Surely God does not exist so that we can think correctly about Him – or Her. Amazingly and wonderfully, like all good parents, God desires instead the flourishing of what God created and what God loves – us ourselves. Ironically, we flourish more by learning from our mistakes and changing than by a straight course that teaches us nothing.
I would ask you to consider the crucifix as a homeopathic image, like those medicines that give you just enough of the disease so you could develop a resistance and be healed from it. The cross dramatically reveals the problem of ignorant killing, to inoculate us against doing the same thing.
Too often, we have substituted the messenger for the message. As a result, we spent a great deal of time worshiping the messenger and trying to get other people to do the same. Too often this obsession became a pious substitute for actually following what he taught – and he did ask us several times to follow him, and never once to worship him.
For many secular people today we live in a disenchanted universe without meaning, purpose, or direction. We are aware only of what it is not. Seldom do we enjoy what it is. Probably it is only healthy religion that is prepared to answer that question. Healthy religion is an enthusiasm about what is, not an anger about what isn’t.
Deep communion and dear compassion is formed much more by shared pain than by shared pleasure.
All creation is groaning in one great act of giving birth. – ROMANS 8:22 I still have many things to say to you, but they would be too much for you now. – JOHN 16:12.
Only love effects true inner transformation, not duress, guilt, shunning, or social pressure.
Your image of God creates you. Your image of God creates you. Your image of God creates you.
It is the egoic illusion of our own perfect rightness that often allows us to crucify others.
Surrender will always feel like dying, and yet it is the necessary path to liberation.
Religion is lived by people who are afraid of hell. Spirituality is lived by people who have been through hell.
God brings us – through failure – from unconsciousness to ever-deeper consciousness and conscience.
Having looked at the objects of the universe, I find there is no one, nor any particle of one, but has reference to the Soul. – Walt Whitman.
Forgiveness is to let go of our hope for a different or better past.” It is what it is, and such acceptance leads to great freedom, as long as there is also accountability and healing in the process.
So Jesus pulls no punches, saying you must “hate” your home base in some way and make choices beyond it.
But which should come first, grace or responsibility? The answer is that both come first. All we can do is get out of the way and then the soul takes its natural course.
When you get your “Who am I?” question right, all the “What should I do?” questions tend to take care of themselves.
Genuine humility is based on a realistic self-appraisal and a healthy feeling of self-worth.
Say five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys as a penance” still perpetuated a de facto notion of a juridical exchange instead of any deep experience of healing forgiveness or unearned grace. You cannot deal with spiritual things in a courtroom manner. It does not achieve its purpose; it does not work at a deep level. We forgot our own unique job description as people of the Gospel and imitated courts of law instead.
Did you ever notice that Jesus himself was not really that upset at the bad behavior that most of us call sin? Instead, he directed his critical attention toward people who did not think they were sinners, who could not see their own shadows or dark sides, or acknowledge their complicity in the world’s domination systems.