I wrote Part 1 first and it has now moved below this part. And I don't know how or if I can flip it up before this entry. So please check Blog Archive on the right side of this page for
A New Spiritual Vision, Part 1
Our new vision depends on the facts and the truth. For example, in politics, the fact is that House Speaker Paul Ryan said his version of the Health Care bill would guarantee that everyone had access to health care. But the truth is that his version of "access" means that not every American would actually have health care. So he was playing with words. Further, the truth is that the government has an obligation to ensure that everyone has health care. This is not "socialism." The government's obligation to provide healthcare for all is one of "justice for all."
Someone may ask, "How are you so sure what the truth is?" I respond that in this case I know the truth in two ways. One: I know the English language and I know when it is being manipulated to tell a lie. Two: Being endowed with the grace of Christ I can discern the obligations of social justice that pertain to all humans. Now I invite you to join me in seeking and seeing the truth together.
In my previous Post I spoke of the tension between an arguing husband and wife that put them in a dualistic world. Each one was opposed to the other. The therapist supplied a third, higher element, their mutual love, making their dualistic situation a trinity. As a result, the therapist 1) created a way for the couple
2) to heal and save their marriage, and
3) to move forward and evolve in their lives.
Here we have the three elements of our vision: Creativity, Healing/Saving, and Transforming/Evolving Life. These elements are those of God, who is ONE Creative, Healing/Saving and World Transforming/Evolving, Living LOVE.
In theology, we can say that God is Infinite/Eternal, Creative LOVE (Father), flowing into and begetting World Healing/Saving Love (Son), giving rise to World Transforming/Evolving Love (Holy Spirit).
Also, divine LOVE is never static. Divine LOVE is a flowing, in fact overflowing LOVE, always creating, always healing/saving, and always urging the world forward in its evolution. We experience God dynamically when we experience LOVE calling us forward from the future, to our best possible fulfillment.
Our first and best guide to living the vision is Jesus, the individual human being who was the universal Christ, i.e., the whole universe saturated with God's overflowing love. (Cf. A New Creation Story) Like Jesus, the vision starts here and now in the flesh, on the ground. Like Christ, it expands to embrace the entire world, the earth, the universe and infinity/eternity. It is the one vision that is fully worthy of our complete human reality and dignity as beloved and sacred images of God.
(The Church sees salvation outside of Jesus. Jews, Muslims, Hindus, et al., and even people who don't know Jesus but live in consistent good will and love, will be saved. That's because salvation comes in Christ, i. e., in living a life consistent with the LOVE saturated world. Since Jesus was the Christ, in him we see the fullness of our way to salvation. In our way of seeing, though not everyone agrees, everyone who lives in Christ therefore automatically lives in Jesus, even though they don't know it.)
Starting on the ground, we begin with ourselves by looking more clearly at our own talents, abilities and opportunities, all of which show us our vocation in and for today's culture and society.
For example, people competent in education can work to create a school program (public and Catholic) that will truly create in the children an ever more intense desire for learning. As someone whose name I cant remember said, education is not filling buckets, it's setting fires. The program will heal the children's ignorance with humanizing, edifying knowledge. And it will move the children's lives forward in their ongoing human evolution of understanding how to make a living and how to make a life. Such an educational program will include appreciating the talents, possibilities, respect, dignity and transcendent purpose that each child possesses as a beloved and sacred individual member of the human community.
Those competent in business and economics can work with businesses to create stronger motivations to produce the best possible goods and services at fair prices. They will work to heal any of the business's shortcomings, e.g., in providing clean and safe working conditions, fair living income for its workers, and respect for the environment, and they will help move the business forward in justice by helping the business give retraining opportunities to employees who are fired because the business sends their jobs to another area of the country or overseas, in order to maximize profits. Thus they will also help move the business forward as a respected, contributing member of the community, nation and world.
In sum, when we come face to face with the degradation of our humanity and the earth, we will speak up and act to correct it and to elevate our humanity, making our humanity more luminous in the Creative, Healing/Saving and World Transforming/Evolving love of Christ.
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A New Spiritual Vision, Part 1
Our new vision depends on the facts and the truth. For example, in politics, the fact is that House Speaker Paul Ryan said his version of the Health Care bill would guarantee that everyone had access to health care. But the truth is that his version of "access" means that not every American would actually have health care. So he was playing with words. Further, the truth is that the government has an obligation to ensure that everyone has health care. This is not "socialism." The government's obligation to provide healthcare for all is one of "justice for all."
Someone may ask, "How are you so sure what the truth is?" I respond that in this case I know the truth in two ways. One: I know the English language and I know when it is being manipulated to tell a lie. Two: Being endowed with the grace of Christ I can discern the obligations of social justice that pertain to all humans. Now I invite you to join me in seeking and seeing the truth together.
In my previous Post I spoke of the tension between an arguing husband and wife that put them in a dualistic world. Each one was opposed to the other. The therapist supplied a third, higher element, their mutual love, making their dualistic situation a trinity. As a result, the therapist 1) created a way for the couple
2) to heal and save their marriage, and
3) to move forward and evolve in their lives.
Here we have the three elements of our vision: Creativity, Healing/Saving, and Transforming/Evolving Life. These elements are those of God, who is ONE Creative, Healing/Saving and World Transforming/Evolving, Living LOVE.
In theology, we can say that God is Infinite/Eternal, Creative LOVE (Father), flowing into and begetting World Healing/Saving Love (Son), giving rise to World Transforming/Evolving Love (Holy Spirit).
Also, divine LOVE is never static. Divine LOVE is a flowing, in fact overflowing LOVE, always creating, always healing/saving, and always urging the world forward in its evolution. We experience God dynamically when we experience LOVE calling us forward from the future, to our best possible fulfillment.
Our first and best guide to living the vision is Jesus, the individual human being who was the universal Christ, i.e., the whole universe saturated with God's overflowing love. (Cf. A New Creation Story) Like Jesus, the vision starts here and now in the flesh, on the ground. Like Christ, it expands to embrace the entire world, the earth, the universe and infinity/eternity. It is the one vision that is fully worthy of our complete human reality and dignity as beloved and sacred images of God.
(The Church sees salvation outside of Jesus. Jews, Muslims, Hindus, et al., and even people who don't know Jesus but live in consistent good will and love, will be saved. That's because salvation comes in Christ, i. e., in living a life consistent with the LOVE saturated world. Since Jesus was the Christ, in him we see the fullness of our way to salvation. In our way of seeing, though not everyone agrees, everyone who lives in Christ therefore automatically lives in Jesus, even though they don't know it.)
Starting on the ground, we begin with ourselves by looking more clearly at our own talents, abilities and opportunities, all of which show us our vocation in and for today's culture and society.
For example, people competent in education can work to create a school program (public and Catholic) that will truly create in the children an ever more intense desire for learning. As someone whose name I cant remember said, education is not filling buckets, it's setting fires. The program will heal the children's ignorance with humanizing, edifying knowledge. And it will move the children's lives forward in their ongoing human evolution of understanding how to make a living and how to make a life. Such an educational program will include appreciating the talents, possibilities, respect, dignity and transcendent purpose that each child possesses as a beloved and sacred individual member of the human community.
Those competent in business and economics can work with businesses to create stronger motivations to produce the best possible goods and services at fair prices. They will work to heal any of the business's shortcomings, e.g., in providing clean and safe working conditions, fair living income for its workers, and respect for the environment, and they will help move the business forward in justice by helping the business give retraining opportunities to employees who are fired because the business sends their jobs to another area of the country or overseas, in order to maximize profits. Thus they will also help move the business forward as a respected, contributing member of the community, nation and world.
In sum, when we come face to face with the degradation of our humanity and the earth, we will speak up and act to correct it and to elevate our humanity, making our humanity more luminous in the Creative, Healing/Saving and World Transforming/Evolving love of Christ.
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