Tag: holiness

GOD LOVES YOUR SHADOW

Trying to find absolute rights and wrongs is a trick

we play on ourselves to feel secure and comfortable

but it is far more daring to keep your heart open

and not make anyone the ‘enemy’

not even your shadow.

 

Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle says the soul

is a mansion of many rooms, but there is a room

in which we should always dwell – self-knowledge –

coming to consciousness of the dark side

of one’s personality is, according to Fr. Thomas Keating

the ‘sine qua non’ – the ‘essential condition’ for

psychological/spiritual growth/humility/wholeness/holiness.

 

Our shadow only becomes hostile

when ignored or misunderstood –

like any human being you have to get along with –

often you have to give in/resist/show love.

 

Holy men and women have unconsciously written whole books

claiming it was all dictated to them by Jesus/Mary/the Holy Spirit

but John of the Cross would be sceptical about this

and Fatima/Medjugorje/end-of-the-world predictions.

 

Kick at the darkness/the shadow not out of illusion

not out of triumphalism, but out of grace –

kick at the darkness because it is ubiquitous

but it is not sovereign – it will not have the final word.

 

God’s way of being just is to show mercy/unconditional love

to those who were loved conditionally

and therefore repressed the ‘unacceptable’ parts of themselves

and so developed a shadow.

God loves all of us, even our shadows

and this formed the basis for Karl Barth’s belief

that we can at least hope for

the salvation of all souls.

 

God is patient with us

not wanting anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9).

 

 

 

THE STRAWBERRY OF GOD’S EYE

A Fourth Awakening of Christianity may be coming –

postmodern Christianity started in the 1960s and is more

pluralistic/egalitarian/experimental/environmental.

Harvey Cox, a Harvard sociologist/theologian thought

a 1500 year “Age of Belief” was ending

and an “Age of Spirituality” was beginning.

Some think the 300-year-old “Enlightenment” has fizzled:

people no longer trust science for all the answers.

Phyllis Tickle described an ongoing “Christian rummage sale:”

every 500 years or so everything changes –

500 AD Christianity became the Holy Roman Empire

1000 AD the Western and Eastern Churches split

1500 AD the Protestant Reformation

20th Century: the Second Vatican Council.

 

“In the monomyth of the Hero’s Journey

the normal rites of passage are magnified: you separate

from ordinary life and enter a world of supernatural wonders/

overcome fabulous challenges/return with boons

for all mankind.” – Joseph Campbell

 

After the first millennium, the “wandering ascetic”

was abolished – monks were ordered to “leave the world”

and live in monasteries. However, now we see

that ordinary, everyday life abounds with fabulous challenges:

opportunities to practice holiness/honesty/commitment/

trust/compassion/patience/forgiveness – we used to think

holiness consists of heroic deeds somewhere else

but it is all right here/right now.

 

Canadian folk music legend Bruce Cockburn:

“If you don’t see beyond normal sight

you can get trapped forever in the fraying-rope/

uneasy/anxious treadmill our culture is on.

You never see that the whole world is full

of the Spirit’s light/life/love.”

 

It is true that in the cosmic scale you are nothing

but “Do you not know that your name

is written in heaven?” (Luke 10:20) –

to God you are everything – the apple

of God’s eye – the strawberry of God’s “I.”

 

 

 

THE DRAGON, HUMAN NATURE, AND NEW HOPE

The dragon – a mythological creature of chaos and destruction 

swirls all around us – but the Lord of All Creation is there too

dancing in the dragon’s jaws.

We want to rise above cruel nature – jaw-red/claw-red –

to find a Universal Compassion we name ‘God’

but Ego restrains both our lower and higher nature –

the Id and Superego Sigmund Freud tried to integrate.

.

Integrating soul and body, John Macquarrie,

a Scottish philosopher/Anglican theologian/priest

developed an anthropology of finite freedom:

we are free but not totally free –

therefore, humans are a perpetual problem to themselves –

our finitude: circumstances/genetic makeup/

socioeconomic status/past decisions/sinful tendencies

restrain our grandiose visions.

 

New hope about human nature came from

the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965)

when it declared a universal call to holiness –

a holiness no longer out of reach of ordinary humans –

all are called to be holy – even the simplest peasant

can be as holy as great saints like Anthony of Egypt.

 

More hope came from the renewal of ancient pilgrimages

like the Camino de Santiago – average citizens making

the hero-saint’s journey of separation/initiation/return:

on the Camino across northern Spain

you follow the Way of St. James – the Camino de San Tiago –

you are separated from your ordinary life

supernatural forces are at play and recounted

around campfires lit by pilgrims/peregrinos

and a decisive victory is won if, after 800 kilometres, you reach

the Cathedral of Santiago with its swinging botafumero

a giant censor fuming incense swung to the rafters by six men.

Then you return to your former life

with boons – new life insights – to offer others.

 

The greatest hope always comes from our Ever-Forgiving God:

“These people do not trust me even though

I want nothing but their sanctification – their holiness –

and I bear with them in great patience

because I loved them without them ever loving me.”

– God speaking to Catherine of Sienna

THE LIGHT WITHIN

The goal of Confucian philosophy and ethics

is to find the hidden reality of heaven

in the center of your being

and from that center to engage in right action.

Otherwise, you spend your life in

frustration, confusion, and self-seeking.

Confucius held the Universal Christ on tap.

The new mythology is the ancient mythology

but in a subjective sense –

the glorious past or future is no longer

‘out there’ but ‘in here’

in each individual as a center of

‘The Mind at Large Without Limits.’

Centuries ago, atheism emerged as a protest

against the evil in the world. But to combat darkness

they deified human values of reason and science –

they made Reason and Science their Lord and Master.

Subsequently, rationality destroyed our ability

to respond to numinous symbols so that

we are now at the mercy of the psychic underworld –

deep subconscious urges – lust, greed, and hate –

evil spirits – that only religion can contain.

As our spiritual and moral traditions collapse

there is world-wide disorientation –

we have overcome ‘superstition’

but now have no guiding lights.

To the extent you think you can attain to holiness

by your own strength or wisdom

to that extent you have lost the humility of holiness.

Atheists who think they can save themselves –

build the Garden of Eden without God –

are lost before they begin.

In spite of all the world-darkness

the Second Vatican Council approached

human nature positively as made in the image of God

and human dignity as founded on our call

to communion with God within us.

As Ken Wilber notes: often unbelievers and critics of religion

equate the pre-rational and trans-rational believer.

The pre-rational have not yet discovered the power of reason,

the transrational have seen the limits of reason and transcended it.

Pre-rational is immature, spiritual ‘milk’

that makes you oppositional, defensive

and unable to respect and include

those outside your circle.

Only your emotions have been converted.

“Through conversion/transformation

of your intellect, will and emotions

(wisdom, obedience to God, and love)

you become a fully alive and authentic human being.”

– Bernard Lonergan

The fully converted use reason and science

but only as two tools in their toolbox –

they also employ the parables of Jesus as koan-bombs:

subversive memes that blow apart the everyday

rational worldview.

In the Cloud of Unknowing

you feel and know nothing for certain

except your naked intent to love God for God alone

in the nakedness of God’s Being.

When you get soul-naked with God

true love-making happens.

Afterwards, in the afterglow

“The Holy Spirit rests in the soul of the just

like a dove in her nest.

The Spirit hatches good desires in a pure soul

as the dove hatches her young.”

– Jean Vianney

As Jesus said: “I thank you Lord

that you have hidden your truth

from intellectuals, the wise rationalists of the world

and have revealed it to the simple.”

“I don’t say anything when I pray.

I just sit and look at God

and let God look at me.”

– An old peasant

DOGMA-KOANS

Catherine of Siena pondered 

two most important 

human states: being and non-being

and thought: God reveals God 

by revealing humans to humans

no one understood that

but she died at 33

Doctor of Church.

In Christ reside

all treasures and wisdom,

primary model of universe’s design

God’s plan: evolutionary unfolding of Cosmic Christ

Divine Love, the heart

of evolutionary universe

constantly giving birth.

Every human relationship a birth, a search

for love, love of self and God

the summum bonum, greatest good

Love the focal energy

giving meaning to all.

With Jesus Law is written 

on hearts not stone tablets 

outer authority: scripture and tradition 

balanced with Inner Authority: True Self.

Each stage: egocentric-ethnocentric-worldcentric 

involving greater care and compassion

hierarchy of love not power.

A Buddhist hierarchy: 

In first watch of night 

Buddha experienced previous incarnations

In second watch 

Buddha received divine eye of omniscient vision

In third watch 

Buddha understood Chain of Causation

At dawn 

Buddha reached perfect enlightenment.

Macquarrie versus Rahner: 

Buddha no “anonymous Christian”

Buddha teaches Christians

everything holy: 

frogs, poison ivy, enemies

so only one God, one truth 

one human and natural community.

Becoming a child

really hearing bird sing 

really seeing blue sky

makes real touch of Holy Spirit.

Splitting things 

spiritual/secular

led Church to “contemptus mundi”

world-contempt.

Church sinned against Truth 

when suppressed 

science as secular

science is search 

for God’s Truth.

Polarity-thinking misses much 

prayer-thinking takes in: 

ownership of my failings 

compassion for others’ failings.

Enneagram Five’s 

greatest gift and sin:

detachment

essence of Buddhism.

Relativists assume 

one interpretation of life 

good as any other.

If true

dogmas become dazzling mysteries

koans 

for pondering 

over and over.

Bruce Tallman

May 20, 2021