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Opening Prayer
Today, draw me to your heart, O Christ, my Beloved, that I might both feel your Love for me and for everyone, and speak and act your Love graciously. Give me grace and courage to love my enemies, if I have any. May I be faithful to friends and family, finding life in losing my life in service to them. May I not return evil for evil, but good for evil. Above all, may my heart shine with your Presence, and may I not take delight in the misfortune of anyone, but rejoice in the good of every creature. I bless your earth, our home, and save her, too, from the ravages of time and abuse, that she might shine with your Glory. Amen.
Comments
The following two stories provide a contrast. Both stories are true stories.
A man argued with a now-retired pastor, for he felt the pastor was much too inclusive in his teaching on Grace. He spoke, “You mean all those other folk are going to get to go to heaven just like me, and after all I have done to be good to get there.”
This person felt for anyone to get to heaven without having to go through what he did was an injustice. He speaks, as though to say, “How dare God’s Grace be that gracious, for it would be unfair to me!” This exemplifies how selfish is much religious teaching, even in many churches and, sadly, given in the name of Christ. I have often witnessed the prideful display of “Christian” exclusion worn like a badge of honor, and it is as godless as exclusion against Christians from those outside the Church. Therefore, the Church need not speak of the prideful prejudice that is exacted against it, if it parades the same prideful display, only with a different viewpoint. Pride is pride, dress it up in Christianity or secularism; pride is pride, and if it is worse, it is worse when we use the name of Christ to support prideful exclusion.
Now, the following story contrasts the attitude above with a person who proved again and again that she knew well the graciousness of Grace, and she was much disdained by many of her fellow Christians. At one point an assassination attempt was made on her for her peacemaking in the Church.
During the lifetime of the Catholic visionary and mystic Catherine of Siena (b. 1347), the government of Siena, Italy, issued death penalties readily for any criticism of it. A young man Niccolo di Tuldo made comments against the regime while he was drinking. Niccolo was arrested and condemned to die. He did not understand how a God who would permit his death for such a minor offense could be just and good.
Catherine visited him, and Niccolo calmed down. He made his confession, and he received communion for the first time. Niccolo asked Catherine to be with him at his execution.
Catherine reports that Niccolo, at his execution, smiled at her, saying “Jesus” and “Caterina.” She caressed his head as he placed it on the block. At the moment of execution, Catherine had a vision of Christ welcoming Niccolo to himself. Catherine was splashed with blood. She refrained from washing her habit, witnessing that the blood was evidence of God embracing Niccolo.
The mystic, or contemplative, is a person who has so deeply entered and lived from the deepest self, where the human spirit and divine Spirit join, that she is able to feel with the feelings of God. Catherine could love Niccolo with the pathos of Christ and be with him in that holy affection, for she had devoted her life to prayer and means of grace for years. She had been willing to endure aloneness to wed her soul to the soul of her Beloved, whom she spiritually wedded herself to in the One: that Beloved is Christ. She was a saintly woman, not principally due to her beliefs, but due to her loving compassion.
Once two men who attended the same local church argued over theology during a Sunday School class. One was a conservative literalist, the other was a liberal symbolist. The angry conservative said, “You just wait until we get to heaven, then, you will find out that I am right!” In anger the liberal replied, “Well, whatever heaven means, when we get there, you will find out that I am right and you wrong. Just wait!” They each stormed out of the classroom. Though they attended the same church, they never spoke again, indeed, they would not even share the Peace of Christ with each other in Worship. The conservative got to heaven first, but he could not rest and enjoy the bliss of heaven, for he could not wait for the liberal to get to heaven to prove how wrong the liberal was. After a few years the liberal passed on. The conservative was told about this, and he found the liberal. They both rushed to meet with Christ and presented their cases. Christ asked, “Men, you each have come for me to decide who is right and who is wrong?” The men affirmed with words and the nod of the head. Jesus replied, “You are both wrong.” They wanted to know how that was possible. Jesus said, "Because on earth, as in my heaven, there is only one thing that makes you right, and that is Love. And that you neither loved each other, though you worshipped in the same congregation for many years, and were more concerned about your beliefs than all those outside your church who needed my Loving, then, you have proven that you are both wrong.”
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When Jesus says, “I am the Way,” he is speaking as a mystic. A mystic is one who lives and speaks from that divine Center within--this is why persons interpreting the sayings of Jesus from rational thought miss the depth of his wisdom and can easily misapply his teachings. Jesus, speaking from the Center, says, "Love is the Way, for my Father is Love, and I am God, thus, I am Love. You can bow down to belief in me and still be cut off from me. You can memorize every word of my Gospels, and still not truly know me. Regardless of what you say you believe, the sole evidence of a True Christian, a follower of mine, of whatever faith and tradition, is Love. Love is the universal virtue that evidences, always, my Presence. To be in Love is to be in my Father, to be in me, to live in my Holy Spirit, thus, to be in the Way that I am. Therefore, to be in me is not to confess with your mouth beliefs about me--anyone can do that; it is to live the Love that is the Way, I am. No one in Love is outside me, no one. No one outside Love abides in me, no one."
So, our first question in any situation is not, “What do I think about this?” The first question is, “How do I love in this?” To do an unloving thing in the name of right is godless; to do something thought wrong but for Love is godly.
Even a demon could go to church, be baptized and confirmed, confess a creed, sing hymns, pray at an altar, listen to sermons, and have an orthodox or heterodox theology. But a demon cannot do the one thing that proves one is in Christ, the Way: Love. Therefore, if I do ardently try, as Catherine of Siena, to allow my life to be a testimony to Love, the Way, then my religion is more than a devil could do and believe, for it is a religion of Love.
The great gulf in our churches is between the head and the heart, and that is the greatest distance, for it decides who is truly in the Way and who is simply religious. Is it not true that many worship at church, but some play church? One truly worships and serves who has her heart touched deeply by Christ Jesus.
Catherine was able to be at the side of Niccolo, for she had a spirituality of the heart. Having more persons like Catherine, who value a lived theology of grace above a heady theology of words will be a sign of a renewed church and an emergent church, arising from the propositional faith of the last generation to a spiritually formative faith of this 21st Century.
This does not mean theology is not important. Rather, the spiritual way, or the way of the heart, is linked with belief, with thoughtful theology. Vladimir Lossky, of the Eastern Church, writes:
... we must live the dogma expressing revealed truth, which appears to us as an unfathomable mystery, in such fashion that instead of assimilitating the mystery to our mode of understanding, we should, on the contrary, look for a profound change, an inner transformation of spirit, enabling us to experience it mystically. ... theology and mysticism support each other. (The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church)
So, you could question me, “Brian, how do I help transform the church?” I reply, “Simply, let your heart be being transformed, so that you live the truths of theology in their deepest and most relevant meanings. Live and give from the heart. God will do the rest. You are not called to transform any church or anyone; you are only called to live the transformation within yourself and which will evidence to all that you are living in union with Christ, Love.”
Spiritual Exercise
How do you differentiate between a “lived religion of the heart” and a “confessed religion of the mouth”? When was the last time that you felt Christ loving someone in need through you? Have you ever felt that in much of the church the service you give to the world does not matter to other confessing Christians, only that you agree in the head and mouth with other persons? Where do you believe God is most active today in touching lives, in the churches or outside the churches? What does it mean to say that the Way is not just the name “Christ” but “Christ as embodying God, Love”? Evaluate the following statement, from me: When we get to heaven, most of us are going to be surprised that God’s grace was much broader than our grace?
OneLife supports the work of Compassion, a ministry in the name of Jesus to children of underdeveloped countries. Please explore the Compassion website at www.compassion.org/ and prayerfully consider sponsoring a child. Thank you.Brian K. Wilcox
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