Category: Uncategorized

HUMAN PURPOSE LOST AND FOUND

The new cosmology resonates with Christian faith –

God cannot be reduced to the creation event –

something must have come before Creation – 

God is not reducible to the universe –

even though people pray to the universe

or ask the universe to do things for them

“the universe” is a code name for “God”

but people are afraid to admit God into their life

because it is not cool these days to be religious –

God is not the universe nor separate from it

but God’s Presence is in and flows thru ongoing creation

modern atheism did not arise with science

but atheism got a kickstart with Copernicus’ heliocentrism –

humans kicked out of the center of the universe

to the periphery of a vast impersonal cosmos 

humans irrelevant to the cosmic story –

humans no longer the perfection of the universe

but an accidental side show

gave birth to existentialism – we have no god-ordained purpose –

we create our own purpose by what we do

Gandhi retrieved and the West lost a religious view of reality –

a view of the importance of being and truth

the West reduced the human purpose to practical efficiency –

concerned with means not ends –

no longer aware of the intrinsic God-given value 

of being human – we only focus on what humans 

can do for other humans – particularly the rich 

our only purpose: producing and consuming things

only religion kept a notion of our intrinsic value –

the Church’s mission to discover honest-to-goodness truth

through open dialogue between humans

requires reverence and respect for lawful diversity

“The Church’s purpose is to keep unity in essentials

freedom in non-essentials, and charity in all things”

– Pope John XXIII

but the Church cannot brag about any of this –

it is the work of the Holy Spirit

to call forth many religious – hermits/monks/nuns

who have consecrated their lives to prayer –

praising God and interceding for God’s People –

this has gone on since the Desert Mothers/Fathers

and is the living source of the spiritual life of the Church.

“ENLIGHTENMENT”

The new cosmology does not contradict Christian faith

but resonates with it –

God is neither reduced to the creation event

nor to the universe

nor is separate from the universe

but God’s Presence is in and flows through ongoing creation –

God is in the world but not entirely of it –

everything is made of the same stuff as God – divinity

but is not the fullness of Divinity

 

God flows thru the universe

and thru the progressive stages of human ethics:

ego-centric care (for me)/ethno-centric care (for my group)/

world-centric care (for all humans)/universe-centric (care for all beings) –

each stage has a higher compassion

so not all hierarchies are bad

 

the more mature religious mind has developed

an alternative/wider way of seeing –

Buddhism/Hinduism/the Gospel of John

call it “enlightenment” –

“you are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14) –

the light of Christ shines thru all who belong to him

and is meant to shine into every dark corner of the world –

Christians call enlightenment “conversion”

Jesus calls it “salvation” or “the kingdom of God”

which is not a place or only exists in the afterlife

but is a new way of seeing and thinking

here and now

 

“In the early church ‘believe’

meant to ‘belove’ something –

to give your heart/soul/trust to it –

but now society has become so ‘enlightened’

that to ‘believe’ something means

‘to hold an opinion about it’

so formerly ‘to believe in God’ meant

you gave your whole self/heart/soul to God

now, ‘to believe in God’ is to be of the opinion

that God may exist”

– Wilfred Cantwell Smith

 

 

 

COMPASSION – SOURCE OF SCIENCE

According to Meister Eckhart

the 13th century Rhineland mystic

Compassion is the Original Source of the universe/

the Earth/and our own individual life –

God made us because God wanted 

to share God’s Love

Love is the Source of Godhood – 

God made us because God loved us

even before we were born –

“God chose us in Christ 

before the foundation of the world”

(Ephesians 1:4)

Compassion is salvific because it unites us 

with our Origin

coming home to Compassion 

is coming home to our True Self

when we are confronted with a new paradigm

it shakes up our world

so we resist it out of fear

but the universe/science/religion 

come from the same Source –

from God’s Love –

if there was no Love there would be no universe

and if there was no universe

there would be no science 

and no religion

through rooting them in the Divine Source

we could reconcile science and religion

develop a “theology of science” 

and live lives of radical amazement

also if everyone engaged in “narrative theology”

that is, narrated their own faith story to others

and if the poor were allowed 

to tell their faith stories

it would create solidarity among all people

release new power to fight injustice –

the Vulture of Injustice would fly off –

and we could all live in amazement and peace.

DEMYTHOLOGIZING: KILLING GOD SOFTLY

“Matter is just a minor pollutant in a universe

made of light” – Ilya Prigogine

 

“For the rest of my life, I want to reflect

on what light is” – Albert Einstein

 

but artists/philosophers/scientists say

their best ideas emerged spontaneously

out of their unconscious

out of archetypes

residing deeply in the collective unconscious

in the dark –

it is the dark which paradoxically gives light

 

the drug-user/druggie/droog

swims in the same water

as the mystic –

the water of universal archetypes –

of mythology –

arch-types are the same all over the world

in their essential form

though interpreted differently

in different cultures

 

biblical scholars kowtowing to our scientific age

tried to demythologize the Holy Bible

and get to the facts

but anthropologists hrecognize

beginning and ending stories in all cultures

that is, myths

and myths are far more important to a culture

and convey far deeper truths

than mere facts –

facts are superficial –

deeper universal truth can only be found

thru myths

 

demythologizing kills God and religion

because myths are more important –

meaning is more important

to peoples’ hearts –

than science

and facts.

FLOWING WITH THE DIVINE

The cure for fear is to keep your eyes on God:

when Peter looked at Jesus

and trusted

he walked on water

when he looked at the storm/wind/waves

he feared

and sank

 

with the help of Spirit and prayer

we can face reality

and the symbolic crosses of life

squarely

 

the difference between a shaman and a schizophrenic:

the shaman on his/her visionary journey

meets symbols that match reality

their inner and outer worlds jive –

with the schizophrenic there is a break

between the inner world and outer world

they struggle

with wild/psychic/symbolic forces

that do not match reality

 

people who try to control everything

set up resistance:

one foot on the gas

one foot on the brake

like those who burn out

do not overwork, their heart is divided

going forward and resisting going forward

at the same time

 

much easier to keep your eyes on God

surrender control

and go with Divine Flow –

you can achieve much more

without tiring or sinking

 

worry about money creates resistance to Spirit –

let go of money

don’t resist the River –

let God’s Spirit Current

carry you away!

 

BUDDHA’S DILEMMA

Science has discovered that chaos is everywhere

and has a necessary role in universal life –

chaos creates creativity –

and the consequent struggle to survive

results in unexpected benefits

when you ask “Why is my life not working?”

and discover your shadow beneath the “persona” –

the mask you and everyone wears – the “smiley face”

you can discover your True Self beneath the mask

 

the pharisaic equation: holiness = perfection

results in denial of the shadow

so the shadow functions autonomously

and, having a mind of its own

comes out sideways and causes scandals

when those attempting to be righteous

least expect it – they find themselves

with their pants down

in the glaring light of publicity

which exposes their shame

for all to see

 

Descartes was a philosopher

who never faced his shadow –

he lived totally in his head –

nothing is more alien to shadow-work

than Descartes’ famous dictum –

the foundation of western philosophy –

“cogito ergo sum” – “I think therefore I am” –

the statement of an alienated being

so divorced from his True Self

that he must seek proof of his own existence

in the fact that he thinks

 

Buddha long ago went a step further –

feeling the idea of “atman” (self) –

the foundation of Vedic beliefs –

was responsible for the corruption of Vedic priests

and the underlying caste system

which caused untold suffering of millions –

so Buddha taught “anatman” (no self) –

there is no separate/individual/independent self –

and so Buddhists started worshipping “emptiness”

until Buddha found that was worse than worshipping atman.

 

YOUTH BASE COMMUNITIES

Christianity is moving from being a religion

of belief about God

to being an experience of God

whereas fundamentalism is a reaction against this –

trying to shore up belief about God

which is eroding – as the pounding of ocean waves

causes more and more cliffs along the shoreline

to collapse

 

as Christianity spreads in waves thru Asia

rooted in scripture and Xian tradition

it will include the mysticism of Ramakrishna/

Aurobindo/Ramana Marshi/Lao Tzu/Chuang Tzu/

Vedanta/Upanishads/Bhagavad Gita/I Ching

which will enrich and renew Xianity

far beyond what Plato and Greek philosophy did

 

however, because of rapid change in every society

Buddhist and Christian leaders lag behind

Buddhist and Xian youth

and no longer speak their language –

as at the Tower of Babylon

people are scattering in confusion

and youth have nothing good/true/beautiful

to ground their beliefs in

and abandon their parents’ Churches and Sanghas

 

but youth are more awake/more woke

than previous generations –

more interested in serving the poor

than in attending musty/dusty church rituals

but they need to wake up even more

to the Eucharist of Service as Mother Teresa said:

“In holy communion we have Christ

in the form of bread and wine

and in our work we find him

in the flesh and blood of the poor –

it is the same Christ”

 

youth also need to re-discover/re-invent “theology of liberation”

which first dawned like a Rising Son

at the 1968 Conference of Latin American Bishops

youth need to form “base communities” –

small bands like that of the Twelve Apostles –

mystic/activists who revolutionize the world.

THE EVOLUTION OF BROTHER LAWRENCE

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

decided at eighteen years old

to make God’s love the goal

of all his actions

but he suffered for ten years

due to his preoccupation/anxiety over his sins

despite God showering him

with graces

 

if he was seeking God with his whole/undivided heart

he would have found God

and God’s Love

in all things:

positive and seemingly negative –

in warm sun

and in winter days

when he was healthy

and when he was cold and sick

in bread he ate

and in being hungry

in the song of birds

and in the noise of cities

in his virtue

and in his sin –

“For God hath made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us

that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”

(2 Corinthians 5:21)

 

Brother Lawrence eventually learned

that it is acceptable in God’s sight

to be imperfect

and that we are all subject to

a Higher Law

hidden in every human heart:

that life is all about growth

and we can all evolve

out of chaos and darkness and sin

into Order and Light and Love.

 

THE TRUTH ABOUT HUMANS

To be responsible human beings

we need to make responsible choices

and to do that we need to seek and face the truth

and reality is the first principle of truth

and to be fully human is to be fully connected to reality

particularly our humanness/vulnerability –

we need to ask “what is real here- what is really going on?”

“what am I capable/not capable of?”

and “what are the dangers?”

to be real as a human being 

means to abandon the loneliness 

of being caught 

in illusions/dreams/ideologies

frightened of reality

part of our human reality

is the tendency to be distracted 

from the truth 

in the first mansion of Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle

it is dark and dangerous 

because those who inhabit it dwell

in the first stage of the spiritual journey

and are still so preoccupied 

with worldly riches and pleasures

they are distracted 

from moving into the second mansion – 

the only way out of the first mansion

is to beseech Mary 

and all the saints

to rescue you 

thru the power 

of prayer/meditation/contemplation

so you discover the truth 

that our vulnerability

is grounded

in the reality of God.

 

 

SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY

Art/morals/religion could not stand up to the steam engine

of science

only God could –

but God and spirituality had been repressed

and so the differentiation of art/morals/religion/ (1600-1800)

was followed by their dissociation (1800-1900)

and western intellectuals knew this would be a cultural catastrophe

but could not fix it

 

now, secular media sees only two types of religious people:

fundamentalist nutcases

who believe in myth

and New Age nutcases

who believe in magic

but both are “pre-rational”

and any “trans-rational” people

who have seen the limits of reason

and include reason while transcending it

are lumped in with the nutcases

 

the challenge of institutional religion

is to lead everyone to the supreme wisdom

of being one in God

this is the task of everyone in the church/synagogue/mosque

not just the priest/rabbi/imam

 

in any case, spiritual authority now resides

less in religious organizations/ordained clergy/traditional creeds

than in direct experience and friendship with God –

the source of all religious organizations in the first place

 

answers and authority come now from the Voice of God/

from voices of others (if we form a spiritual community)/

from our own voice

 

the current appeal of Meister Eckhart –

the truly mystical element in his writing –

is that he helps people cut thru

the distractions of life

so they can find

their essential grounding in God.