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Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. I hope persons of varied faith paths will find inspiration here. Please share this ministry with others, and please return soon. There is a new offering daily. And to be placed on the daily OneLife email list, to request notifications of new writings or submit prayer requests, write to briankwilcox@yahoo.com .
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader, Spiritual Counselor, and Chaplain.
You are invited to join Brian at his fellowship group on Facebook. The group is called OneLife Ministries – An Interspiritual Contemplative Fellowship. Hope to see you there. Blessings.
SPIRITUAL QUOTES
Awake, my soul! Stretch every nerve
And press with vigour on;
A heavenly race demands thy zeal,
And an immortal crown.
*Philip Doddridge (1700's). Zeal and Vigour in the Christian Race.
Never let your zeal outrun your charity [love].
*Hosea Ballou (1700's).
Now our whole activity is devoted to God, and our whole life, since we are bent on progress
in divine things.
*Origen (185-232)
SPIRITUAL TEACHING
Zeal: fervor for a person, cause, or object; eager desire or endeavor; enthusiastic diligence; ardor.
*Dictionary.com
I, a mid-teenager, took my record albums and destroyed them with glee and zeal for living a pure life religiously. I stomped them on the walkway leading to our front porch. I was quit pleased with my show of devotion, as I stomped and broke with hands the once cherished albums.
One of my faults earlier in life was too much zeal, and misguided zeal, in religion. My parents and maternal grandmother, indeed, were afraid I would literally lose my mind so fanatical I was religiously. But I would not listen.
An irony is now I much enjoy the same kind of “secular” music I destroyed that day. Then, I saw it as wise to eliminate it from my mind. Now, I see it as wise to enjoy, seeing the Divine in matters I once esteemed opposing holiness.
One of the albums I destroyed that day was a classic by Peter Frampton. Again, ironically, about twenty years later, I bought a CD of that same music.
Amazing how our sense of right and wrong, wise and unwise, holy and unholy, … can change over time. And, also, how our zeal can take new shapes and expressions in contrast to other times. I am one of many Christians, and others in religion, who have struggled with zeal and its wise use.
Likewise, I have witnessed a pervasive problem in religious persons and groups. That problem, in the thought of the Ballou citation above, entails zeal outdistancing love. Indeed, I have repeatedly seen persons in the name of God and faith act zealously unkind, ungracious, and – in Christian terms – un-Christlike. Yet, let us not see this as only a religious problem; this same matter shows up in many diverse areas of human life.
* * *
Origen (185-232), one of my favorite theologians, is esteemed as one of the greatest thinkers in the history of Christianity. The philosopher Porphyry (c. 234-305), the famed Neo-Platonist and student of Plotinus, in Against the Christians, calls Origen the most eminent philosopher of the time. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-395) called Origen “The Prince of Philosophers.” Jerome (c. 340-420) said Origen was the greatest thinker in the early Church. Likely, these estimations of Origen are accurate. And he, too, was a great biblical scholar, providing the most extensive textual analysis of the Bible.
Origen was well-acquainted with a saying attributed to Jesus in the Matthew Gospel 19. His taking the passage literally led to a drastic measure in celibacy:
12 Some are born as eunuchs, some have been made eunuchs by others, and some choose not to marry [lit., have made themselves eunuchs]for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.
Origen, apparently, interpreted these words literally. He was teaching in Alexandria, Egypt. To work unencumbered with female students, he castrated himself – lit., made himself a eunuch.
Origen, however, apparently did not see any conflict between his choice and an earlier passage of Scripture. In Deuteronomy 23.1, on regulations to participate in community worship, a passage notes an exclusion of persons like Origen:
If a man’s testicles are crushed or his penis is cut off, he may not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.
Certainly, Origen was a deeply committed Christian, whatever we think of his self-castration. His courage and commitment are evidenced in his martyrdom. Following Decius becoming emperor of the Roman empire in 249, he began a widespread persecution of the churches. The historian Eusebius notes Origen suffered mightily but valiantly, never denouncing faith in Christ. His sufferings entailed:
Chains and bodily torments, agony in iron and the darkness of prison; how for days on end his legs were pulled four paces apart in the torturers stocks.
* * *
How do we see the castration of Origen? Do we admire his devotion? Or do we pity him as sadly misguided? Possibly both. No, Origen would have been better to have honored the body parts given him, but guarded and rightly his feelings and natural passions. Sad that he felt it necessary or better to maim himself to better serve the women he taught theology to. Likewise, his act can be interpreted as a negative remark on women – as though they are so enticing he found it helpful to do what he did.
Yet, like each of us, Origen was a mixed bag of a person – we each are, no one among us is consistent within or without. We can look beyond the misguided maiming and see a person deeply committed to celibacy - as he was known to be. Again, this may have been somewhat misguided, as then and now many see celibacy incorrectly as a higher call than the life with enjoyment of the blessing of sex. Still, for his time and mindset, celibacy and his maiming are signs of an inward disposition of love for Christ and commitment to God, and service to others.
Origen can remind us the misdirected ways that our true, pure zeal can lead us. That we have devotion and commitment does not mean the ways we come to express such is best or right. Zeal for anything, including our faith, can be a source of wise or foolish behavior. And such is the case when zealots against abortion kill doctors or blow up abortion clinics. Such is the case when a man will blow up innocent people and himself for Allah. Such is the case when a parent will beat a child and justify it with a quote of a Bible verse. Such is the case when the word “God” is used to celebrate the atrocities of war. Such is the case when we do not criticize our own inward sins of the spirit but damage the reputation of another person for some according-to-us sin of the flesh that we conclude is wrong. Such is the case when we pick and choose verses from the Bible to teach that everyone not in our religion is going to an eternal damnation. Such is the case when we use Scripture to justify capital punishment. Such is the case when persons contend for a nation Christian, which means an official policy of discrimination against all other persons of faith and those of no religious alignment.
* * *
We are summoned within to “stretch every nerve” in our spiritual aspiration. However, stretching the nerve does not justify exerting zeal in ways harmful to others or ourselves. Zeal is never to be our guide. Love, in all things is to guide us, and Wisdom guides in the expression of Love.
Now, these three will
remain always – trust, hope, and love.
Yet, love is the eminent among these three.
*I Corinthians 13.13
© OneLife Ministries. Feb 3, 2010.
* * *
*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis. While within the Christian path, he is an ecumenical-interspiritual teacher, author, and chaplain. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Jail, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings at briankwilcox@yahoo.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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