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Lenten Devotionals 2009 – Good Friday
Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. While it focuses on Christian teaching, the writer hopes persons of other faiths find inspiration here. Indeed, "God" can be whatever image helps you trust in the Sacred, by whatever means Grace touches you. Please share this ministry with others, and I hope you return soon. There is a new offering daily.
Blessings,
Rev Dr Brian K Wilcox
Ecumenical Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader, Spiritual Counselor, Chaplain
We are now in the last week of Lent. This week is, in Latin, Hebdomada Sancta, Holy Week. Our writings this week will pertain to themes of this sacred journey toward the Cross, and through it to Easter.
LISTENING TO THE SCRIPTURES
33But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness — his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth — that you also may believe.
*John 19.33-35 (ESV)
RECEIVING SACRED TEACHING
Someone said, "Would
You like a drink?" My eyes
Grew wings and flew
Inside.
Religion
Did not teach us
This.
"I did!"
My friend, there
Are gardens you have
Never seen growing inside
That oneness.
"I am the teardrop,
My cheek
The way to
Your heart."
Why sit, sad,
With folded hands?
Fan the wordless longing
Into a shouting flame.
Descend in the smoke
And write all over
This sky, "I Love
You!"
Shout in the mountains,
And the word returns.
Love echoes
Love-So, speak!
The Beloved will
Withdraw Presence just
To pull from your throat
Pining for more.
Here, in this Bed of Love,
Words are a pretext for the
Breath that takes
Our breath away.
Before wordlessness,
Listen deeply to the sounds,
And they will reveal mysteries
That will court you into Silence.
What is that cooking?
Never mind. Lovers'
Anticipation is the
Real thing.
I saw you
In a Mirror.
I laughed.
What a relief!
When those lips
Move across our bodies,
Our thoughts surrender, thoughtless,
To Your embrace.
Someone says, "This Love talk is not
Spiritual." But the Beloved's Face
Transforms the oak outside
Into a Jerusalem Temple!
Cling to spiritual
And you cling to
Unspiritual. Enjoy
Just This!
Amazing, how many
Stand outside, fearing
The Night that pours the
Moon upon the world.
Let the Moon
Pour itself into your mouth.
You'll never again
Be afraid of Love.
I thought I saw the
Sun dancing outside,
Blowing a kiss in Here
To the stars: What flirting
Silence brings!
There are many
Ways to knock at the door:
Cry, scream, moan, sign, sing, chant -
Whatever. Just knock! But
Get ready to lose everything!
A snowflake fell
Into this Fire. The Son of God
Ascended, clothed like
Mt. Carmel.
A candle melted
In the Flame, I was
Warming beside -
"Only the Beloved left
Now!"
Joseph says, "Alone
In that well, I fell
In Love,
Forever."
Betrayal can
Place a seal on
Your noblest
Dreams.
But Love can
Grow a paradise
Of lasting
Friendship.
Don't stop here,
Keep going,
After all, "What have you got
To lose?"
*Brian K. Wilcox
We speak of the Passion of Christ. This word reminds us of the erotic Quality of Divine Love. Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, in Love's Sacred Order, writes of a necessity of divine eros in the Christ:
Not only are divine love and human passion not incompatible; there is no truly Christian faith and experience that does not have passionate love at its center, love in the image of Christ's own. Christianity, therefore, is not primarily a set of philosophical propositions appealing to the mind and looking there for assent, or a social project to realize an earthly utopia. All Christian truth ... ultimately derives from the Heart of God as a burning furnace of love:...
Leiva-Merikakas sees in Luke 12.49 a reference to the inner passion of Christ, which can be poured out: ""I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!" (ESV) Certainly, heat is associated with erotic passion, and, as well, an expenditure of that heat onto and within another. Even youth have a saying, "She has the hots for you." What is true physiologically among humans is true spiritually within the Godhead.
The liturgy of the Catholic church refers to the Sacred Heart being a "burning furnace of charity," notes Leiva-Merikakas. And: "Yes, the depths of God's being - and hence of being as such - begin truly to be revealed much closer to home ... in the stream gushing from the pierced side of the Man hanging on Golgotha."
Therefore, since Complete Love must enclose and distribute all loves, romantic love is within God, is God. The Divine romancing us - wooing us - is entailed in the Passion of Christ. The Passion demonstrates the passion; agape is erotic.
The Divine loves us, not just cerebrally, but heartfully, zealously. This One longs for a conjugal union with us, which is mystical oneness. And, thereby, the physical union of two persons is a resemblance to Divine aspiration for God to become more whole - by including us in His-Her wholeness - in union with us and our longing to lose our separation in intercourse with God.
Blessings!
Rev Dr Brian K. Wilcox
Good Friday
April 10, 2009
QUIETLY RESPONDING
1. In what sense might the Passion of Christ be a resemblance of the eros humans feel toward each other?
2. In what way might worship be see as a spiritually-making Love?
* * *
*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian K. Wilcox, of SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis. Brian is an ecumenical spiritual leader, open to how Christ manifests in the diversity of Christian denominations and varied religious-spiritual traditions. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings or submission of prayer requests at barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Contact the above email to book Brian for Spiritual Direction, retreats, or workshops. You can order his book An Ache for Union at major book dealers.
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