human nature – Intelligent Christian Spirituality

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.

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 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

SELF-KNOWLEDGE

Life’s central task

is consciously knowing

what we already unconsciously know

who we already are:

our True Self.

We already have

everything we need

our only need

is self-discovery

not self-improvement.

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