looking for a win/win scenario?

In our Western civilization, the main frame for understanding daily life is the competitive frame. Everything is seen in terms of winning and losing, up or down, with me or against me. In my opinion, this is why the West has largely not understood the Gospel. You can’t understand the Gospel if you’re looking for a win/lose scenario.

I believe Jesus was the first clear non-dual teacher in Western civilization, but he has for the most part been interpreted by dualistic thinkers and competitive churches. By eating with sinners and associating with outcasts, Jesus showed what he felt about all exclusionary systems. And yet, that is what our churches have largely been, starting with an early enmity toward our own Jewish roots.

Jesus said, “My Father’s sun shines on the good and the bad. His rain falls on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5: 45). Try to make systematic theology out of that! Who can you exclude from the table with that kind of thinking? Jesus has always been way too much for us. He is offering civilization a win/win scenario, and frankly for most of us that is not very interesting.

Richard Rohr 

On the Blessed Trinity

Let's just think for a moment about a young woman who is pregnant, and who is delighted that she is. She is a reflective soul, and she loves to spend some time on her own each day, contemplating the miracle that is happening within.

As time goes by, she is more and more conscious of the stirring of new life within her, and her response is a whole-hearted and a grateful yes. Her prayer has never been more profound, even if she is not conscious that she is praying. She is in the midst, and in the process of creation; she is opening her heart totally to the possibility and to the potential. Her baby is already being created and nourished with love.

This is a sacred time, and hers is a very sac­red call. There is a trust that is totally dependent on the process, and it is not a trust that she would have in herself of her own ability to see this through. That trust is nurtured by the love she experiences; it is that love that strengthens her trust. She just believes that all will be well.

'For God so loved the world ... ' When Jesus speaks of the great love of the Father, he immediately appeals for trust in that love. Jesus entered the womb of the world ... His coming among us was an expression of the Father's hug.

'They who see me, see the Father; they who hear me, hear the Father, because I and the Father are one.'

Filled with the Holy Spirit

You have probably been in a restaurant where the waitress has asked, "Can I warm up your coffee for you?"

 The cup may be half-full and cold after sitting on the table for a while. When she pours the new coffee in, she refills and warms up the cup.

If are spiritually cold, empty or dry. It doesn't have to stay that way. Quit trying to live in your own power and strength and ask God today to fill you with His Holy Spirit.

Yes,now, today, Pentecost Sunday, the Birthday of the Church. No better day

"If you have the Word without the Spirit, you'll dry up.

If you have the Spirit without the Word, you'll blow up.

If you have both the Word and the Spirit, you'll grow up."

Derek Prince 

Salvation is of God

According to a certain theology, when we sin we are punished, and when we are good we are rewarded. This makes sense. But it isn’t what the sages, saints, or Scriptures tell us about God.

This “theology” is designed to urge us to save ourselves, and unfortunately this is the theology that many people live by: we get back as good as we give to God. This means that our salvation depends totally on us and on our ability to become perfect, or at least good.

Thank God, it’s not true.

This is not what Jesus teaches us. It’s much truer to say that our weakness and brokenness bring us to God—exactly the opposite of what most of us believe. It can take a lifetime, even with grace, to accept such a paradox. Grace creates the very emptiness that grace alone can fill.

St. Paul stated this with elegant concision: “’For power is made perfect in weakness.’. . . For whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

 Richard Rohr 

What controls my life?

Fear is almost always behind hate.

Sometimes it looks like taking necessary control, but control freaks are usually afraid of losing something. It is almost always fear that justifies hatred, but a fear that is hardly ever recognized as such.

For fear to survive, it must look like reason, prudence, common sense, justice, or even religion.

It always works. What better way to veil vengeance than to call it justice? What better way to cover greed than to call it responsible stewardship? What better way to cover arrogance than call it Biblical obedience?

Only people who have moved beyond ego and controlling all outcomes, only those practiced at letting go, see fear for the imposter that it is. To be trapped inside of your small self is always to be afraid.

There is an intrinsic connection between fear, hatred and violence. Fear always needs a hiding place, and one of the best is supposed morality or truth-speaking. Then, you can hate with impunity, and even grandiosity, or validation from the Scriptures.

Then you can be hateful and not feel the least guilty about it, but in fact feel morally superior.

Richard Rohr 

The Soul has Many Secrets

The soul has many secrets. They are only revealed to those who want them, and are never completely forced upon us. One of the best-kept secrets, and yet one hidden in plain sight, is that the way up is the way down. Or, if you prefer, the way down is the way up….

In Scripture, we see that the wrestling and wounding of Jacob are necessary for Jacob to become Israel (Genesis 32:26-32), and the death and resurrection of Jesus are necessary to create Christianity. The loss and renewal pattern is so constant and ubiquitous that it should hardly be called a secret at all.

Yet it is still a secret, probably because we do not want to see it. We do not want to embark on a further journey [the second half of life] if it feels like going down, especially after having put so much sound and fury into going up [the first half of life]. This is surely the first and primary reason why many people never get to the fullness of their own lives.

Fr. Richard Rohr


On Your Way Down
-- Alan Toussaint

Sunrise
Sunset
Since the beginning it hasn't changed yet
People fly high begin to lose sight
You can't see very clearly when you're in flight

It's high time that you found
The same people you misuse on your way up
You might meet up
On your way down

Vintage wines from the year '62
It's your thing, it's your thing
It pleases you
You got to frown when you cross town
You think it's an honor just to have you around

It's high time that you found
The same dudes you misuse on your way up
You might meet up
On your way down

You think the sun rises and sets for you
But the same sun rises, sets and shines
On the poor folks too
I don't mind you turning round
I myself would even like a little higher ground

It's high time that you found
The same people you walk on on your way up
You might meet up
On your way down
On your way down

As sung by Little Feet.

Not my wedding

I won't be watching the "Royal" wedding.

Not that I don't wish the pair every happiness. Good luck to them and God bless. But there are two very important points that bother me:

1. Privilege is an insidious poison. It is a poison thousands are dying of as they try in Libya, Syria and the other lands to peacefully demand democratic institutions. Privilege abused is deadly. Privilege used to support democratic institutions, may give authority to those institutions, but it is still privilege - the false (un-democratic) assumption that someone has more rights than some one else by virtue of their birth alone. The public celebration of the "Royal" wedding is also a celebration of privilege. The privileges enjoyed by every member of the "Royal" family and every hanger-on whose very job and position in society is totally dependant - not on their abilities or academic qualifications - but on this privilege.

Whilst we fight a war to defend those suffering from privilege’s excesses, we need to keep this in mind.

2. The Windsor family are rich. Arguably the richest family, with their vast estates and investments, in the UK. Therefore I object very strongly to even a penny of the public purse (especially in this time of severe cuts in services to the poor) being spent on this celebration. By all means march up and down the Strand in fancy carriages and hold receptions galore, but PAY FOR IT YOURSELF.

(BTW I was married on the same day as Charles and Diane. Our marriage lasted 2 years longer than theirs)

The speed of light

If you had been present at the moment of the resurrection of Jesus, what would you have seen? If there had been a video camera outside the tomb, what would it have seen recorded? Probably there would have been a huge flash of light.

The historical figure, Jesus of Nazareth, moved beyond any confinement in space and time and became Light Itself, which we now know from astrophysics is omnipresent in the universe, and its speed is the ultimate measure of all things. That’s why you and I have total access to the Christ. He morphed from the confined Jesus to the Cosmic Christ, which includes all of creation—and even you and me.

We are a part of that one shared light (Ephesians 5:8), that "enlightens all people" (John 1:9), and has come down from "the Father of all Light" (James 1:17). In John's Gospel he predicted the same: "I am the Light of the world" (John 8:12). One could even say that in Christ, God and Light have become the same. And nobody on this earth can control the light. It goes where it goes—instantaneously.

Hallelujah - He is risen

That God loves us is evident by our existence. Living in this time and space and Universe is enough to be grateful for. But even more so than any human parent, He has also sacrificed and raised from the dead His son in order that whatever we may do wrong will be forgiven, and that we will have eternal life.

In return for this wondrous gift, we have only to do two things:

1. Love God with all our heart and soul
2. Love our neighbours as we love ourselves

...the rest is just show business!