All Together

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Barack Obama, divisions, George W. Bush, hope, love of country, Meghan McCain, Paul, Romans, Senator John McCain, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth, unity

Yesterday I spent an uncommon amount of time (for me) on YouTube. I watched the  eulogies of Barack Obama, Meghan McCain and George W. Bush during the funeral of Senator John McCain. All were quite different, as are the individuals themselves, but at a moment during the speech of former President Bush I was struck by a rising sensation that I can only express as “love of country.” It was clear to me that in moments of great import, small things no longer have any place. I have known this often in the past year during weather disasters and mass shootings, but this was in some way different. It struck at the heart of how we as Americans are able, perhaps, to agree in times of great division because we recognize what is important at the center of everything. We do not need to be perfect in order to be together; we just need to be willing. We have not reached 100% participation in this truth but yesterday allowed me a glimpse of possibility that has been sorely lacking for us as a country lately.

As I reflected on this experience, Paul’s Letter to the Romans, chapter 8, floated through my consciousness. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time, Paul writes. We ourselves groan inwardly while we wait…In the same way…the Spirit intercedes for us with wordless groans.

I mused about the fact that what I was watching was taking place in a house of worship, a place where respect is usually a given and inner seeking is the order of the day. It was a moment of sadness but also of hope, as if everyone there and those watching from afar could sense, at least in some small way, that all things work for the good of those who love God. 

 

One More Wake Up Call

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charity, contemplation, corruption, divisions, mystic, news, Peace, prophets, saints, sanctity, solace, spiritual maturity, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, violence

It is sometimes counter-productive to read the news in the morning. I don’t often do so before taking up this writing task. I should always move toward what I know to be my priorities. After twenty minutes or so this morning of breaking my own rule and falling deeper into distress, I moved away from stories of corruption, violence and division in the world and turned to Thomas Merton for solace. Here is what he gave me as a motivational word for today:

If the salvation of society depends, in the long run, on the moral and spiritual health of individuals, the subject of contemplation becomes a vastly important one, since contemplation is one of the indications of spiritual maturity. It is closely allied to sanctity. You cannot save the world merely with a system. You cannot have peace without charity. You cannot have social order without saints, mystics and prophets. (A Thomas Merton Reader, p. 375)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two in One

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divisions, duality, Gospel of Thomas, Jan Phillips, No Ordinary Time, one, opposites, separate, spring, tension, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unitive consciousness, variety of solutions, Western society

All during this week in a great variety of circumstances I have been engaged in conversations about unitive consciousness: the effort needed to grow in the realization that ultimately “we are all one.” I began this week by writing about it. I sat with people in individual spiritual direction considering practices that help us to move toward it. I participated in a study group on the Gospel of Thomas (logion 22) that considered the dual roles of effort and the energy of inspiration in pursuit of it. And yesterday in the midst of my scheduled day I spent an hour outside breathing in the peace and loveliness of a perfect spring day to remember the possibility of it.

None of these events took away the consciousness that there are deep divisions in our society and in nations around the world as well as in the personal lives of everyone I know – including myself. If, however, I maintain the hope that ultimate unity is the achievable goal, I am able at some fleeting moments to sense it within the distress and sometimes even the chaos of separation. I call on No Ordinary Time for some words of Jan Phillips and those “lights” on whom she depends to give credence to my own thoughts this morning. Listen:

If we can stay with the tension of opposites long enough – sustain it, be true to it – we can sometimes become vessels within which the divine opposites come together and give birth to a new reality. (Marie Louise von Franz (1915-1998)

Can you evolve your own thinking process beyond duality, beyond “right and wrong,” beyond “good and evil?” Can you accept that we are all right, only partly so? That we need to mix our thoughts up with others to come up with the greatest variety of solutions, the highest synthesis of consciousness? (Jan Phillips)

We grow up in a world that keeps things separate/Science is a thousand miles from faith/The right wing and the left are far divided/Though the angel cannot fly without them both. (Jan Phillips)

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. (F. Scott Fitzgerald) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oneness

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disciples, diversity, divisions, Jesus, John, oneness, shared humanity, spiritual path, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unity

Today the gospel reaches the point in the farewell discourse of Jesus where he prays for the unity of all people. This familiar text has Jesus pleading that they (all the disciples and “those who will believe in me through their word” – us) may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us…that they may be brought to perfection as one…I have made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them. (JN 17:20-26)

Our pleading should rival that of Jesus, I think, when we consider the divisions that exist in our world. No matter the diversity in our prayer and spiritual paths or religious practice, the desire for unity must be backed up with intention toward that goal. If each of us spent some moments every day asking God to wake us up to the unity that already exists by virtue of our shared humanity and to give us the will to foster that unity with all we meet, I believe it could change the world. I’m willing to try. You?