These were the words that flowed one late night after a long prayer-filled internal examination. That night the wind was ferocious and was the cause of many a power outage throughout the state. Strangely, I find a quiet peaceful place deep within the turbulence and chaos; deep within the center there is calm and purpose if only we take the time to really look at it without bias. In my own prayer process, it is about internalizing the +Christ.
Okay…
before I head to bed…
and as I sit here in the silence of the howling wind…
I haz to wonder…
Is there room for mystery and the mystical in ministry? I’ve had a good bit of both in the past few days in sessions… many “G*d Moments” – moments that remind me I am truly a servant of the Divine… moments that refresh me and that send me into delirium… moments that remind me of my call, and moments that remind me of the thorn deep in my side…
yeah… it’s still there…
My Beloved+ continues to move me towards… I’ve no clue, but it sure is a helluva ride…
Beads clicking, I wander the house as I wonder – why have we stopped talking about the mystical and the Divine? My pen moves, but does my spirit? My soul beats against my chest forcing my heart to race waiting for my Christ to be present… I just have to open my eyes and see… really see… beyond my own limitations… to see… in all that exists.
I haz to wonder…
as I sit here in the silence of the howling wind…
before I go to bed…
Okay…
No truer words were ever written than those by a man who at one-time the Catholic church labeled a heretic, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “I am not a human being enjoying a spiritual life, I am a spiritual being enjoying a human life” (Chardin, 1959). For me, Chardin is a mystic who reconciles the Christian faith with a new cosmology: that the Christ was revealed in the midst of a cosmic evolutionary process as the shining bridge that unites all things. Imagine – the Christ as the symbol of the highest human development potential in the ongoing process of cosmic evolution here earth. This “Christ-energy”, which is deeply embedded and hidden in every human being, is waiting to be brought to life, or rather discovered as humanity’s evolutionary potential. The “Cosmic Christ” is in essence the direct illumination of the +Creator within all of Creation. But this idea challenges Christianity in that the +Creator, then, becomes a malleable expanding force evolving over time; not a static anglicized power-hungry entity bent on teaching the world how to be scared of living.
Jesus’ ministry, then, when seen through the eyes of a potential evolutionary process, takes on a whole new meaning because the supposition is that Jesus didn’t just die so that our sin are forgiven. Jesus died so that we might finally awaken to the possibility of our truest potential of BEcoming as Jesus was: aware of the Divine presence within ourselves, as well as the world around us.
Think about it – if we develop the awareness that we are all connected through the +Creator’s love and that the only barriers in life are the ones we create for ourselves and one another, then our growth potential – our evolution as human – is limitless.
“If humanity ever captures the energy of love, it will be the second time in history that we have discovered fire.”
If we are to truly be followers of the +Christ – and by that I mean if we are truly call ourselves followers of the teachings of the +Divine +Human – then we must reach out beyond our safe and comfortable limitations that serve only to keep us from discovering our truest potential – that we are capable of transforming not just ourselves – but the entire world.
My role, then, as an ordained servant, is not to make comfortable the notion that our sins are forgiven thanks to the ultimate sacrifice by our +Creator, but to make known that we must be transformed by the very thing we take into ourselves – the most holy Eucharist.
The role of the priesthood is to consecrate the world so that it may become a living host, a liturgy: so that the liturgy may not be something alongside the reality of the world, but that the world itself shall become a living host, a liturgy. This is also the great vision of Teilhard de Chardin: in the end we shall achieve a true cosmic liturgy, where the cosmos becomes a living host.
Again, if we are to call ourselves followers of the +Christ, and if in that following we take into ourselves the embodiment of our +Christ through the Eucharist, then we must BEcome the very essence of that Eucharist – Sacrificial Love. We must begin to rethink our views on our relationship with the +Creator and our fellow wanderers as we find our way home.
” I am a spiritual being enjoying a human life,” all of this writing is a way to challenge ourselves and think beyond our normal purview of our thoughts and beliefs. Yes and through the taking in the Eucharist “we must BEcome the very essence of that Eucharist-Sacrificial Love” and what a wonderful way to “find our way home.”