Friday, August 29, 2014

OUR 'GOD'S VIEW" OF THE WORLD

   Look in a mirror.  You are looking at a person in whom God is present, right here, right now.  God is within you.  God is  within the entire universe--within our family members and neighbors, within our government, corporate, business, professional, educational, scientific and artistic leaders.  God is within mountains, air, trees, plants and flowers, animals, and even within the computer you are now using. 

    God is within Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism,and all other religions.  God is within President Obama, our Congress and Supreme Court, within the rich and the poor, the sick and outcast, within Pope Francis, Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas, and Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainians, within all the displaced refugees and immigrants all over the world.  Yes, God is also within ISIS and all terrorists.

   No person, no society, no institution is outside of God, and none ever becomes so opaque that it loses the ability to commune with the indwelling God and even express God's peace and love in themselves and their everyday activities.  No individual, no group, cannot be an expression of the global Christ.  Such a view is the glory and foolishness of our faith.  As St. Paul says, "Now the natural person [the spiritually immature or degraded person] does not accept what pertains to the Spirit, for to him it is foolishness."  (1 Cor.2:14).

   For us who have eyes to see, as we look in the mirror we can go deep within ourselves and take a "God's Eye" view of ourselves and the world.  We can look around and see the Kingdom of God, for whose coming Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come...on earth as it is in heaven."  God's Kingdom or reign, is our everyday world seen as a world of divinely luminous, ever-evolving creativity, justice, peace, joy, gratitude and love.  This world exists within our world--within ourselves and every community, within every government, corporation and business, school, religion, science, art and nation.

   We can also see that while the kingdom/reign of God is present throughout the world, it does not fully permeate the world.  In fact, it will never be fully realized here on our space/time earth.  Our space/time shadow side will always be with us until Christ returns and turns our space/time earth into eternal heaven.  Jesus likened the Kingdom of God to a wheat field, planted by Christ himself, in which the enemy has sown weeds.  And the weeds will grow along with the wheat until the harvest, i.e., until Christ returns.  (Mt. 13:24-30, 36-43).  Sadly, horribly, some of the "weeds" will fall so far into darkness and violence--something we, with "God's eyes" should try to foresee and prevent--that they can be stopped only with violence. 

    Despite the resistance that is present to God's Kingdom, we live and act in the Spirit of Hope.  With our "God's Eye" view of the world we can discern and are called and empowered to do whatever we can--alone or in community--with whatever influence we have, to move our space/time world forward in ever evolving self-transcendence toward the fulfillment of the Eternal Kingdom that is to come.  Along the way, with God's eternal love and with Christ's space/time, sacrificial/Pentecost love, we never give up--not even on those farthest from the Kingdom of God here on earth.








      


Tuesday, August 5, 2014

RECOGNIZING GOD IN TODAY'S WORLD

   In my last post I showed the difference between our faith experience of God and how we express our experience of God.  The ancient Hebrews experienced the same eternal-infinite God that we do today, and they expressed their experience in the ideas and language of their own time and culture.  If we wrote the Genesis story today, we would write it in the terms of today's language and culture, using today's experience of God.  The page, "An Evolution Story" gives you an idea of what I mean.

   A big problem with expressing the God of our faith in today's terms is that we still use images and language that are left over from other times and cultures.  A very important--and misleading--example is to imagine God as a Being somewhere "up there" or "out there" who intervenes in our world from time to time. This image gives us a God who is absent and who has to be asked to "come down" and be with us. For example, at Mass, the priest says, "The Lord be with you."  And we respond, "And with your spirit:, i.e., "with you."  If we think about it, we just asked an absent God to come and be with us.  But we don't ever have to ask God to be with us; we always have to thank God for already being with us--and within us and the entire universe!  Wouldn't it be better then, if the priest said, "The Lord is with us," and we joyfully responded, "Amen!"

   (Note that our experience of God begins with our experience of the universe, the earth and ourselves.  Then we experience God as living and acting within all that exists, especially within ourselves.)

   I suggest that one good way to experience God today is to first of all to put away all our images of God.  For the moment, let's not imagine God as "Father," "Lord," "Good Shepherd," "King," or any other of the wonderful things we call God.  Now, with a clear mind and imagination, let's look around at the world, at the earth and at the universe:  the sun and clouds or the star studded night sky, at rocks, mountains and oceans, plants and animals, and people. Imagine all of it--and us--as vibrantly full of deep, eternal life and energy.    

   Now imagine the universe as a sponge that is completely immersed in water.  Or imagine the universe and see a warm, intense, Living Light shining within it,  "saturating" every rock, mountain and ocean, every plant and flower, every animal, every person--with the glow of its creativity, healing and world-transforming love.  Or imagine within the universe a Sacred Flame, stirring the passion of wholeness and love within and throughout all the galaxies and especially within and throughout the earth.  

   Especially the energy living within all the peoples of earth, coming from the Inner Light and Life of Love, calling and energizing the world forward into the future, especially calling all the peoples of earth forward toward ever fuller life and love, sometimes despite horrific, man-made obstacles.  

   Breathe in the vibrancy of all this life, possibility and love, and find confidence and hope in the Spirit to work to move life on earth forward, despite the pessimism that too many people insist on generating through their hatred, greed and wars.      

   With such a positive, deep alive, all-encompassing experience of God to guide us, we can now take a clearer and more meaningful look at today's life and culture:  our politics, business, science, education, etc.