concern

is action in the world not speculation

 

Zen believes we can only be sexually fulfilled thru dual-action:

  1. courage – we do not deny our wheat/goodness
  2. humility – we do not deny our weeds/evil

otherwise, we will be A. dis-couraged B. blind.

 

THE REFUGE OF DIVINE LOVE

In Eastern Christianity they dwell on the cosmic significance of Christ

but in the West we focused too much on his saving work –

Augustine and Anselm claimed that Jesus came

only because we were ill – no illness, no Jesus

but contemporary theology believes Jesus came

to show us how to live/our true self – divine love –

repeat after me – “I am divine love”

 

the tremendous energy of love by which the universe

converges on itself passes through human sexuality –

the Christ comes to us through sex –

that is why Jesus performed his first miracle

at the wedding at Cana – Jesus saying symbolically:

“Before marriage/union/sex your life was water

now it is wine!”

 

but our sexuality is often dysfunctional

our wisdom is forever mixed up

with our craziness/neurosis/delusion/confusion

we need to wake up and accept this more and more –

this is better than constantly trying to change/perfect ourselves

peace lies in humble acceptance of our brokenness

and our need of God to put us back together

 

“The deadliest sin is to swim on the surface

for grace is found in the depths and death –

in falling/failing/not being in control/going down/not up”

– Richard Rohr in Falling Upward

 

too much security or insecurity leads to death

we need a healthy balance so we don’t become

either stagnant or overwhelmed by change

so we are not killed by the “future shock” –

the culture of constant change we live in

 

a prayer in Buddhism that is as common

as the “Our Father” in Christianity:

“I take refuge in the Buddha

I take refuge in the Dharma (the teaching)

I take refuge in the Sangha (the community)”

translated into Christianese:

“I take refuge in the Christ

I take refuge in the Beatitudes

I take refuge in the Church.”

BELOVING OUR MOTHER – EARTH

The transition from “faith-as-experience” to “belief as opinion”

came from poor New Testament translations of the Greek:

in Greek “to believe” is a verb meaning “to trust” or “to belove”

in English it is a noun “My belief is that….”

 

Belief as “beloving” involves sexuality

and this involves the Third Buddhist Ethical Precept:

“Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct

I vow to protect individuals/couples/families/society

by not engaging in sexual relations without love

and a long-term commitment”

 

in order to be more beloving, Brother Teasdale renounced sex

and adopted the lifestyle of a Hindu sannyasin (renunciate)

but one engaged in the world –

his book A Monk in the World

explains how he became a “Warrior-Monk”

which is what the world needs right now:

Prophet-Mystics in our midst right here/right now

 

we cannot hope to have a revival

of meaningful sacramental fundamentals

without a re-education about the necessity

in everyone’s life of the importance of myth/symbol/ritual

that crystallizes our purpose on planet Earth

 

the first Earth-rise above a lunar landscape

broke all the old mythology to pieces as we realized:

Earth and heaven are no longer separate:

Earth is floating in the heavens

Earth is a heavenly body

Earth is no longer the center of the universe –

cosmological centers are now everywhere!

 

Therefore, we can surrender

all our anxieties and ambitions

to the God who is everywhere –

God is no longer “Our Father who art in heaven”

but right here/right now

and therefore will provide what we need

right here/right now

to be happy and holy and loving

of this pale blue dot

this goddess, “Our Mother Earth.”

 

QUESTIONING PATRIARCHY

We are made from and for love

the intensity of divine love never varies

God loved us equally: before God made us/

as God loves us now/as God will love us in the life to come

 

healthy parents do not want their children

just to think rightly about Mommy and Daddy

they want a personal relationship with them

and for their children to thrive

 

similarly, God did not create us

just to think rightly about God (doctrine)

God created us to have a personal relationship with us

and wants us to be fully alive –

“The glory of God is man and woman fully alive”

– St Irenaeus

“I have come so they might have life

and have it abundantly” – Jesus

 

in How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian

John Dominic Crossan wrote “Accept the nonviolent Jesus

as the true image of the nonviolent God

and reject the subversion of Jesus and God

into violence”

 

similarly, gender subversion needs to be rejected

where “woman” in both religion and civilization

was associated with “matter” and “nature”

and “man” with “spirit” and “culture”-

this gender division was an ordering/organizing principle

which created hierarchical structures and relationships

 

but God’s Work like God’s Wisdom

turns the world upside down

our challenge is to join God’s Work

by challenging the status quo/

being as revolutionary/prophetic as Jesus

 

faced with the silence of God/

the silence of his own soul/

and the silence of the souls entrusted to him (novices)

Thomas Merton realized eighty years ago

the most practical thing would be to stop asking questions

but today he would encourage us to ask questions

about sexuality/gender/patriarchy.

FAITH FROM THE GROUND UP

The ascetics looked to the martyrs

for inspiration and models:

asceticism – renouncing all worldly attachments –

was thought of as slow martyrdom –

slow movement towards non-being.

 

Anxiety is fear, not of the unknown in general

but a specific type of fear – the fear of non-being.

 

But there is no need to fear non-being –

each new development in evolution

transcends and includes its predecessor

it enfolds as it unfolds

so that evolution is integral from atoms to cells

to organisms/plants/animals/humans.

We are dust and to dust we shall return

but dust eventually becomes conscious living beings.

 

Teilhard de Chardin, the great Christian paleontologist

believed any explanation of the world

whether biological/philosophical/religious

would be condemned by the modern mind

if it did not include an essential place for sexuality.

 

Meanwhile, feminists have revolutionized our thinking

on the body/sexuality to the point that

some see feminism as a threat to Christian faith

but others see it as constantly challenging

sexist/patriarchal attitudes

that undermine faith in Jesus the Liberator.

 

There have even been anti-patriarchal popes –

John XXIII was ironically Patriarch of Venice

before he became pope

and then as pope took public transportation

so he could mingle with ordinary men and women

and Pope Francis similarly likes to dine

with Vatican cafeteria staff –

he is no martyr or ascetic

but loves good coffee and a soccer game –

coffee grounds and soccer grounds keep him grounded

in the Ground of Being

and therefore Francis is non-anxious about non-being.

 

UNITING EASTERN AND WESTERN RELIGION

The truly mature attitude is to stop fighting/

trying to eliminate your own shadow

and learning to accept and work with your shadow-energies –

all saints know they are sinners

and all sinners think they are saints

with no shadow.

 

All world religions including Catholicism and Protestantism

strive for greater spiritual freedom

but the opposite, for example

the Third Buddhist Precept on Sexuality: self-restraint –

what western religions call “chastity” –

is also meant to free individuals and society –

so many children/adults/couples

have been destroyed by sexual misconduct

and enslaved by sexual trafficking.

 

Many of the same teachings but using different words

are found in all the great religions:

chastity = sexual restraint

karma = sowing and reaping

but the challenge for western pioneers in eastern mysticism

Thomas Merton/Bede Griffiths/Raimundo Panikkar

was uniting Asian meditation

with a deep commitment to Jesus/Scripture/Tradition.

 

These pioneers who led us into the future

accomplished this union by reaching into the past

rediscovering the Desert Fathers/Mothers

and apophatic mystics like Meister Eckhart/Johannes Tauler/

Teresa of Avila/John of the Cross.

 

All these mystics, those in the West

and mystics in the East: Gandhi/Aurobindo/Rabindranath Tagore

knew that solitude and service are reciprocal:

true prayer results in service

and true service must be grounded in prayer/solitude.

 

In both East and West, small base communities

focused on spirituality and political activism

hold great promise for individual/social transformation –

all it took was the smallest base community –

twelve men and their Leader

to transform history and the entire world.

THE EROTIC UNIVERSE

In early Christianity, theology and prayer

were never divorced. Evagrius of Pontus (345-399 CE):

“The theologian is the one who prays

and the one who prays is a theologian.”

 

Later on, Thomas à Kempis wrote in The Imitation of Christ

“If you look at Creation, the Creator

withdraws his gaze from you.”

So, Christians have had an anti-Creation/

anti-body/anti-sexuality spirituality

which is ironically contrary to the Creation-centered

spirituality of the Bible.

 

But the theory of evolution changed all that –

evolution does not degrade humans

it shows us we are an integral part

of a vast web of earthly relationships.

But science only tells us ‘how’ we got here –

we need religion to tell us ‘why’ we are here – our purpose.

 

The idea of Christian cosmology

is in the Greek Fathers of the Church

particularly Irenaeus, who wrote that, in Christ,

the universe finds its meaning and goal.

 

The Uni-Verse, the One Verse, the One Poem

is thoroughly relational/communal/erotic –

wanting union even at the molecular level –

‘gravity’ is ‘mutual attraction between bodies’ – ‘eroticism’ –

its all part of the love that makes the Universe go round –

to ‘be’ is to ‘be with’ – the ‘we’ always precedes the ‘I’

just as the sexual union of a man and woman precedes children –

no one can say “I did it all on my own”

or “I did it my way – alone.”

 

Mantras are not words that mediate rational meaning –

they are vehicles that carry the spirit to one’s depths

and give us solitude to make us ‘uselessly present’ to God

which connects us to love in our depths

which connects us to others –

solitude is thus the erotic foundation

upon which community is built –

the purpose of life is the same as the purpose

of the Universe – to make love.