Between the Times

Tags

Acts of the Apostles, Ascension, crucifixion, Father, fear, John, Lectionary, Pentecost, pray, resurrection, Son, Spirit of God, The Great Commission, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The lectionary readings for this seventh Sunday of Easter find us between an ending and a new beginning and we, in the same manner as the disciples, need to be willing to sit in this empty space, reflecting on what has been and waiting for the movement of the Spirit to call us once again to a courageous future.

In the first reading (Acts 1: 12-14) we find the apostles trudging back to Jerusalem after having received “the Great Commission” from Jesus. He had finished his mission and passed on to them what was now theirs to do: to go out to the world and teach what he had first taught them. So today they are together again as they were after the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. Was it the same “upper room” where they had huddled in fear for their lives? What were they feeling now? Fearful still, perhaps, without the certainty now that they would be safe going forward. Bereft, most likely, because they were again without the presence of Jesus for their strength. But at least they were together in the company of those who had experienced Jesus in what we would certainly call a privileged way. And together they were praying for the Spirit of God to come and reveal to them the manner in which they were to fulfill their mission.

In the gospel for today we have a glimpse of this ending from the perspective of Jesus. John’s Gospel (17: 1-11) could seem like a son reporting to his father his completion of a project – for school, maybe – by recounting all the steps he had taken and how successful the whole enterprise had been. This scene, however, was much more. Jesus was just on the cusp of leaving those he loved, that small band of followers who had listened to him, learned from him, supported him and sometimes disappointed him, but loved him enough to stay with him through death to new life. His care for and pride in these beloved ones is clear in his recounting to God. Consider your feelings if you had overheard Jesus saying to God: They belonged to you and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word…I pray for them. What a validation of their discipleship! Moreover, these lines seem to express a deep tenderness in which Jesus holds those he called his friends.

Let us take some time in these days between the feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost to sit in this space of emptiness, preparing for a renewed outpouring of the Spirit in our lives and remembering that Jesus promises to us as he did his disciples: I am with you always, until the end of the age.

Transient Sensitivity

Tags

darkness, God, immensity, light, reality, sensitivity, Son, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, Thoughts In Solitude, transient expression, transient sensitivity

The first time I came out of sleep this morning into a still-dark world where ice crystals were bouncing off my window panes I was reminded of my dentist appointment three days ago. When he greeted me and asked me how I was upon entering the room, I just answered “transient sensitivity.” The hygienist who had just cleaned my teeth (read: picked and prodded) looked quizzical but the doc nodded and said, “Ahh, your sinuses…”

When I moved 45 years ago to this lovely valley located in the Southern Tier of New York State, I was told that it is known for the propensity of sinus conditions and I was warned that it would take about five years for me to join the ranks of those so “blessed.” I came to understand the condition but have only experienced it as mild discomfort when inclement weather is the order of the day. Lately, however, I know when storms are coming because my teeth begin to ache. Thinking I had a cavity recently, or more likely an exposed nerve in one of my teeth, I had an interesting visit to the dentist where he did everything he could to locate the difficulty, finally concluding that it was the above-mentioned transient sensitivity. In other words, my aging sinuses were talking to the aging nerves close by and predicting stormy weather.

That’s the long introduction to my thoughts this morning about my state of being. While it is true that my teeth are reminding me of what I see and hear outside my window, I was comparing the term to how I was feeling inside when I turned to Thomas Merton and read the following paragraph.

O great God, Father of all things, Whose infinite light is darkness to me, Whose immensity to me is as the void, You have called me forth out of Yourself because You love me in Yourself, and I am a transient expression of Your inexhaustible and eternal reality. I could not know You, I would be lost in this darkness, I would fall away from You into this void, if You did not hold me to Yourself in the Heart of Your only begotten Son. (Thoughts In Solitude, 71).

Call it synchronicity, call it a meaningless musing from a foggy mind, but for me this word from Merton will take me through the day in gratitude.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perichoresis

Tags

divine name, Father, God is love, Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, John, Perichoresis, Son, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, theology

It’s really difficult to talk about God, isn’t it? I’m not saying that for people whose relationship is so intimate that it’s like an invasion of privacy. The name is so sacred to the Jews, for example, that out of reverence they do not even pronounce the divine name. I’m referring to the fact that we know we aren’t talking about a person like any other, but in this day and age we really like definitions. We Christians have a triple difficulty because we celebrate “one God in three persons.” Of course there’s always the issue of political correctness as well, especially it seems, for North Americans so over the last half century we have tried out many alternatives to the trinitarian Father, Son and Holy Spirit, including determination by role, as in Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier. In progressive or feminist circles, we’ve heard Mother/Father God, and the list goes on with nothing definitive that satisfies everyone – and those for whom Father, Son and Holy Spirit is just fine breathing a sigh of relief.

I don’t mean to be facetious or disrespectful here to anyone’s belief. We live in a time where information abounds and culture is evolving at warp speed. There have been many theological treatises written on this very topic and still the reality cannot be contained in language. One of the best conversations about the nature of the Trinity, I think, is centered around the fact that, as it says in one of John’s letters, “God is love.” Sounds simple and is most profound. The premise of how this works in the Trinity is called perichoresis, a Greek word that implies a sort of dance. As the Father loves the Son and the love between them is so strong as to be seen as an entity (the Holy Spirit) they are not separate but flow into each other in the manner by which one author explains that “it can be defined as co-indwelling, co-inhering, and mutual interpenetration which allows the individuality of the persons to be maintained, while insisting that each person shares in the life of the other two.” (Alister Mc Grath)This relationship is seen as dynamic, not static, which is why the image is envisioned as circular, a dance of relationship and energy. I love this image because it speaks to the possibility of our ability to replicate this dance of love to some degree in our human life.

Why all this talk about Trinity? Today Christians the world over celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity – a great moment to ponder the reality and expand our consciousness of the nature of the God who will always remain a mystery while yet being the Love that is “closer to us than we are to ourselves.” (St. Augustine of Hippo)