Tag: humans

FREEDOM FROM SELF

Humans are the apex of the created world

are open to the Infinite

seeking fulfillment in God

and this openness and seeking of God

constitutes the very nature/structure/meaning

of what it is to be human

spiritual transformation has two movements:

self-appropriation – owning who you are

and what is going on inside you

and self-transcendence – becoming God-centered

not ego-centered

intellectuals and sceptics never think

to check out the Source of their intellect

in their pride they reject God and religion 

they never slay the dragon 

of their ego

our one desire should be to seek God’s will for us

not pleasure or wealth or fame 

or even virtue or wisdom

liberation theology is about not just 

struggling for others

which suggests paternalism

it is also about self-liberation:

realizing you are not completely fulfilled

without others

and you are living in a society 

that alienates you from others

and therefore from your true self 

which always needs others 

for fulfillment

prayer is the best way 

to step out of self-centered living

into the big picture: God 

and a vision of peace and love 

for all

prayer is

“Enlightenment:” freedom from self.

THE NON-VIOLENCE OF GOD

God gave matter existence/plants life/animals sensation/

humans all these degrees of being plus self-consciousness

“Humans are the source/center/purpose of all

social and economic life” – Gaudium Et Spes (a Vatican II document) –

therefore it is not surprising the social justice teaching of popes

for the past 125 years have focused on human dignity

communion/community/commission – this trinity sums up

an integrated human life that Henri Nouwen based on Luke 6

where Jesus prays all night (communion with God)

then chooses his apostles (community)

then sends them out to preach the Good News (commission)

modern secular irreligion/political pseudo-religion/

and the mysticism of totalitarianism

deprive humans of their own freedom

which is necessary for authentic religion –

thus they make humans morally sick in their depths/

change their love into hatred/

change humanity into a mechanized beast

bent on self-destruction

but Jesus grounded human non-violence

in God’s non-violence – but then the Apostle Paul

grounded human non-violence in God’s violence:

“Never avenge yourself but leave room for the wrath of God”

(Romans 12) – subversion of texts happens throughout the Bible –

the good principle is stated and then unfortunately subverted –

but it is unusual for Paul to subvert the teachings of Christ –

and since Paul believed God is violent

this unfortunately was used against Paul

to justify human violence and war

unfortunately, we always find ways to be violent

and exclude others – both liberals and conservatives

have their false superiority judgments –

liberals make “suspicion judgments” and therefore dismiss

hierarchies/authority/those at the ladder’s top

and conservatives make “worthiness judgments”

and dismiss those on the cesspool’s bottom

but fortunately the Prince of Peace is merciful/kind to all/

and above all our ignorant and petty judgments.

 

3 Big Ideas for May 1, 2019

  1. The modern worldview is that because our universe is so old and so vast, humans are totally insignificant. A more helpful and meaningful approach is that because of our intelligence and creativity, which it took the universe so long to produce – 13.7 billion years – we can say again, as people did before astrophysics, that humans are not only significant but central to the entire universe.
  2. Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian physicist and priest, first postulated that, as in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, there must have been a beginning to the universe. Then George Isamow, an American-Russian physicist, postulated the Big Bang Theory, the current view among scientists. Since scientists have proven that everything is expanding outward, if you go back in time far enough, it must have all begun from a single point. Science has to be materially based, it can’t start with spirit, and therefore Isamow further theorized that the universe came from a tiny particle. However, this idea that all the matter of the universe as we now know it was somehow packed into an infinitely small particle seems absurd and is an untestable hypothesis. As such it is a myth. I am not anti-science, in fact I think science is an incredible tool that reveals even more of God’s glory. But I also believe it is important to understand that science is based on this myth. It is just as logical, in fact I believe more logical, to say that the whole universe came from an Almighty Creator.
  3. Ignatius of Loyola invented the prayer method of inserting yourself imaginatively right into scenes from the Bible. For example, you are in a boat with the disciples in a raging sea. You feel the rocking of the boat, the spray of the waves, and then you see someone walking on the water. You feel the fear of the disciples who didn’t recognize it was Jesus and thought they were seeing a ghost. You feel amazement and relief when Jesus calms the wind and sea and gets into the boat with them. Many people have found that this method of imaginative contemplation leads them beyond “head-knowledge” to “heart-knowledge” of God and emotionally transforms them through a direct experience of God.